Have you had a look inside your Mac lately? [With Pics]

[benjydababy]

Today, I thought I would have a clean the inside of my eMac after around 18 months of use. I have never dared to open it up before, but looking at the fan area, it looked like it was getting a bit dusty in there...

After removing the case (following apples official guidelines), I discovered nearly the entire inside was covered in thick dust (see Pics below). The fan seemed to be one of the most built up areas of dust, and I only have one of them! It took me around an hour to remove all the dust and clean the insides, so now it looks relatively clean inside, however, I cannot get inside the vent at the back.

What does you Mac look like inside. (Don't go taking off the back of your Macs for this post - Just if you have done it before!)

 

[• Jaz •]

I don't want to void the warranty, but apparently the new iMacs don't take in much dust?

 

[benjydababy]

I don't want to void the warranty, but apparently the new iMacs don't take in much dust?

Yeah, I only opened mine because the warrenty as up, and hoped my Mac would run a bit cooler without all that dust. I don't know, I am no expert on iMacs, but you would have thouht Apple would want to sort out the dust situation.

 

[diehardmacfan]

in that first picture is that really all dust?

but i recently opened up my ibook g3 to replace the hard drive. i was successful at doing it, but i didn't take any pics. sry

 

[benjydababy]

in that first picture is that really all dust?

but i recently opened up my ibook g3 to replace the hard drive. i was successful at doing it, but i didn't take any pics. sry

Yep, All dust. It was thick with it. Did you encounter lots of dust in your iBook?

 

[weckart]

Wow, impressive - if that's the right word. Have you noticed any differences since cleaning, such as quieter operation of the fan? Does it kick in later than it did?

 

[Gymnut]

Sheesh that's a lot of dust bunnies. You used a can of compressed air?

 

[diehardmacfan]

Yep, All dust. It was thick with it. Did you encounter lots of dust in your iBook?

no there wasn't any dust in it odly even though it has been used for over 5 years. There is one small fan that only turns on when the ibook gets really hot. but i had it on a desk all the time that is clean without dust

 

[a456]

A web-browser, a computer and a hoover all in one enclosure.

 

[benjydababy]

Wow, impressive - if that's the right word. Have you noticed any differences since cleaning, such as quieter operation of the fan? Does it kick in later than it did?

There doesn't seem to be any noticable difference, and the fan is on all the time anyway - it doesn't come on when the computer gets hot. But hopefully, it will give a little boost in performance. I had noticed the computer was slowing down a bit, but I will have to wait and see if this provides any performance boost. I added RAM about a month ago to bring it up to 1GB and now I cant really comment on a performance boost.

Sheesh that's a lot of dust bunnies. You used a can of compressed air?

I would have , however, there was a risk of me just blowing the dust further into it. I used a hoover . It did the trick. There was also a lot of ingrained dust which didn't want to come off on the inside of the cover so I had to use washing up liquid. It worked.

no there wasn't any dust in it odly even though it has been used for over 5 years. There is one small fan that only turns on when the ibook gets really hot. but i had it on a desk all the time that is clean without dust

Ahh, Yeah I had an old Windows laptop which broke so I took it apart to see if I could fix it (power problem). it had been in operation about 6 years, and that had very little dust. There only seemed to be dust on the fan.

A web-browser, a computer and a hoover all in one enclosure.

LOL

 

[mongoos150]

Wow! I certainly don't think the new iMac enclosure takes in nearly that amount of dust. Crazy - I'd definitely feel better after cleaning it out though

 

[weckart]

I would have , however, there was a risk of me just blowing the dust further into it. I used a hoover . It did the trick. There was also a lot of ingrained dust which didn't want to come off on the inside of the cover so I had to use washing up liquid. It worked.
LOL

Hmm. Conventional wisdom has it that you use compressed air precisely because you should never use a vacuum cleaner near electronic components. The reason being, allegedly, that the plastic in vacuum cleaners creates a static charge which can fry exposed chips.

 

[Makosuke]

Egad! Where do you live?

I've seen some seriously dusty computer innards, but usually only towers with megafans that are on some REALLY dirty floor. Never seen an all-in-one with that much dust.

On the temperature comment, funny story: I cleaned out my G5 tower after a couple of years on a carpet floor, and it'd built up a moderate amount of dust, particularly in the heatsink on the 9800 graphics card. What was funny was that the dust was actually making it run quieter.

