Cleaning out the inside of a PM G5

Hello all!

OK. So, it's not an issue of getting into my PowerMac G5 case, but inside the G5 cover that houses the chips.

Living in a very rural area (lot of fields and farms) we get a lot of dust in the air. As hot as the G5 runs and the fans always kicking on, it pulls a lot of this dust in. I try to blow out the dust routinely and also remove the fans and wipe them down.

I have the liquid cooled system with the radiator and try to blow dust out of it as well. However, I am very afraid there is a ton of dust inside that cover sitting on top of the processors.

How does one break into this area? I called the Apple store and they would give me no clues or advice other than to bring it in. I have been unsuccessful online as well looking for a way to safely remove the cover to get to the chips.

Has anyone successfully done this? I just don't want to tug on anything or break anything that may start a leak of any sort! I also don't want my chips to all of a sudden overheat one day with the possibility they are very dirty.

Thanks!

Thank you for your reply. I have no issues getting inside the case as I have done this many times before. I have also used compresses air to blow out the dust.

The area I am speaking of is the plastic shield with the two G5's on it that cover and protect the liquid cooling system and CPUs. (see pic below).



I have tried to remove the cover but it does not slide out in any way. I am afraid to break anything by pulling on the plastic too hard. I would love to be able to clean out inside that area or at least make sure everything looks OK in there.

Any ideas on how to get behind that shield?

OMFG HAXX! said:

Could you shine a flashlight in through the grill at the back to make sure there isn't too much dust?

Click to expand...

I have tried this but you really cant see enough detail. It looks clean in the spots I can see, but there is really no way to tell if there is a bunch of dust bunched up anywhere else.

It appears that the plastic housing is riveted to the shelf just above it of right below the graphics card. So, you first need to break the rivet head off, then use a hook screw to wedge into the remaining piece, wiggle it around to loosen it from the heat sink component and pull it up and out.

Then you would be able to slide and lift the cover off. However, you do need to replace the rivet once you put things back together. At that, I have only found 2 sites that sell the part number listed and both are $23.80 USD for a 10 count pack.

Al this just to see where the CPUs are at if you want to do a self cleaning on them!