My mom had Dell build her a new computer like 7 years ago. It's an old Dimension desktop. But the CPU (P4, not sure of the clocks) is cooled by an air duct with a fan that opens at the back of the case. The only problem is that we haven't done any proper cleaning with it. Since it's gone 7 years with out any proper cleaning...

Is it about ready to fail?

If it's probably about to stop spinning because of all of that dust clogging the fan, what do I need to do to stop the CPU from catching on fire?

The computer's already starting to screw up. The disc drives don't even work anymore, so I have to replace those.

Unlike old AMD chips, a P4 shouldn't catch fire, it will just clock down to a very low speed or freeze; I used to have a P4 at work where the fan was just lying on top of the heatsink, and sometimes it would fall off or get knocked off if something banged against the case.

I would suggest giving it a good clean if they can't afford $500 for a new PC though.

Edit: and, to be fair, the old AMD chips were only likely to destroy the CPU and motherboard rather than burn down the house.

The must effective way of preventing it from catching fire is to only use it whilst in the bath....fill the bath up with water, carefully place the old dell inside, and position the monitor by the side (a corner bath is best for this)...plug everything in, and then hop on in the bath and enjoy a nice cool computing experience...although if you have wireless things may well get a little hot still Furthermore this will give the innards of your pc an overdue clean.

If your not into extreme computing, then you could try opening the case and cleaning the insides. You can get air canisters that you fit a straw into which blow the dust away if things warrant it. I would go for the bath method myself tho.

cleaning should help, but i'm w\ mark on a new one...

dell has several systems w\ lcd's for 400-500. they usually advertise on yahoo, ebay and other sites. Goto the small business section so you can see the vostro and optiplex systems- i think these are more reliable then the dimensions or maybe i just like them better.

http://www.dell.com/content/produc [...] l=en&s=bsd

this shows what i'm talking about; sometimes the specs are different. I've seen them advertising the vostro 200 package w\ a e4400, 2gb ram, and dvdrw for $429 w\ a 22'' lcd... thats hard to beat.

i dont think a computer can really catch on fire, unless you have a case made out of dry wood! but my question for you is, why not just open up the case and clear out some of the dust in it?

just open the side and use a hair dryer to blow everything out. since you got nothing to loose and very money efficient.

5 minutes with an air compressor and it should look like new.

After 7 years, I bet the fans are basically shot.

Sounds like new computer time, even the most basic web sites have fairly demanding graphics, and it would be a lot better on a new system.

7 years with the same computer.
i passed on my old AMD 1800 recently and with a bit of cleaning it still works on windows XP no problems. Wouldnt use it myself, but if you want it for only the internet then should be ok