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Cigarette Smoke Damage to Computers

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Warning: Computer Smoke is Hazardous to a Computers Health

I have seen computers die prematurely from 2nd hand smoke. What most people don't realize that while they are chain smoking for hours in front of their system, their computer is sucking in the ailments. Electronics are hot, and naturally create an environment for dust to collect around its circuitry. What makes cigarette smoke the worse kind of "dust" is that it isn't dry. The smoke carries moisture with it.

So in time, the smoke and all of its by-products attach themselves to the computers fans, heatsinks, capacitors, and anything else that has heat. Apart from this, smoke changes the color of the exterior of the computer. This includes the keyboard, monitor (really rough on LCD screens), mouse, and any other component exposed to the open air.

In this lens you will see visuals of what happens to a CPU heatsink. In this case, the computer is 3 years old, overheated, and motherboard gave up.

Hopefully after reading this lens, you may consider twice before lighting up in front of your system, unless you like throwing away your money on new computers often.

What Does Cigarette Smoke Do?

See the Picture Below.......

As seen in the picture below, this 3 year old system has collected all it could before croaking (the motherboard at least anyways.) You will see that there is a high concentration of brown substance. Most would call this dust, however, this thick, sticky stuff is more than dust. It is moist, sticky, smoke packed with chemicals. More or less a cancer to a computer.

Having an air purifier beside your computer, will help with air pollution. It isn't going to keep it completely clean, but will help if your going to be smoking near it.

Air Purifiers

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Computer Cigarette Damage

Outside The Computer 

Inside the computer 

Focusing in on the CPU Heatsink

Taking the computer heatsink out of the case to get a better shot will show you that the brown stuff is really glued to the metal. The purpose of the heatsink is to raise the very hot temperatures of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) to the fan above to be blown away. This under normal conditions will keep the CPU running at safe temperatures.

In this case, being that the heatsink is packed with cigarette soot, how well do you think it is going be able to breath and keep the CPU cool?

If you answered, not well, then you are right. The side effect to this kind of build up is the fan being slowed down due to resistance and internal wear and tear.

Could Altogether Stop Smoking :)

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Up Close w/Fan and Heatsink 

Let's Have Even a Closer Look

In the next picture, I have removed the fan to show all the build up clearly. You will see again that the smoke has created a blanket over heatsink.

At this time, may I add, that it is a very stinky job to clean this stuff off. I am not a smoker, so I hate it all the more. I will explain some cleaning techniques later in this lens.

A major problem with cigarette smoke, is that it creates a layer of soot on the motherboard (gummy and sticky.) When this happens, there is a high probability that a short circuit will happen. The computer these pictures came from, this happened.

Heatsink with Fan Removed 

Side of Heatsink with Fan Removed 

Cleaning Stuff

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Cleaning the Mess

If you are going to clean computer out, I recommend using compress air, cotton swabs, and rubbing alcohol 70% or 90% (90% is better.) You will want to be sure your computer has been off for at least 30 minutes before using any of the above. Don't forget to ground yourself to discharge any static electricity, you don't want to kill your computer by electric shock.

For any smoker, I recommend cleaning your computer out every 6 months. If your not comfortable doing the cleaning yourself, then have a technician do this for you.

Next, I would go outdoors, or in your garage where you don't care if this crude gets on stuff and blow out all the loose particles. Next you will be cleaning in and out of components for a long time with cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol. Be careful not to bend or break any small components. Don't leave any wet residue behind. After cleaning the system, let it set for an hour to ensure the rubbing alcohol has evaporated.

Thanks for Stopping By.

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