lorange

Q: Power Mac G5 dirty PSU ;-)

I recently bought a Power Mac G5 (June 2005) 2GHZ. Lovely machine. First thing I did was to dissasemble it to clean it. Well it looked lovely but I just wanted to be sure. Normally few years old computers have dirty fans,, lot of dirt here and there.

Ok I dissasembled the case ,,, that was rather easy to do and not so bad , just normal dust here and there.

Then I removed the PSU , Opened it up, and this is what I saw. HUGE amount of dust, I´m sure it would have given up sooner not later if I hadnt opened it up and cleaned it.

Here are few picts of the PSU BF and AFTER .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55033696@N02/sets/72157626310961921/detail/

a

MacPro 266, 4gb ram, DCP 30, Mac OS X (10.4.8), PowerMac 7100/66, Color Classic

Posted on Apr 5, 2011 10:52 AM

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Q: Power Mac G5 dirty PSU ;-)

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  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Apr 5, 2011 11:56 AM in response to lorange
    Level 10 (123,780 points)
    Apr 5, 2011 11:56 AM in response to lorange
    Great pics/post/info, thanks!
  • by lorange,

    lorange lorange Apr 5, 2011 12:28 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Apr 5, 2011 12:28 PM in response to BDAqua
    Wanted to show these just to point out that its not enough just to look good on the OUTSIDE . Seriously I think everyone that care about his PoweMac and has never opened up the PSU , should do it sooner than later.
  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Apr 5, 2011 1:35 PM in response to lorange
    Level 10 (123,780 points)
    Apr 5, 2011 1:35 PM in response to lorange
    Indeed, the PSU dust has been mentioned here a few times, but not seen the great pics before!

    They could sell PSUs as Air Cleaners I think.
  • by old comm guy,

    old comm guy old comm guy Apr 5, 2011 3:52 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 4 (2,244 points)
    Apr 5, 2011 3:52 PM in response to BDAqua
    Not surprised. I blew a power supply out last year, with a 100 PSI shop air blast. Glad I was outside when I did it, because it was a cross between some scenes in "The Grapes of Wrath" and other "Dust Bowl" movies.

    That particular supply had been ingesting house lint for nearly seven years so I wasn't surprised to see what blew out.

    That's why I have repeatedly advised taking the units outside to perform this maintenance.

    BTW, lorange, I think we'd like it if you could keep those pictures up on your flikr page. I suspect that BD and I, among others, might want to link to this thread once in a while.

    Message was edited by: old comm guy
  • by lorange,

    lorange lorange Apr 5, 2011 5:00 PM in response to old comm guy
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Apr 5, 2011 5:00 PM in response to old comm guy
    Be my guest. Hope the picts will WARN sombody
  • by old comm guy,

    old comm guy old comm guy Apr 5, 2011 5:29 PM in response to lorange
    Level 4 (2,244 points)
    Apr 5, 2011 5:29 PM in response to lorange
    lorange wrote:
    Be my guest. Hope the picts will WARN sombody


    We'll see that they do. Thanks for the initial post, as well.

    Back in my mis-spent youth, I worked with a few broadcast transmitters here and there. Cooling was, of course, a much bigger issue, and one of the standard maintenance areas was keeping clean air filters in place and also "policing" dust out of the electronics. (A couple of remote transmitter sites I worked were real bad about environmental dust, among other things.) I find myself these days getting a little more lax about dust bunny patrol in computers, though I know that any time there is a cooling fan, it is just a means of drawing in house dust and allowing it to collect somewhere it will eventually be able to cause mischief.

    I guess the slogan should be, "*Blow it out now, before it blows itself out later.*"
  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Apr 5, 2011 5:35 PM in response to old comm guy
    Level 10 (123,780 points)
    Apr 5, 2011 5:35 PM in response to old comm guy
    "Blow it out now, before it blows itself out later."


    I just might ---steal-- borrow that one, I like it!
  • by BRRV,

    BRRV BRRV Apr 6, 2011 7:00 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 6, 2011 7:00 AM in response to BDAqua
    Great pics, and should be preserved somewhere for people who don't realize that dust kills computers. Knowing that the G5 was particularly sensitive to dust build up (I mean, the cheese grater case is way cool, but what is does to aid in dust deposits gives me a headache...) I researched dust elimination schemes prior to finding and purchasing a pristine G5 that had apparently spent a lifetime being ignored at a prestigious university in the midwest. It was spotless when I got it, and I wanted to keep it that way, especially the power supply. Besides the obvious issues with heat generation in these cases, dust makes the heat issue even worse, and that has to have a negative effect on component life. Before I put it into service, I purchased a supply of "pc filter medium", PuraPC, which is designed to be applied to the computer and effectively screen dust. While skeptical, I decided to try it, since I had nothing to lose. I also added Temp Monitor so that I could track temps, just in case the filter medium seemed too restrictive. I applied it all over the front intakes, including the lower curve of the case that acts as the front intake for the power supply. After 3 months, I checked the interior of the machine closely: it was spotless. Quantities of high pressure air dislodged nothing in the way of dust inside the care anywhere, and there was no internal sheen or build up of airborne contaminants on the internal surfaces - it looked new. The filter medium, on the other hand, was very dirty, full of dust and dirt.

    I'm absolutely sold on this product - it works as advertised, and it's washable. While the G5 doesn't look very pretty with the filter material attached (double sided tape and small strips of duct tape on the outside) I don't care! I'd recommend this, or a similar product, at all times. I even applied it to my old G4 Digital (which just lost it's first power supply, by the way: the old trickle issue - 11 years in service).

    One last thing - get the case off the floor. I keep it on the desk, because it really helps hold the dust down. Even the G4 was finally moved off the floor after cleaning and replacement of the PSU - I've learned my lesson.
  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Apr 6, 2011 6:08 PM in response to BRRV
    Level 10 (123,780 points)
    Apr 6, 2011 6:08 PM in response to BRRV
    Thanks for the tip!

    PS. We could host the pics on my BBS if need be...

    http://x704.net/bbs/
  • by old comm guy,

    old comm guy old comm guy Apr 6, 2011 11:10 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 4 (2,244 points)
    Apr 6, 2011 11:10 PM in response to BDAqua
    You know, and old nemesis phrase popped up in my mind the last time I visited this thread, to wit, "dirty power" which has been a problem I've had to deal with at several installations. This isn't that case, but it certainly could be an apt description.
  • by nieves05,

    nieves05 nieves05 Apr 7, 2011 10:18 PM in response to lorange
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 7, 2011 10:18 PM in response to lorange
    hi lorange,

    what did you use to clean the components of the PSU? alcohol?

    all,

    one of my psu fans started clicking, you guys think it's from being dirty? thanks
  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Apr 7, 2011 10:54 PM in response to nieves05
    Level 10 (123,780 points)
    Apr 7, 2011 10:54 PM in response to nieves05
    Hi nieves05, and a warm welcome to the forums!

    It could easily be Dust... or a bearing going out.
  • by romko23,

    romko23 romko23 Apr 8, 2011 11:07 PM in response to lorange
    Level 2 (395 points)
    Apr 8, 2011 11:07 PM in response to lorange
    Achoooooooo!!!!! thats a lot of dust in that power supply!! Good news is that the seller who sold me this G5 Quad just put in the new replacement power supply unit.
  • by nieves05,

    nieves05 nieves05 Apr 9, 2011 3:22 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2011 3:22 AM in response to BDAqua
    Thanks BDAqua,

    might as well get in there and do some detailing
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