Dust is an insulator. Tower that sounds like a dryer and throttles in summer is usually lint on the front intake and a gray felt on the GPU. Cleaning is the repair. It’s also easy to wreck fans and blow junk deeper into the PSU if you rush it.
Power down like you mean it
- Shut down. Flip the PSU switch. Unplug the wall.
- Hold the case power button for 10 seconds to drain leftover charge.
- Work on a table, not carpet. You do not need a full ESD lab. You do need to avoid shuffling across nylon socks onto a GPU die.
Blow out, don’t spin up
Hold the blades still with a finger or a plastic card while you blow. A can of air will overspin a fan past what the bearing liked. I do this outside or with a window open. You’re moving the dust, not destroying it.
On the bench
Electric duster (if you do this more than twice a year)
Canned air is fine for one tower. If I do this more than twice a year the electric duster saves the freeze-spray and the half-empty cans. Still hold the blades.
- Keep the nozzle off spinning fans.
- Do not use a household vacuum on a board. The plastic nozzle plus static is a bad mix.
Pull the side filters and wash them if they’re plastic mesh. Let them dry fully. A wet filter on an intake is a new problem. Don’t open the PSU. Blow across the grille from the outside and leave the inside to people who like mains voltage. I’m not one of those people on a kitchen table.
Verdict
Unplug, hold the blades, blow the dust out, wash the filters. That sequence has fixed more “overheating PCs” for me than a new cooler.