EDIT: Admins, sorry if this belongs in the "Mac Modification" section of the forum. But since i'd imagine that most people who'd do this sort of thing would be using a Power Mac (tower or desktop), this seemed like the logical place to put it. Feel free to move it to wherever it belongs if you want.
Since nobody answered my post a while back, asking advice on how to clean my PM 6100's PSU, I did it myself and it was rather effective... that thing was a stubborn piece of shiiiiii
to open up and clean, but i'm happy with the result.
Anyway, i decided to share my knowledge (not neccisarily "advice") to whoever may need it. (if you have any other advice to add to this, please do)
1) Removal of the PSU from the case.
Obviously you'll need to isolate the PSU from the computer's case and unplug it from the power cable. Preferably, you'd want to do this when the PSU has -NOT- been turned on for at least a few hours to maybe an entire day to ensure there's no residual electric charge still in it. While you're at it you may want to do all of this while standing bare-foot on a wooden, vinyl, or ceramic floor and even wearing that anti-static sleeve to minimize any chance of static transfer from your body to the PSU.
2) Cleaning the PSU's fan.
In some PSU's the fan is relatively easy to access -WITHOUT- having to actually open up the PSU's chassis. If that's the case, you can simply use a combination of long, cotton swabs and an equally long, narrow hose vaccum cleaner.
If for some reason you actually have to open up the PSU's chassis to gain access to the fan AND/OR other area of the PSU that's choked-full of dust, you'd have to take care not to forcefully, over-pry the chassis open as it may damage some physical parts, like the PSU's mechanical switch, for instance. If you can partially open it just enough to gain some access to the dust-filled area, that should be good enough.
3) Other tips.
Get another person to help you out by letting him or her hold the PSU with the fan-side facing down while you clean it with swabs and the vaccuum hose.
If you don't have a long, narrow-hose vaccuum, you can do what i did... If you have an up-right vaccuum cleaner with a hose attachment or preferably one of those "SharkVac" or Euro-Pro "Big Shark" vaccuum cleaners with the hose attachment, you can simply put some duct tape to cover the hose completely. Then, using a knife or barbeque skewer, poke one hole for a straw (preferably one of those flex-straws with the bendable kink). If you like you can make another hole for a second straw if you want to increase the sucktion area of the hose.
HOWEVER, it is important that you make sure you don't cause your vaccuum cleaner to overheat because of the reduced airflow going through it's hose. What I did to make sure that didn't happen was by poking 5 or 6 smaller holes on the tape around the place where i stuck the straw(s), in a circular pattern.
Obviously you also don't want to do this for a long period of time because that may also overheat the vaccuum.
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