Fried a power supply because I ignored a dusty filter for way too long

Last Tuesday I finally built that new rig I'd been piecing together for 3 months. Everything was going great until about 20 minutes into a game, the whole system just shut down. No warning, no BSOD, just dead silence. I spent 2 hours swapping parts and testing with a multimeter before I pulled the PSU and realized the intake fan was caked in a solid layer of dust from sitting in my garage. The thermal protection kicked in and it cooked itself trying to cool down. Ended up having to order a replacement from Newegg for $110 and lost a whole evening of troubleshooting. Anyone else ever wreck a component just from skipping basic maintenance like cleaning filters?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_walker16d ago

I set a phone reminder every two months to clean my filters now.

the_sandra16d ago

Yeah @terry_walker that's the move. I do the same thing except I tag it onto my payday reminders so it's automatic. Keeps the dust bunnies from staging a full takeover.