My computer has been making this really loud whirring sound. At the same time, the mouse would freeze and everything would come to a dead stop. This would happen very often, I would say every one or two minutes, depending on what I was trying to accomplish.
I had a feeling it was dust in the heat sink or fan area. So I promised myself before I got on the computer for the day that I’d wrestle it from its nesting place and bring it out and see if I was right.
I was right all right. I’m almost embarrassed for you to see just how bad it was. Essentially, my computer’s heat sink and other venting areas were wearing fur coats made from dust bunnies. In the image below, I have pointed an arrow to the only visible portion of the heat sink. It is made from aluminum and is silver colored.
Dust Bunny Fur Coat on the Heat Sink
Dust Bunny Fur Coat on Air Vent
Dust Bunnies on Outer Fan Vents
Dust Bunny Fur Coat on Air Vents
I know that one little speck of dust can wreak havoc with a computer’s electronics, so this is pretty much a disastrous situation for my computer.
Luckily my hubby has this awesome air compressor tool and I spent a good 15 minutes blowing air through the computer’s innards – otherwise I would have needed to use about 3 or 4 cans of compressed air! It is all clean now, and back at home.
No more loud whirring and freezing of the mouse!
I told you it was dusty in Arizona. 
Even my boss, who has the cleanest house of anyone I know has a layer of dust on her microwave two days after she cleans the entire house.
Have you given your computer a dusting lately?
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That is a good reminder! Dusting my computer and keeping it cool definitely improves performance.
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Lakita: It definitely improved my computer’s performance! All that noise, whooshing and spinning sounds. It was annoying! I am beginning to see that many of my electronics (fax machine, phone, calculator) might need a plastic cover. Unfortunately it would smother my computer so I guess I just need to make a point to dust it more often. Thanks for visiting and commenting! Mrs. A
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[...] Accountability presents Dust Your Computer – Save Its Life posted at Out of Debt [...]
[...] Carnivals This Week By Mrs. Accountability on January 23rd, 2010 Mrs. Money hosted the 100th Edition of the Money Hacks carnival at her blog, Ultimate Money Blog and included my post Dust Your Computer – Save Its Life. [...]