How I fixed my noisy Asus VivoMini V66 PC fan (Hint: it sucked)

802 days later...

... it got really noisy again. But this time exterior vacuuming wouldn't work. So what did I do?

Bought one of these --



-- no, seriously, because I'm wondering when the Ryzen 4000 series are ever going to hit the fan. (This is Ryzen 5 3550H and may possibly be all I need. It's returnable and so I'll report back in a different thread. Finally 16GBs of RAM! Anyway -- )

So I opened my VivoMini up again... and WOW there was some dust.







That blade has been spinning for 3.5 years. Got kinda dusty. Since I'm no pro I tried a Q-Tip. Just to see if that dust was stuck on. Nope. Killed a lot of Q-Tips. Then I held the fan in place and gave it a vacuum.

The unit is pretty damn quiet again. Which is awesome. Because now I can sell it on eBay with a straight face.

QUESTION -- Is that white powder inside the lefthand red circle of the first photo the dust from the cooling paste put on the processor? It being so white makes me think it's not dust but cooling paste residue.

CountMike said:

Good job, PCs, in all kinds and shapes, are practically dust collectors, High frequency acts as static electricity and fans are constantly running air (together with dust). That's same principle air cleaners7dust collectors work at, high frequency mesh and fans circulating air thru.
Dry dust doesn't normally stick but if air is moist or when there's smoking in the room it will stick like crazy, I do smoke so i use small brush made for oil painting soaked (but not dripping) in high grade alcohol for cleaning.

High grade alcohol is only made for drinking!

CountMike said:

My brother makes all kinds of drinks using alcohol for cooking. I don't drink (almost)any more but never liked drinks that smell of raw alcohol, just the taste of particular drink.

Do you think our good ol West Virginia corn mash Moonshine would be considered as "high quality alcohol"?
I don't know about cleaning fans with it but man, it will clean out your insides - all the way down!

I'm curious - have there been any documented cases of damage to a computer or fan due to the generator effect if the fans are not blocked when blown/vacuumed? Or is this just an unproven theory?

CountMike said:

I actually tried, not on MB of course but with voltmeter. It was a 3pin fan that gave about 9vDC when spun with a air compressor.

I fully understand it will generate voltage. However, are there any documented cases of that voltage causing damage to the fan or any other component of the computer?