Problem with PC after dust clean up.

[Ashckroft]

Hello,

One month ago I cleaned my PC from dust using compressed air from can. The only component that I removed to clean up was the CPU fan. After this I noticed some weird lag spikes or frame drops while in a game.When I open the task bar it shows high power usage on whatever game is opened and high cpu usage. After some time passes by everything goes back to normal vallues.

I cleaned the PC again also have checked all the cables and re-seated the GPU and RAM ( cleaned with compressed air the slots). Everything seemed normal, no loose cables or anything else, but the problem persists.. Nothing helped. Went in windows 10 options and did full OS reset. Somehow the issues with the freezes,high power usage disappeared. Then the monitor lost signal and the fans started to rev up.

Yesterday I decided to move to windows 11 and clean installed it. Just started installing drivers and monitor lost signal again with fans spinning high. This happened 2-3 times in idle. I tried to run Destiny , but the game straight away crashed. I am reverting back to windows 10.

I am kinda lost what might cause those issues. There is no overheating. I stress tested the PC with temperature monitoring. Is it possible that I damaged the PSU with the compressed air or spliced the dust inside? How to troubleshoot this issue ?

The specs are:

The PC Specs are:
MB: b450 gaming
GPU:RX580
CPU: Ryzen 5 2500x
RAM: Hyper X 2666 MHZ 2x 16GB

OS now : win 11 PRO
before : win 10

 

[eidairaman1]

What games, bear in mind the rx580 wasnt the top gpu of 2017 and is pretty long in the tooth already.

 

[Gumby]

I would reset your bios. Or at the very least pull power cord and hold power button for 20 seconds. Plug back in and test again. I have this issue from time to time.

 

[Bill_Bright]

The only component that I removed to clean up was the CPU fan.

The CPU "fan" or the whole heatsink fan (HSF) assembly? If you removed the entire HSF assembly, did you thoroughly clean the heatsink's and CPU's mating surfaces of old TIM (thermal interface material) and properly apply a fresh new layer of TIM?

FTR, I never remove the heatsink (or its fan) when cleaning.

There is no overheating.

Without you stating what temps you saw, we have no way of confirming this critical information. What temps are you seeing and how are you monitoring them.

Is it possible that I damaged the PSU with the compressed air or spliced the dust inside?

Not sure what you meant by "spliced" but to answer your question, "no". Simply blasting compressed air from a can of "dusting gas" on the CPU will not damage the CPU. There is not enough pressure.

***

Side note for future reference. It should be noted those cans of dusting gas do NOT contain “air” and therefore should never be called “canned air”. Instead of safe-to-breath air, they contain difluoroethane or a similar gas. These gases are typically used as refrigerants and can be extremely hazardous if inhaled. In extreme cases, it can damage the central nervous system, or even be fatal. So use in a well ventilated area or better yet, outside. And these cans should be kept out-of-reach of small children.

Note in some jurisdictions, these are controlled substances and sold in a controlled manner, similar to how cans of spray paint are sold to [hopefully] dissuade abuse from “huffing”.

 

[Shrek]

I belive some have a bitterant added to discourage abuse.

But canned gas is so expensive, a DataVac will soon pay for itself.

 

[Lost_Troll]

The only component that I removed to clean up was the CPU fan.

The CPU "fan" or the whole heatsink fan (HSF) assembly? If you removed the entire HSF assembly, did you thoroughly clean the heatsink's and CPU's mating surfaces of old TIM (thermal interface material) and properly apply a fresh new layer of TIM?

What Bill said, did you clean the heatsink and cup surfaces with isopropyl alcohol and re-paste with a good thermal compound, like Arctic MX-6? If you just stuck it back on without doing ether, it will cause the issues that you are having.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I belive some have a bitterant added to discourage abuse.

Not sure a huffing junky would care. Just checked what I have here. I have cans of "Dust Remover" from 3M. It uses difluoroethane and makes no mention of bitterant or any other substance in its contents.

