Ask Lemmy

As bad as your computer looks your lungs are worse.

I want to clean my PC thoroughly to buy it a few more years.

You can buy yourself and your electronics a lot of years by cutting the smoking :)

Technically you could submerge parts in isopropyl alcohol. The concern with liquid is primarily corrosion and causing shortages. If there is no stored electricity in the capacitors, the isopropyl alcohol shouldn't cause any corrosion. It would not be the best way to clean it, in reality, but you could probably do it. I would just spray some on and gently clean it with an old toothbrush.

Smoke, especially cigarette smoke, gets onto everything and is awful to try and clean. I won't buy used electronics used in a smokers home, or much of anything for that matter.

As a guy who's cleaned far too many smoker fucked PCs.

99% Isopropyl and a tooth brush is what you need. It won't be fast, but you need that kinda precision and attention to make sure you got everything.

You might also consider just replacing any fans. I don't know if you have a laptop or a desktop, but a laptop fan is a bitch to clean

As far as the computer cleaning I have no advice. However, as a former smoker, I do have some other advice:

May I recommend vaping? Not as healthy as quitting nicotine entirely, but the lack of tar all over everything is SUCH A HUGE PERK over cigarettes. Also your lungs will thank you, it becomes so much easier to breathe after a few weeks of no smoke.

I don’t recommend the garbage at gas stations unless that’s your only choice, I recommend you find a local vape shop and let them set you up.

Also, if you learn to mix your own liquid (which is very easy) you can taper your nicotine if you ever decide to quit. Makes it much easier, just a slightly smaller dose each month or two until you’re at 0mg/ml of nicotine.

Mostly just leave it be. The smoke is on the outside and as long as it's visually clean enough it'll be fine.

Make sure that ventilator fans still run smoothly, and as needed, replace those, as cooling is extremely important

No dunking, and make sure what you're buying is mostly alcohol (> 95%) and not water/alcohol mixtures often used for disinfection. Using in combination with e.g., a toothbrush is probably your best bet. IPA (and acetone) can strip some adhesives and cause certain kinds of electrical insulation to swell or dissolve, so a targeted approach is better. IPA is flammable (though less so than acetone), so be careful/well ventilated when allowing parts to dry, and ensure parts are fully dried before reconnecting to power.

IPA itself is only about twice as toxic as ethanol and certainly less problematic by inhalation than tar in the long run. I wouldn't bother with a mask mostly because it won't do shit unless it's a cartridge respirator. However, IPA can sometimes facilitate skin absorption. IDK specifically about tar buildup but recommend wearing gloves (disposable nitrile is fine).

I wouldn't submerge them, but taking q-tips to it should be fine as long as you're careful and make sure it is fully dry before plugging everything back in.

I want to clean my PC thoroughly to buy it a few more years.

Is it not working in its present state?

If it's working all right, I'd just leave it be, and if you don't want tar buildup in your next case, get a case that has an air filter on it that you can replace, or run an air purifier with a filter in the room.

You can even use water on most pc components and it will clean most residue- it's called the universal solvent for a reason. The reason isopropyl alcohol is popular is that it is still a decent solvent but also will evaporate quickly, which makes it safer.

People have put PC stuff into a dishwasher (without detergent, on cold) but that feels kind of crazy to me still.

I'd be more concerned about soaking components in alcohol. Lubricants, adhesives, etc would all be at risk of being worn away. Definitely don't do it to fans or anything else that moves. Pure hunks of metal (like a heatsink) or silicon are safer.

Well, don't outright throw the parts in a bin with alcohol

If you want to be a bit safe:

• power off
• unplug PSU
• hold power button for 20 seconds (10 should do but id be extra careful) to drain capacitors (fans may spin up a bit, it's fine)
• separate all the components
• lay them all out on a table / work area
• soak in alcohol using a microfiber towel, or similar, only covering the areas that you can still see and wipe off from the outside, do NOT let alcohol run under the GPU heatsink (or any other heatsink - thermal pads is why), in slots, inside hard drive breather holes, avoid filling cable connectors
• let sit a bit
• wipe to remove gunk, consider using a stiff brush too, be careful not to rip shit off boards, especially connectors and retention tabs
• let dry for a few days to be sure
• reassemble

I wouldn't EVER use water. Water will leave mineral deposits (ever seen those dusty-looking, droplet shaped stains on glass? Those are mineral deposits from water) that will in time cause corrosion. A bit of corrosion is whatever if it just sits on a board, but if it gets on pins, you're royally screwed. All pins are vulnerable (PCI-E, CPU, RAM, cable connectors of ALL kinds).

Also DON'T for the love of god POWERWASH! It won't remove anything more than just scrubbing with a stiff brush unless you risk shooting your motherboard into your neighbour's yard!

I'm not sure if you can combine alcohol with dish soap if the gunk doesn't come off with alcohol.

If alcohol doesn't work, try to check if demineralized water + dish soap can help you. I'm not sure that's a safe combination but demi water should not leave deposits and dish soap should clean fucking anything. Check online first tho.

Good luck man.

I see lots of “brush it, it’s fine” posts, but if you want to dunk your components, that’s a whole different story. Alcohol is certainly going to dissolve something like TIM or thermal pads; that might not be a problem.

But it might?

One thing very oldschool PC builders did is submerge their PCs in mineral oil for cooling. This liquid is more innocuous, AFAIK.

So you could get some in a plastic tray and dunk your components in it. I have no advice for getting the oil off though.

Have you thought about FIRE?

Now all you need is a lighter, which as a smoker I'm sure you have handy! 💥