Comments on: Your spyware may just be dust bunnies

Is your middle-aged computer spontaneously shutting down on you? Don't be so quick to blame malware culprits.


by tillybom January 3, 2008 1:04 AM PST: Never had this experience. All the "anti" programs work perfect.; Like this Reply to this comment


by jennjaz January 3, 2008 4:14 AM PST: turns out we had that problem. We just happen to open her open last night and were shocked at the amount of dust. It is the worst and largest pile of dust bunnies I have ever seen....those dirty teen boys of mine!; Like this Reply to this comment


by Doug Woodall January 3, 2008 9:09 AM PST: Ah, preventive maintenance.
Whoever invented canned air should have a holiday named after them.
Great post.; Like this Reply to this comment


by inachu January 3, 2008 10:08 AM PST: Fixed a friends pc once and it will filled with cat hair endowed with pipe smoke and it was the worst smelling I ever came across as the cat used the pc as a warmer on cold nights. Blame all that dust and grime in your pc for those who love to keep the pc on the floor which is where most of all the dust settles anyway. Best practice is to keep the pc on the desk/table.; Like this Reply to this comment


by Burner79 January 3, 2008 1:16 PM PST: I'm a tech at a local pc repair shop and this is a very good start, but we see a lot of people that fail to realize that roaches are attracted to electricity...... Your PC power supply is a very good attractor of these. If your home is infested and you're having computer problems....especially if the PC fails to power on.. You have a bad power supply due to fried roaches. It happens quite often. You will continue to have power supplies fail until you take care of the infestation!
Please clean out your PC of bugs before you bring it into a repair shop. We notice these things and most repair shops will refuse to work on the pc due to the health hazard. Please do not ask us.. and I quote "You mean you didn't get a can of bug spray to it?" Anyone who does this should be embarrassed of themselves.
Also if you are a heavy smoker and notice the PC is turning yellow and you're having a shutdown problem due to over heating... Just imagine what that tar is doing to your lungs if it's affecting a machine.; Like this Reply to this comment


by JoyceNgo-218335993631273378369 January 3, 2008 7:10 PM PST: Ew lol I just have dust on the outsides and in the front where the floppy disk drive is lol (so much dust in there, and the SD slot); Like this Reply to this comment


by alice_b0wie January 4, 2008 1:18 PM PST: i have a dimension case, the side drops down. this makes keeping it clean inside an easy job. every couple of months i'll open it up and clean it out.; Like this Reply to this comment


by reedjaguar January 5, 2008 10:36 AM PST: I clean my pc once or twice a month. Compressed air is the solution, you can find them at walmart, and they're not expensive, so five to seven dollars should do it.; Like this Reply to this comment


by ccol4him January 5, 2008 9:47 PM PST: Lol! I may have had this problem this week. My nephew studies computers at the local college and just swept out the dust bunnies out of my computer. I thought it might have been an overload from all the tech gifts I got for Christmas! My computer wouldn't restart, but it's fine now.; Like this Reply to this comment


by staypuff January 13, 2008 9:31 PM PST: I had have many computers that I have worked on. I have even taken the cpu fan away from the heatsink and used a small brush to it. It is nice to have a computer that have a window on the side so you know when to clean it out, when you look inside of it. Anything that has a fan on it, will have to have it clean. Very good article. Thank you Cnet.; Like this Reply to this comment


by muffinboy January 16, 2008 1:59 AM PST: i read danger there is blah blah blah inside do not remove cover ???how do i clean it lol water hose ,just joking; Like this Reply to this comment

by Joshua Kwoon January 17, 2008 1:09 AM PST

I have a laptop so can anybody tell me how to clean out dust bunnies from it ?


by JoMilton January 26, 2008 1:43 PM PST: Yo. Here I am, Sara of Southend, with a warm fuzzy feeling after finding my name mentioned. I too have a laptop. and it was almost fried earlier this year by dust. Fan roaring, shutting right down more and more frequently. So - I took it to the nice man at Cartridge World who has a repair shop out back. He has a compressed air machine and it really cleaned out the laptop. Every time I see him he frowns at me and reminds me how cruel I was to the poor machine letting it get so filthy. You can't really dismantle a laptop like a desk top so he just blew air through the vents and the difference was unbelievable.
It saved me a lot of money - I was planning to buy a fancy laptop rest with a cooling fan, but now the machine is running just fine.; Like this


by JoMilton February 4, 2008 2:27 PM PST: I took my laptop to Cartridge World. They have a workshop out back of my local branch, and a compressed air machine. They blew through the air inlet so far as I know and did not dismantle anything. The laptop was like a new machine afterwards and stopped cutting out all the time. And they didn't charge me for the service. I couldn't thank them enough. So I guess you'd blow the canned air through the inlet. Maybe it's not so effective as dismantling and cleaning, but lap tops have their limitations unfortunately.; Like this


by Witless in Santa Cruz April 11, 2008 1:46 PM PDT: Thanks for the always timely re-re-reminder. Yes, it's true, computers exist in the "real world", and it's got dust in the air.; Like this Reply to this comment


by gamechaser002 April 25, 2008 6:32 PM PDT: ah...this ties into the proverbial bug that can destroy a system from the inside

you find a roach in your system, it's bugged; Like this Reply to this comment