SillyDog701

[Ron Williams]

I have a computer with ports in the from for USB, smart media, compact flash, and some others. Interestingly these collect alot of dust. Well I noticed one day when I plugged in my USB cable to the USB port that it did not work. I even went as far as reinstalling the drivers. To my luck it was something simple, I vacuumed it out an voila, the port works. The moral...........watch out for dust, it can be a simple solution to a problem.

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[Don_HH2K]

There are some really simple ways that you can go about preventing this. There are USB port covers out there that will prevent dust from getting in there in the first place. Or, if you're a do-it-yourself'er like I am, get some sort of fabric that would act as a good filter but still allow for air intake, cut that into pieces slightly bigger than the ports themselves, and tape them to the top/bottom of the ports. Then when you need to get in to them, just take the filter off and plug it in. With the case of system fans, they can be tricky. You might want to get underneath the case and put the filter there so that you wouldn't have whatever it is you're using right there on the front of the case. Power supply fans can be a real nuisance, because there really isn't any safe way of getting inside those, so you might just have to settle for slapping it right on the back cover. A great solution, though, for if you need to use one of the ports and don't have time to vacuum it out: get a can of air duster, stick it inside the port, and that'll get rid of the dust in it. That shouldn't be used as a long-term solution, though, because it'll really just blow the dust right into the case itself.

Of course, since all my desktop PCs lack intake fans (these are cheapo homebuilt models with nonworking $10 fans), I just leave the cases open and vacuum them out every so often.

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[Ron Williams]

I am trying the cloth idea an hopefully it will work.

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