Vacumn Cleaner Near The Tower

Recently, I've noticed postings regarding the use of a vacumn cleaner near the hard drive tower and it's static electricity. My Dell XPS is big & sits on a board on carpet under a countertop near my legs. The vacumn does come close when carpeting is cleaned. The power head of the vacumn probably emits something electrical around my tower so what is a safe distance for it to be from the tower?

 

Great question. Never thought about that possibility. Another bl**dy thing to worry about. Hope you get a reliable reply. Bazza

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Do you mean the hose nozzle or the motor housing of a push along cleaner?If the latter you dont need to worry about the electromagnetic radiation,as it wont be strong enough to enduce any current to the components inside your comp plus all modern electric motors have strong emr suppressors to stop the pulses,if they didnt your vacuum would send yours and your neighbours TV's funky if the former most nozzles are made of some kind of poly something which like to charge up with static when the fast flowing air passes through the cleaner,when charged the "positive" electrons try to ground "negative" through the closest usually metal object that is connected to ground,as every component inside the computer is connected to ground through the wall socket the static will discharge itself through the said component which will damage it

 

I think the risk is not that great.

Rikky is correct in pointing out that the static charge will seek the easiest path to ground, and that the computer case is grounded -- if the house wiring is what it should be. (I've run into a lot of houses with absent or weak ground connections in the power outlets.)

But from here, Rikky and I differ. Unless there is something wrong with the construction of the computer case or the ground is weak or absent (check your house wiring, folks), the case will conduct the charge to ground around the components, not through them. The likelihood of damage to the components is therefore very low.

Think of this: the first rule when working inside a computer case is "ground yourself on the computer case every time you put something in the case, whether it's a screwdriver, your finger, or a memory card." Of course, the idea is to drain off any static charge you may have accumulated reaching behind you for the last tool you just picked up. Where does it go? Into the case, around the components within the case, and thence to ground (if you left the power cord in place.)

It's the same idea as staying in your car in an electrical storm or if a live high-tension wire falls on the car. Energization of the car body won't hurt you until you open the car door and put your foot on the ground. Then you become part of the circuit to ground. Then you get a large charge, but I doubt that you'll enjoy it.

However, there is always some risk that the case is not properly constructed or the grounding is deficient. So do take some care when using a vacuum around your computer. I keep mine on a couple of bricks to get it off the floor and above the cat hair and wandering vacuum nozzles.

 

Just do what I do, don't vacuum.

There is no problem in vacuuming the carpet around the tower.

What you are not supposed to do is vacuum the inside the tower where there are delicate and unshielded electronic components.

 

Great replies, thankyou. Think I'll put my tower on some brick pavers as well for added caution. For Rikky...mostly it's the powerhead that comes close to the computer case but in tight areas the poly material of the floor attachment is used to get dust from around the carpet & away from accumulating inside the case. So I'm not sure exactly what I'll do for that yet. I raised this issue for the purpose, mainly to determine why my PCI creative Audigy 2 sound card has intermittantly given me problems with no sound & I lost my microphone capabilty. I just switched the sound card from slot 3 to 4 and that action caused my mic to work again after a year of non use. Only time will tell if this has solved my intermittant sound dilema. Good humor insomniac...had to bury through an inch of dust & grime once to hook up a fellow veteran's scanner behind his computer & that I'll never forget.Oh...BTW, I'm running a small plastic Stanley personal fan to help get more cooling air through the tower when I'm running music programs or had the computer on all day. It's 2 feet fm the tower. Can I assume this is ok to do since it's a cheap way to get more air to the processor.

 

Maybe some accumulated crud or oxide on the card edge contacts? Re-seating the card is often enough to cure that problem -- for a while.

I don't see a problem. IMHO, those things don't move air fast enough to build up much of a static charge -- and the charge can't build up on conductive materials like a computer case. I'd expect that any reasonably healthy case fan moved as much air or more -- and I've never heard anyone suggest that they're a problem.

 

Your absolutely right As long as every time the nozzle of vaccum charges with static "every couple of seconds" you touch the nozzle to the case and dont touch any solder points on any other component,as the static will jump to the solder point,through the component and into the ground