Don’t panic!
That’s what I said to myself at 8am this morning when I turned my desktop computer on, and it promptly turned itself off again.
Actually, if I’m to be completely honest, I said quite a few things, most of which only had four letters, but let’s not get too precious about it. I was panicked, and my second thought was…how on earth would I live without the internet? And my writing? And my music? Oh god…and no ESO?
Then I thought to touch the top of the computer, near where the CPU is located. It was warm. It should not have been warm, not after less than a minute of being switched on.
And this is when the baby geek in me stepped up and said, “Dust.”
Baby Geek was right. There was dust all over the top of the computer. Not surprising really, considering that it sits on the floor, surrounded by small, hairy beasts:

Those two small beasts, plus Harry, another small feline beast, share the office with me, and they all shed. And if that wasn’t enough, my window faces north. When it was open over the summer, it let in a lot of smoke and dust, all of which would have been sucked into the desktop via the fans [internal] designed to keep it cool.
For those who don’t know, the average desktop computer is air cooled. Mine has two large fans located under those grills, which circulate air inside the box. I also have a small fan that sits on top of the CPU [the brain of the computer] and two more that sit on top of the GPU [graphics processing unit or video card]. Those two units are the most critical components of a pc, and if they overheat, the computer will automatically shut down.
I knew all this, but I still wondered, would this be the time when it wasn’t the pc overheating? If it was something more serious, how would I get it fixed?
After fortifying myself with a second cup of coffee, I set up the vacuum cleaner and my paint brushes and got to work. For those who are interested, this is a post I wrote some time ago about how to safely clean the inside of a desktop computer. If any of you are in the same predicament, please read the post carefully. You do NOT want to just stick the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner inside the guts of a pc. That would be a very, very bad idea!
To cut a long story short, I cleaned the computer, and it started up like a dream. Now, it’s purring away as if it had never tried to give me heart failure. Beast…
I hope your start to the day was better than mine. Have fun and stay well. 🙂
Meeks
August 11th, 2020 at 11:21 am
[…] via When the computer won’t start… — Meeka’s Mind […]
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June 3rd, 2020 at 2:06 am
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May 26th, 2020 at 2:25 am
[…] When the computer won’t start… […]
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May 17th, 2020 at 7:53 am
I had something similar this week. Blue screen of death that was not repairable.
It was my work computer, but it was still 5 hours plus a trip into the office to determine it was a brick and get a new one. 😦
Great reminder to BACK UP YOUR WORK.
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May 17th, 2020 at 9:13 am
Ugh. So sorry to hear that, esp. as it necessitated a trip into the office. I try to have multiple copies of my most important stuff – on sync.com and on USB sticks – but weeks can go by before I remember to actually /do/ it. I’ll back my stuff up today.
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May 14th, 2020 at 3:24 am
[…] When the computer won’t start… — Meeka’s Mind […]
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May 13th, 2020 at 1:39 pm
Much better than hitting it! 😀
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May 13th, 2020 at 8:27 pm
-cough- that’s plan D -cough-
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May 14th, 2020 at 5:56 am
Hee, hee, hee! 😀
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May 13th, 2020 at 7:20 am
Desperate times… desperate measures. Dust is why corporations have huge sealed off glass aircon rooms to store all their servers. In this house, I mostly ignore it but you make a good point. I’ll put dusting on the list.
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May 13th, 2020 at 9:16 am
lol – don’t you wish we could seal off our own computers too? I suspect the day will come when computer systems will be part of the normal ‘specs’ of every new house built, just like gas, electricity, water and sewerage. 🙂
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May 13th, 2020 at 1:26 am
Nothing like a furry beast—or two or three or more—to jazz things up when you least expect it.
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May 13th, 2020 at 9:19 am
-grin- Indeed! I’d certainly do a lot less cleaning without them, but life would be very…sterile. -waves at Sebastian & Viola-
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May 12th, 2020 at 10:27 pm
Yay for Baby Geek. lol
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May 12th, 2020 at 10:40 pm
-grin- Baby Geek thanks you.:)
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May 12th, 2020 at 3:51 pm
Ahhhh dust begone…I don’t know what attracts more here my polished wooden floors or my laptop which is far easy to clean a quick daily wipe…sigh
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May 12th, 2020 at 3:56 pm
Yes…those floors. I have lovely polished Jarrah floors in the living areas, but the little beasts leave delicate footprints all over the place. -sigh-
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May 12th, 2020 at 8:44 pm
I can imagine…sigh ..x
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May 12th, 2020 at 10:41 pm
Life’s too short, right? 🙂
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May 12th, 2020 at 11:21 pm
Absolutly…x
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May 12th, 2020 at 2:55 pm
What a heart stopping start to your day! Mine began by taking the Fella to the podiatrist ☺️…and is ending sitting in the warmth reading all my emails. Much more fun.
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May 12th, 2020 at 3:22 pm
-giggles- Apart from the podiatrist, I’d have to agree completely!
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May 12th, 2020 at 5:25 pm
At least I don’t have to look at his feet ~shudder~ !
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May 12th, 2020 at 5:28 pm
I asked a podiatrist why she was a podiatrist. She told me all about helping people manage their feet, and why that was so important. All good, but it didn’t convince me to become one. I think it is would be top of my least favourite job. 😉
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May 12th, 2020 at 10:44 pm
Mine too. Hands I love, but feet? Not so much.
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May 12th, 2020 at 10:45 pm
Small mercies. 😀
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May 12th, 2020 at 1:49 pm
Dust also kills TVs, anything electronic, cards with metal strips on ’em, all that stuff. Dust is the enemy of tech. It even kills fridges, washing machines, garden tools.
The enemy is nigh … runs screaming through the house with a static cloth …
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May 12th, 2020 at 3:51 pm
LMAO! You’re right, but I was just thinking that my house should really be a tech-free zone. Dust EVERYWHERE!
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May 12th, 2020 at 8:35 pm
Adelaide is also known as the windy city, so I’d have to move city, state, maybe country to lose some of the dust. Or maybe just swipe the tech every day (I don’t worry about the house, though; a static broom better be enough).
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May 12th, 2020 at 10:43 pm
House work is not my forte either but I admit to vacuuming the rest of the office as well. Just to keep the computer clean, of course. 😉
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May 12th, 2020 at 1:49 pm
I have had a similar problem with one of my laptops before, Meeks. Now I clean both my computers with a damp cloth every day to prevent accumulations of dust and other things. I’m glad it all worked out for you.
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May 12th, 2020 at 3:53 pm
Actually that’s really interesting, Robbie, coz I had no idea how to protect laptops. Their construction is too different. I only have a small laptop that I used to take with me when I went out to teach. At home it lives in its own special bag. Should probably give it a dust as well.
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May 12th, 2020 at 1:35 pm
Ah yes, the old dust and the desktop computer problem! Also a battle I have to fight: every PC I’ve had for over 20 years has been a custom-build desktop, and they’re like dust magnets. My current one has a noisy fan which it’s had since new, which I can fix by tapping the case next to it (‘percussive maintenance’, I think it’s called). Why does a writer like me need a full-size I7 based desktop PC with a gratuitously over-specced video card in it? Well, you know, Word has a bit of an overhead and – er – (cough cough …games… cough cough).
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May 12th, 2020 at 3:54 pm
Bit of ah, dust in your throat? Mwahahahaha….yes, I have the exact same issues. 😀
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