Don't Let Your Computer Bite The Dust

Dust! Have you ever opened up your computer and noticed a healthy sheet of dust dwelling inside? Well, if you live on Maui you probably know the dust I'm talking about. The reddish cloud that disperses into the air when you blow on it is genuine Maui dust! So why should this dust concern you, and what can you do about it? Normal dust finds its way to every surface. Not even the fans, floppy disks, hard disks, and circuitry of our computers are safe from it. Dust on a computer fan isn't necessarily catastrophic but if you notice the fan has trouble spinning it's time to replace it. Floppy drives are very vulnerable to dust because of their exposed nature. You may notice strange errors or an outright failure of your floppy drive if it is damaged. Hard drives are not nearly as forgiving as floppy drives. They are built and sealed in a static and dust free environment but after years of use it is possible for a grain of dust to find its way inside the protective shell. Once inside the dust can easily send the read/write mechanism to its demise by crashing it into the data section of the disk spinning at up to 10,000 RPM. Unfortunately this destroys both your hard disk and its data, and sometimes beyond repair! Now that we have covered normal dust lets discuss Maui's dust. Everyone knows that Maui's weather is unique, but did you know our dust is equally unique? Maui's dust is heavily concentrated with iron. Iron is a conductive, corrosive substance. Once it collects on electronic components it eventually corrodes through the circuitry's protective coating and then through the wires themselves. Unfortunately due to today's advanced micro soldering techniques this type of damage is not repairable. The entire board must be replaced! I've seen a vast amount of computers bite the dust while working here on Maui. It's an unfortunate but avoidable event. So how can you protect your computer from dust here on Maui? First, do not use a vacuum cleaner to clean you computer! The tiny dust particles that pass over the plastic nozzle of your vacuum build a static charge. If the static discharges on your computer (known as an ESD or ElectroStatic Discharge) you are sure to destroy something. The best way to clean your computer is to use compressed air that you can purchase from Costco or any hardware store. The air will blow the dust away without creating any harmful static. Another way to prevent dust from getting to your computer is to cover it while it is turned off. Those are the simplest ways to protect your computer from Maui dust and it will help extend the life of your computer.