Blowing dust out of a PSU

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b0untypure1

1415 posts

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# 93603 24-Nov-2011 23:03

Hey guys, blowing dust out of a PSU.... can this ruin the PSU unit?
blew dust out of my corsair 850hx and now none of my computers will boot. only have one psu, and both pc wont work with it

dontpanic42

1574 posts

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# 549689 24-Nov-2011 23:25

It shouldn't usually do any harm.

I use an air compressor all the time to blow the dust out of my PSU. Still going strong.

Could it be a faulty on/off switch on your motherboard/case?

insane

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# 549698 24-Nov-2011 23:44

Yeah I tend to either use a vacuum cleaner which has a blow function or the leaf blower, both spit out a lot of dry air. Have to be careful when using a compressor as quite a bit of moisture comes out with the air unless you have that accumulator thingy they use for spray painting.

Have never had an issue and I tend to do this every 6 months or so.

Zeon

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# 549707 25-Nov-2011 00:03

I've heard stories of someone using a compress to clean out the PSU. got the fan spinning so fast the lights in the case came on lol.

Compressor is fine as long as you have a water trap (the big cylinder thingy). You need to empty this every now and then.

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Niel

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# 549726 25-Nov-2011 06:02

I damaged a fan with a compressor by accidentally letting the nozzle touch the spinning fan blades - had too much fun doing it. IT is unlikely to power up any LEDs though, because of the design of a DC fan. Maybe light up the LEDs in a fan if unplugged from the motherboard/PSU, but not on the motherboard.

Many people use cans of compressed air, but that is bad news as it is very easy to get the air coming out of a thin straw to freez our humid air, covering circuit boards with water drops.

Otherwise you should not get damage even if you did not use a moisture trap (but you should use one). Possibly you have damaged solder joints of a connector, either the mains socked (will probably cause arcing) of if you have one of those nice PSUs where the outputs are sockets and you use extension cables to the devices then very likely those sockets got cracked solder joints. It is a very common problem in the industry, was a big issue when Bosch started putting electronic circuits inside high power relays (for cars) - especially fuel pump relays of the 80's and 90's. The issue is with the process of soldering large high power connections and fine low power connections with 1 process, made much worse when lead free and leaded solder got mixed 10 years ago and the 2 solders solidify at different temperatures causing cracks.

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b0untypure1

1415 posts

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# 549732 25-Nov-2011 07:11

just to let you guys know i blew out the dust with my mouth.....
tried a new PSU this morning, both computers fired up perfectly !!!
i think its safe to conclude that by blowing dust out of the psu with my mouth, i have broken it :(

ChocolateWorm

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# 549879 25-Nov-2011 11:45

Niel

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# 550066 25-Nov-2011 16:35

I see you are in New Ply-MOUTH. Sorry, could not resist. If it is an expensive power supply, PM me for my address in Auckland and mail it to me to have a quick look at the solder joints. If that is it, then it is a couple minutes to fix. Blowing dust out with your mough is unlikely to cause any damage, much more likely strain on a connector solder joint.

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b0untypure1

1415 posts

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# 550120 25-Nov-2011 22:19

Niel: I see you are in New Ply-MOUTH. Sorry, could not resist. If it is an expensive power supply, PM me for my address in Auckland and mail it to me to have a quick look at the solder joints. If that is it, then it is a couple minutes to fix. Blowing dust out with your mough is unlikely to cause any damage, much more likely strain on a connector solder joint.

hey man thanks for the offer, i am getting it tested (amp wise) tomorrow, ill let u know how that gets on. also, does your operation require it to be opened? it still has 6.5 yrs warranty cause its corsair :)
tried my mates PSU today, computer would refuse to boot at all. unplugged my DVD drive and it went perfect, installed windows, did speed tests, scored high scores in windows index, rebooted lots with success.

swapped back to old PSU. didnt boot more than 1 second.

Swapped back to working PSU with dvd drive, didnt boot.

any chance my dvd drive could have short circuited ruined my PSU? PSU half a year old about and dvd drive 3 yrs old.

Niel

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# 550191 26-Nov-2011 09:21

Tried a different power cable for the DVD drive? Perhaps that cable has lost one of the connections (either in the connector or in the power supply) and then the DVD could prevent the power supply from starting by currents flowing in the wrong direction so the power supply detects it can't regulate the voltage and shuts down.

As an electronic engineer with many years of experience since I was 13 I can not imagine anything inside the PC causing the power supply to blow up, it just does not work that way.

I would also have suspected the DVD drive, but you have tried it in another PC so the fault is likely with one of the power connections and not with the specific drive.

Yes, I would have to open it so better to put it through warranty. But it sounds like a connection failed after you unplugged a connector so not sure if it would be covered by warranty. Hope you pulled it by the connector housing and not by the wires, there is almost no strain relief on the wires.

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