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I Seem to Have Made A Bit Of A Mess

Posted by alipuk on February 23, 2012 in Geek Stuff |

I am a great fan of 3Com networking kit, and I have been running my home network off a 3300 SM. Now baring in mind the 3300 SM is not exactly new (HP bought 3Com out a few years ago), and this unit was second hand from ebay back in 2005, it has served me and the house very well indeed.

However I have noticed that the whole unit has got noisier over the last few months, so i decided to see what was going on with the 3300. after figuring out how to get in to the unit guess my level of shock when i saw this :-

oh my /takei

The dusty inside of a 3300 SM Switch

So my second post on my blog is not some whimsical musings on how the world turns, but a quick how-to on opening and cleaning a 3Com switch

As you can see from the picture above it might have been awhile (for while read ever) since someone cleaned the inside of the switch. So eyes down grab a brush a hoover and a few allen keys and lets get to work stripping this baby down so that we can clean it.

First thing to do is open the case, which is a lot harder than it sounds. On the 3300 series switches invert the unit and on the base you will find 4 screws, undo these with a small torx bit or allen key.

can you see the screws?
The underside of the 3300 SM switch

You now have to be gentle. With a flat bladed screw driver CAREFULLY lift the plastic lugs at the back of the case just enough to unlock the cover. Go around the sides to separate the lid from the base and et voila you are inside.

Once inside the unit you will notice the way the units laid out. With the ports facing you, the layout is quite straight forward. On the left you will see the motherboard which takes up 3/4 of the unit. On the right is the power supply and cooling arrangement. All you need to do is grab a brush and a vacumm cleaner and attack the dust by brushing the dust loose and using the nozzel of the hoover to suck the dust up.

Once you are happy that all the dust is gone from the unit replace the case lid, again carefully, resecure the screws and give the cover a good wipe with a damp cloth.

Thats it, simple and easy to perform

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