See, the early 9800s had horribly whiny fans, and mine had gotten gradually less annoying over time, so I'd assumed I either got used to it or it had smoothed out with wear. Turned out the dust was just damping the annoying high-pitched frequency--when I blew it all out, it was right back to piercing.

Somewhat thankfully, the thing died and was replaced under warranty shortly thereafter, and the replacement card was nice and quiet. Somewhat ironic that the one little fan on the ATI card made more noticeable noise than all seven of the huge case fans COMBINED. That cheesed me off.

Incidentally, if you don't actually let the vacuum come into contact with anything and make sure the motor end is WAY away from anything that stores data or might be fragile (bigass magnetic field), it probably won't hurt anything. That said, I still use compressed air because I'm paranoid, and if you blow hard enough just about anything will come off (plus, you can get inside tight spaces like power supplies or behind stuff).

 

[Markleshark]

Wow, I didn't open my eMac for a year or two between upgrades and it wasn't that bad, and my room is mo-foing dusty!

 

[benjydababy]

Hmm. Conventional wisdom has it that you use compressed air precisely because you should never use a vacuum cleaner near electronic components. The reason being, allegedly, that the plastic in vacuum cleaners creates a static charge which can fry exposed chips.

I would have, but I wasnt really going near any of the chips, only around the fan area. I am writing on it at the moment and it seems to be working fine, however in the future I may invest in some compressed air. I was wary of that point so I also removed the fan to clean it. Also I tried to make sure the vacuum cleaner had minimal contact with the computer.

 

[benjydababy]

Wow, I didn't open my eMac for a year or two between upgrades and it wasn't that bad, and my room is mo-foing dusty!

Did take the case off or just the bottom panel to replace the ram etc.? my room isnt particularly dusty, but the computer does get a lot of use

 

[benjydababy]

Egad! Where do you live?

I've seen some seriously dusty computer innards, but usually only towers with megafans that are on some REALLY dirty floor. Never seen an all-in-one with that much dust.

On the temperature comment, funny story: I cleaned out my G5 tower after a couple of years on a carpet floor, and it'd built up a moderate amount of dust, particularly in the heatsink on the 9800 graphics card. What was funny was that the dust was actually making it run quieter.

See, the early 9800s had horribly whiny fans, and mine had gotten gradually less annoying over time, so I'd assumed I either got used to it or it had smoothed out with wear. Turned out the dust was just damping the annoying high-pitched frequency--when I blew it all out, it was right back to piercing.

Somewhat thankfully, the thing died and was replaced under warranty shortly thereafter, and the replacement card was nice and quiet. Somewhat ironic that the one little fan on the ATI card made more noticeable noise than all seven of the huge case fans COMBINED. That cheesed me off.

Incidentally, if you don't actually let the vacuum come into contact with anything and make sure the motor end is WAY away from anything that stores data or might be fragile (bigass magnetic field), it probably won't hurt anything. That said, I still use compressed air because I'm paranoid, and if you blow hard enough just about anything will come off (plus, you can get inside tight spaces like power supplies or behind stuff).

LOL . No my eMac sits on a desk so I haven't a clue where all the dust is coming from Yeah it is probs better to use compressed air but, I didn't want dust getting everywhere.

 

[AlexisV]

And to think that dust is actually mostly your skin!

 

[benjydababy]

And to think that dust is actually mostly your skin!

Eurgh Lol.

 

[PlaceofDis]

i've opened my iMac G5 several times. the dust wasn't too bad in there at all. but i used a can of compressed air to get rid of what i could.

no pictures though

 

[Markleshark]

Did take the case off or just the bottom panel to replace the ram etc.? my room isnt particularly dusty, but the computer does get a lot of use

No, the full works. HDD, DVD drive and RAM all on separate occasions.

 

[phytonix]

I recently opened an iMac G5 first generation, and it is quite clean inside. I am impressed and it seems i would not need to worry too much about my iMac C2D

 

[synth3tik]

I have seen worse, but that is bad.

 

[DMC-12]

At first, I didn't even recognize that as a computer with all of the dust. Wow.

 

[benjydababy]

I recently opened an iMac G5 first generation, and it is quite clean inside. I am impressed and it seems i would not need to worry too much about my iMac C2D

Yeah,apparently the the newer macs dont have nearly so big a problem even though they have more fans!

I have seen worse, but that is bad.

Yeah, well I feel more secure now its gone You've seen worse? Really? How bad was that?!

At first, I didn't even recognize that as a computer with all of the dust. Wow.

Hah, yeah I was surprised.