Any ideas to keep dust out of desktop power supply?

johnnyb58

Member
My desktop sits on floor next to pathway to dog door and the fan is always clogging up with dog hair and dust. It makes a horrible noise that gets pretty loud and I have to unplug everything to take the case out to blow out the dust. Its not a big problem except when its cold and raining outside.

I thought about buying some thin filter material and taping it over the back of the computer, but afraid it might over heat the computer. The fan noise is usually my warning to blow it out and I may not know if its clogged with just the filter.

Note: It's not practical for me to move the computer because of the house layout. Although I might be able to raise it a bit off the floor, but not sure how much that would benefit me unless I could raise it up at least 3 ft.
 

DavidG

Active Member
If it is a standard ATX desktop PSU you can simply mount it upside down so that air is taken from inside the case and exhausted out of the base. This is not normally advised but in dusty environments is better than having to declog the filters. The PSU temps are maybe slightly higher as you are drawing warm air from inside the case but I know of at least one PC tech who does this for all his builds
 
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voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
It's always best to raise the tower off the floor to prevent dust issues like this. You can also use a compressor or canned air and regularly blow the components out.
 

johnnyb58

Member
So I got a compressor and blew it all out and it wasn't as bad as I thought, but the noise is back. I can't tell what fan is making the noise and I think it might be the power supply. I have another power supply that I was going to use for my security cameras, but not sure if its going to fit.
Any tips on how to isolate the noise and identify what fan it is or even if it is the fan? it sounds like paper or a tag of some kind rubbing on the fan blade. I don't know if electronics like a capacitor could make that sound.
 

DavidG

Active Member
It’s most likely dust bunnies accumulated on the fan causing the noise. Possibly when you blew it out you dislodged some dust lint causing the noise. Open the computer case and temporarily put your finger on to the cpu fan to stop it and see if the noise stops. Do the same with any case fans and the GPU fans. Don’t go sticking anything inside the PSU. If nothing changes then the noise is coming from the PSU.
 

johnnyb58

Member
So I keep having this same noise problem and getting tired of blowing it out all the time.
Today I turned the tower desktop on its side and turned it on to see if I can find the source of the noise and it is running quiet without 1st blowing it out. There was a minimum amount of dust anyway so I don't really know the source of the noise.

I searched Google to see if I can continue running it on its side and it says I can as long as there isn't a problem with the DVD/CD player and I don't restrict the airflow. I haven't used the CD player in 6 or 7 years so that shouldn't be a problem, but then I started wondering if the noise is actually coming from the CD player.
Could there be something running the player?
 
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