I also have a little "travel can" (so it claims) from PECA called "Vari Air 2000". It says it consists of 100% tetrafluoroethene another type of refrigerant. Again no mention of bitterant or other substances.

I would guess a smart junky (if one exists) would check the contents for such deterrent substances before buying (or stealing) a can.

 

[Shrek]

It exists, but doesn't seem popular
Amazon.com: Endust 10 oz Air Duster with Bitterant (END255050) : Electronics

 

[Bill_Bright]

Odd it doesn't appear to say it contains Bitterant on the label. At least the Safety Data Sheet does.

I guess if you fear you have someone in the household that might abuse these products, you should look for one that contains such deterrents.

 

[eidairaman1]

Ok we are getting off topic, the op hasnt come back

 

[Ashckroft]

Hello,

Sorry for the late reply!

What games, bear in mind the rx580 wasnt the top gpu of 2017 and is pretty long in the tooth already.

It actually behaved very very well. 90-110 FPS in games like COD:MW2/ Destiny, 165 on Overwatch and Dota 2. Never had any problems before that. The GPU is 3 years old on this build.

I would reset your bios. Or at the very least pull power cord and hold power button for 20 seconds. Plug back in and test again. I have this issue from time to time.

I was reading about this somewhere. Will try this for sure.

The CPU "fan" or the whole heatsink fan (HSF) assembly? If you removed the entire HSF assembly, did you thoroughly clean the heatsink's and CPU's mating surfaces of old TIM (thermal interface material) and properly apply a fresh new layer of TIM?

FTR, I never remove the heatsink (or its fan) when cleaning.


Without you stating what temps you saw, we have no way of confirming this critical information. What temps are you seeing and how are you monitoring them.


Not sure what you meant by "spliced" but to answer your question, "no". Simply blasting compressed air from a can of "dusting gas" on the CPU will not damage the CPU. There is not enough pressure.

***

Side note for future reference. It should be noted those cans of dusting gas do NOT contain “air” and therefore should never be called “canned air”. Instead of safe-to-breath air, they contain difluoroethane or a similar gas. These gases are typically used as refrigerants and can be extremely hazardous if inhaled. In extreme cases, it can damage the central nervous system, or even be fatal. So use in a well ventilated area or better yet, outside. And these cans should be kept out-of-reach of small children.

Note in some jurisdictions, these are controlled substances and sold in a controlled manner, similar to how cans of spray paint are sold to [hopefully] dissuade abuse from “huffing”.

I removed only the fan and not the sink, because I didn't had thermal paste in hand at that moment.


I ran several tests. While using heaven benchmark the temperatures never exceeded 72C GPU / 62C CPU. The only thing that I noticed was that the utilization graph of the GPU had some weird drop points and the PC was freezing during the run . After the windows reset the graph was normal and it didn't experience any freezes.


I'm gonna try to search for any pic from the tests.

This one is when the issue with the freezes was present.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I removed only the fan and not the sink, because I didn't had thermal paste in hand at that moment.

Well, again, in the future, no need to do this. Compressed air and, if necessary, a soft brush is enough.

My concern now is the possibility the process of removing and replacing the fan broke the cured bond of the TIM between the heatsink and CPU IHS (integrated heat shield). This would allow insulating air to get in-between the mating surfaces - significantly reducing the effectiveness of the TIM.

Having said that, a broken TIM bond would normally be immediately, and consistently apparent. In other words, the first time you fired up the computer after the bond was broken, and every time after that, you would see increased temps. It doesn't sound like that is the problem.

However, just cleaning a computer would not "break" or somehow change the BIOS or drivers or some other configuration setting either. So if something was not physically knocked about during the cleaning process, then it seems to me the "timing" of whatever went wrong just coincidently coincides with the cleaning. Now whether or not you believe in Rule #39 is another story.

 

[Ashckroft]

Well, again, in the future, no need to do this. Compressed air and, if necessary, a soft brush is enough.

