Safely cleaning the inside of Mac Pro

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Level 1

1 points

Safely cleaning the inside of Mac Pro

I bought my Mac Pro in late 2007, and it hasn't given me any problems for years. A few weeks ago, I turned it on, and it froze and started glitching. Pink across the screen. I turned it off and back on, and it would work fine. For a while, it would work on the second start up.

I called Applecare 5 times, and they had me try the Alt + Command + P + R start up, and the safe start up, and the problem would always be temporarily fixed while on the phone.

But hours later, on the first start up, more glitches! I looked in the holes in the front of the tower, and saw clumps of dust on the fan, so I turned everything off and unplugged everything, and opened up the tower. Sure enough, clumps of dust all over the components! I carefully picked the big clumps off of the chips without touching them, and blew out what was left, but when I look at the chips, I can still see a thin layer of dust across everything that doesn't seem to blow out. It needs to be wiped off, but I'm afraid to even attempt to wipe them with anything, with the fear of harming something.

I have very little technical knowledge about computers, but I'm guessing this dust has to be the reason it's glitching and freezing.. Is it? How can I safely clean the chips without messing with anything? Should I just take it into an apple store? Will they clean it for free since I have AppeCare, or will I have to pay?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on May 8, 2010 2:59 PM

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Answer 1

Rainßird

Level 2

355 points

May 8, 2010 5:40 PM in response to mrbrycel

It is not necessary to wipe the components clean. Simply blowing all the dust out with compressed air is sufficient. One thing not to forget is the video card, especially if its a ATI-1900, they accumulate dust like a magnet. I clean (blown it out) my Mac Pro every six months.

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Answer 2

qd.smits

Level 2

205 points

May 9, 2010 2:05 AM in response to Rainßird

Indeed, get a can of compressed air (of the kind that doesn't spray little bits of fluid with the air!) and blow everything out of your Mac.

Remember to move the Mac to a spot where a lot of dust flying around isn't a problem.

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Answer 3

May 9, 2010 5:58 PM in response to mrbrycel

Ran into something recently when I went to buy a new can of compressed air for cleaning my Mac Pro components. It seems that they have had to add a "bitterant" to discourage inhalation abuse. (People getting high inhaling the stuff)

Carefully reading the label, it warned not to use the product on internal computer components because the "bitterant" would leave a chemical residue on the delicate components.

Found a duster at Ace hardware that didn't have the "bitterant".

Don't know how big a deal this is but it was news to me.

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Answer 4

mrbrycel Author

Level 1

1 points

May 11, 2010 8:28 AM in response to mrbrycel

Thanks for the feedback, I'll try blowing it out. If this doesn't work, should I just take it in to the apple store? Everytime I call AppleCare they help me temporarily fix the glitches, but they come back an hour later (and worse than before). I'm afraid of damaging anything by continuing to use the machine.

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Answer 5

May 14, 2010 4:28 PM in response to mrbrycel

Recently I had to access the inside of my Mac Pro and found a lot of dust. We have 3 dogs, so it is probably more of a problem than for people with no pets. Being on the floor doesn't help the situation, either.

I cleaned out what I could see– and some of what I could not see in between components. I used my home vacuum cleaner with the plastic crevice tool. A static wrist strap was attached to the hand holding the vacuum. I pulled out the RAM boards and the hard drives and cleaned them with the vacuum.

Also, I have put together some 3/8-inch vinyl tubing that I can use with my vacuum to clean all sorts of delicate things. My next project will be to make a shroud that attached on the back of the computer so that it will suck up all dust that is dislodged when I blow air into the front (without opening it) or into the inside parts (when it is opened).

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