Regularly clean your graphics card (pics inside)

[[R-MOD]Dylan]

I use an air compressor used to fill tires. I bring it outside, and spray it out. I need to do that Btw. :P good reminder.

[NikovK]

I use a household vacuum cleaner.

[Crawley]

and dont waste your money on a anti static wire like someone mentioned.

[SiN|ScarFace]

I just did that to mine on friday. Used the canned air, its fine as long as you dont tip the can at an angle or upside down (As per the directions on the can lol).

[Jawbreaker]

yes, can is definately the way to go. This is what I use, and it works very well. Also cleaning out your cooling fans helps greatly for case cooling. The can of air makes it easy to do that as you can just spray the air into the fan which makes it spin, which in turn takes the dust off.

Two things i suggest though, wear a dust mask so you dont inhale all the dust, and dont worry about the stupid grounding wire.. seriously....

[Cerberus]

Use Berlin Luft

[[R-DEV]KingofCamelot]

Originally Posted by Crawley

and dont waste your money on a anti static wire like someone mentioned.

Agreed. As long as you touch the case and such you'll be fine, I haven't fried a part by touch yet.

I did, however, fry my DVD drive by plugging it in while the computer was on. I think it was already broken, since the reason it was unplugged was that one day it caused my computer not to start up, it would freeze before getting to Windows. I needed the drive one day after unplugging it, and was in a hurry, so I tried plugging it in while the comp as on. Bad idea. The whole comp shut off and the DVD drive was definately FUBARed.

I've also managed to light a motherboard on fire, as well as a graphics card. Those were old components being used for a school project though. Something shorted out in the turn on circuitry for the mobo, so it only started sometimes after jiggling wires for a while. Then it stopped turning on at all. So, my friend and I tried to hotwire the power supply on while it was plugged into the motherboard, hoping it would jumpstart the mobo. Well, the motherboard turned on, but then one of the capacitors burst into flames. I had my arm jammed down inside of the comp at the time (had a hole in the top) and got freaked out, heh. Luckily when I moved my arm the power supply turned off and the fire stopped.

We got a replacement motherboard ($20) and then proceeded to accidently fry the graphics card. The stupid power supply was beginning to die, and couldn't provide enough power to run the extra power plug on the graphics card (comp would turn off sometimes when starting up, and you had to let the power supply "charge" for a few minutes before it could turn on again). So my friend had the bright idea to use two power supplies, one for the mobo and one for the extra plug on the graphics card. Yep, you guessed it, another capacitor burst into flames.

We got an A+ on the project.

[Jawbreaker]

Oh yeah, btw, its a rather bad idea to use a shop air compressor, unless you have a way of directly controlling how much air pressure you use. Too much and you could easily break something off of one of your inside components.

Good idea to clean the rest of your case while your at it as well. Clean out your psu as well. In fact, monthly cleaning is a good idea for any pc owner.

[[R-CON]MrD]

and there are people who never open their cases, then complain when their GPU fries on them or even their CPU !!!

[=HR=Drayu]

I wouldn't use a home air compressor. They all build up moisture as well as air pressure. But, hey, if you feel comfortable blowing moisture all over your parts go for it .