My concern now is the possibility the process of removing and replacing the fan broke the cured bond of the TIM between the heatsink and CPU IHS (integrated heat shield). This would allow insulating air to get in-between the mating surfaces - significantly reducing the effectiveness of the TIM.

Having said that, a broken TIM bond would normally be immediately, and consistently apparent. In other words, the first time you fired up the computer after the bond was broken, and every time after that, you would see increased temps. It doesn't sound like that is the problem.

However, just cleaning a computer would not "break" or somehow change the BIOS or drivers or some other configuration setting either. So if something was not physically knocked about during the cleaning process, then it seems to me the "timing" of whatever went wrong just coincidently coincides with the cleaning. Now whether or not you believe in Rule #39 is another story.

It is very very weird case. Now I have installed new windows 10 , load the MB default settings and ran some tests on OCCT - RAM, GPU, CPU showed no errors. Temperatures were fine too. While before, right away after the cleaning, when I was testing there were like 3-4minutes of no response from the PC. It was barely usable at that time.

Yesterday when I tried windows 11 the "no signal fan rev" thing happened 3 times for 10min. Now on windows 10 is steady from yesterday till now. I am going to try few things this week and any suggestions from here with intention to solve the puzzle.

I forgot to mention that I used cotton swab on 2-3 places to take some dust. I hope I didn't damage any component with static electricity.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I forgot to mention that I used cotton swab on 2-3 places to take some dust. I hope I didn't damage any component with static electricity.

Unlikely since the shafts of cotton swabs are made of either wood or plastic - both of which are insulating. Plus, if you were touching bare metal of the case, you were discharged.

 

[Ashckroft]

Unlikely since the shafts of cotton swabs are made of either wood or plastic - both of which are insulating. Plus, if you were touching bare metal of the case, you were discharged.

Thank you and everybody else for all the comments! This is very helpful forum! You can learn a lot

 

[Ashckroft]

Update : After clean install and UEFI settings reset the PC stopped randomly loosing signal to monitor and speeding up fans. There is still a bit of a visual lag , but it happens rarely.

 

[Shrek]

I tend to treat connectors with silicone oil, it helps avoid corrosion.

 

[Ashckroft]

I tend to treat connectors with silicone oil, it helps avoid corrosion.

I'll keep it in mind. Thank you!

 

[Bill_Bright]

The only time I would consider treating connectors with silicone or another corrosion prohibitor is if the connectors will be exposed to the weather. Inside a home should not be a problem, unless you live in a dank cave or a swamp with no environmental conditioning.

Yes, such treatment does work, but the substances are also good for collecting and holding on to dust and other debris which coincidently, can lead to corrosion and other contamination. The best way to prevent corrosion from forming between electrical contacts is to make sure there is a good, solid "mechanical connection" - essential for a good, solid, minimum resistance, electrical connection. If the connection is loose, worn, or otherwise damaged, replace it.

 

[Shrek]

Has solved a lot of connection problems for me, but not to be used on a high current switch as the spark can produce glass from the silicon.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Has solved a lot of connection problems for me

Maybe so - but a good cleaning of the contacts might have done the same thing. It is difficult for corrosion to form unless some contaminate is already present. But even then, if there is a good, solid mechanical connection first, no contaminate (or corrosion) "should" be able to get in between the electrical contacts. Even with heavily corroded car batteries, there is still good continuity between the battery post and cable connection - assuming the connector and post were clean prior to connecting and the connector was originally, and is still, clamped tight.

That's a lot of "shoulds", "ifs" and assumptions, I know. So I am NOT in any way saying you are incorrect. What you describe is certainly a problem with connectors/contacts that have gone unused for long periods of time that are then used for some new connection. Unused USB and audio ports on computers are often packed with dust and other contaminants pulled in by the case fans. These often cause problems when finally used, if not properly cleaned first.

 

[Shrek]

Now you got me wondering again about tin whiskers
Basic Info on Tin Whiskers (nasa.gov)

but that is off topic.