Just wanted to start a discussion about how to keep case fans and heatsinks running smoothly. I'll start:

Whenever I notice dust building up(usually monthly), I'll hit it with canned air. This is just a surface clean, though, and can push dust further into the case. To prevent buildup inside, every year I'll do a thorough cleaning and use an air compressor (250psi instead of canned air's wimpy 75psi) to blast the dust out of the heatsink. It's also a nice opportunity to check for things like blown caps or loose connectors.

For some reason the dust on the case fans doesn't blow off as easily as the dust in the case, so I usually end up scrubbing it off with an old toothbrush and 90% isopropyl alcohol.

Power supply fans are always the worst, but just because they're trapped inside their case. Lock the fan in place with a toothpick, then use the same toothbrush and alcohol to get it.

I have a two year old laptop. I spray compressed air through the vents occasionally, but have never taken the back off to clean it. Nor have I personally cleaned any pc I have ever had.

After a short time running, it begins to send out very warm air. I'm not sure if it needs a new fan, or just a good cleaning, or even new thermal paste on the heat sink. I don't know if I should do it myself or how badly I would mess it up if I tried.

Suggestions?

Okay so I have a few issues, 1 I'm trying to find and compile all my music. Also I think i have duplicates and they are filling my hard drive. So what programs would you recommend? Preferably free. Thanks.

I don't have much time to write this up, so I'll edit tomorrow. Alternatively, someone might comment with detailed instructions, in which case I'll give them an upvote and i'll edit a permalink into the textpost (because if anyone else has the time, writing my own post would be redundant).

The gist is that when you are installing a fresh copy of an OS on a new drive, you should use the "disk management" options, delete the current partition on the blank disk, and then create a new partition for windows that takes up about a quarter of the space on your drive. Then create a new partition that takes up the remaining space called "data d:" This will be where you will store all of your files. If you aren't willing to change some program preferences and create a few new shortcuts in your start menu, then there are ways to move the user folder to a different partition.

Keep a folder containing all of your drivers and a few basic programs (chrome, foobar, acrobat, open office, and 7zip for me) on this drive. Should your OS ever be so hideously mangled by viruses that antivirus software can't save it, you can re-install your OS over the C: partition with very little risk to your files on D: you won't need to look around for cds and you can just install your basic apps and you'll be up and running in between 30 minutes to two and a half hours, depending on how fast your machine is, what kind of installation media you use, and whether or not you stay at the computer the whole time.

Along these same lines, I would strongly suggest that you make a usb installation drive for your OS of choice as bootable thumb drives seem to be far faster, but they might not work with some systems.

It is likely the original virus is still in your data drive, but the first time that you turn on the machine, you should have a window where you can safely install an antivirus program (also something that you should put on your D: drive) and then remove the threat.

So, i was moving my internals to a different case and because of that i couldn't fit my old graphics card so i figured if i plug in the vga cable into the motherboard i would use the integrated graphics untill i buy a different psu(psu cables were short, had to run the cable across the motherboard untill my new psu with longer cables comes in). The problem is my pc turns on and i can hear it boots up, goes through the boot sequence, system turns on, and after that it runs quiet so i didn't mess up anything when it comes to connecting everything back together.

When I press the power button on my PC doesn't show the led that means that is on, but the fans are working and then I can't power off the PC, so I just disconnect the PC from the connection. Any help for this problem please!!

I have looked over and over again to try and make it where people in discord can’t hear what goes through my headset and tried many things but is still happening. I have Astro A40s brand new. Anyone know how to 100% fix?

All the time I turn on my PC it just work for 1 minute and then it just freeze and I need to push the power button to power off or even disconnect the power cable. Someone can help me?? I need it the PC at this moment and is not working ;(

Is my HDD close to it's death? It's making this weird noise from time to time (fast repeated clicks, like when you copy-paste something, wont stop for ~10 minutes, no background apps running). Here is a sample. https://vocaroo.com/i/s1H6HE7CVhll Any sugestions? PS. I saved my data.

Today I went to boot up my PC as usual and it's been stuck on the loading screen since this morning. It shows this ASUS loading screen that says "Press F2 or DELETE to open bios settings." But somehow when I press both keys nothing happens. I've been sitting here for upwards of 3 hours waiting it out to see if it was doing some update I'm unaware of, but nothing has happened and I'm starting to become concerned.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I will attempt to provide an image but the mobile version of Reddit isn't letting me upload anything.

So which applications should I have to run a full health check on my system and hardware?

The only ones I know currently

• Malware Anti-bytes ---> malware check

• windirstat --> visualization of your files and sort which folders take up the most space in your drive

• ccleaner --> was recommended to me before but I've been reading conflicting articles that this isn't good anymore as it was bought by a "certain" antivirus company that infects you if you don't pay them.
  Can anyone confirm if ccleaner is still useful?

• furmark --> stress test your GPU

I also had an application for checking your disk health but Im not on my desktop right now so I cant check the name. Can anyone give any suggestions for this .

Please suggest other tools as well and please add a description. I'll edit the post to list them to help other people looking for a list of tools as well.

So basically I feel like there are a lot of files in my pc that don’t serve a purpose and I want to delete them. Is there a trusted database where I can reference and verify off of to check what each file is? Idk if this is a dumb question or not, but I wanted to check with you guys/girls first.

Idk why or how i got that problem and i really need help i have been watching sll the yt videos and i even cleaned all the stuff i got on it, but it steal happening i rlly need some help.