When dust strikes back

Dust and dirt are the bane of computer users everywhere. Dust accumulates and blocks ventilation, which can then cause overheating when there isn’t sufficient airflow to cool a component down. Besides that, aesthetically speaking dust is also ugly. Today, I encountered the following air filter from a projector that was complaining about overheating:

Put simply, that is what happens when you have a busy classroom, wooden floors, ceiling fans and open windows nearby. Dust builds up really quickly in the air filter, causing the projector to overheat on a boiling day like today. Left too long, the overheating will cause various forms of damage: shorter lamp life, scorched LCD colour panels or permanent noisier operation of the projector.

Over the course of this year, I intend to use our newly reformed pupil computer service group to go around and clean these filters. Not a glamorous job, but it needs to be done. It’s one of those minor things that my ex-colleague and I always wanted to do but never got the time to do unless a projector overheated.

This just goes to show that IT isn’t all about the money and fame that some people think it is. Welcome to the dirty side