Side panel open - is this dangerous

[Achtung Englander]

To cut a long story short my PC starting playing up today and would not pass BIOS boot up or keep on short circuiting when it did. I opened her up and gave her a good clean but that worked for about 5 mins

Finally got to her to work but she only works now with the side panel open. I have no problems with this but my question is - is this dangerous. What chances is there of fire, as you can see she is off the ground. I have been reading some comments on the web and lot of people operate their system with the side panel open no problem

I have a little one and will start locking my office but my main concern is fire.

Looks like I might have to upgrade a lot sooner than expected. My rig is 5 years old

[Raid]

How old is your little one? If they're old enough to be poking their fingers into the case, I simply wouldn't risk it. Same goes if you have any pets that have the run of the house. I wouldn't be too concerned about the risk of fire if everything were working correctly, but the fact that your machine won't run without the additional cooling of having the case open suggests you have an overheating problem.

Unless you can work out which component is causing the problem (if it won't even post, I'd look at the CPU cooler), I think it may be time to start replacing bits.

[DjchunKfunK]

Maybe try taking the cooler off and reapplying the thermal paste, if you haven't done that in a while it could be that which is causing issues.

[Quietman]

Having the side open won't increase the risk of fire on it's own but yeah, small fingers and fast rotating things don't really mix well

It shouldn't make any difference for cooling either really, especially as you have a fan mounted on the side panel which, if it's working properly, should provide more cooling than just passive air would.

I agree with Raid though, check out your CPU cooler and all the other fans are running when you have the system powered on and check the CPU temps after running it for a while. It could just be some TLC but yeah, replacements are more likely a reality.

Also, cable management, it's a thing

[Achtung Englander]

he's 2

so you are right - I think its an overheating issue

I will have to put the case back on when I leave the study and lock the door when I am in

looks like I will need to upgrade after all. I really do need to upgrade if I want to get VR one day soon..so another thread on updating !

[NG]

Download Open Hardware Monitor to monitor your temps, it's free.

http://openhardwaremonitor.org/

I have two brothers who don't have side panels on their PC, one of them hot swaps a lot of hard drives & the other removed the panel so that he could carry the PC/case with one hand instead of two from his student accomodation.

Neither have had any problems other than dust build up & as some have mentioned it will affect air flow & cooling, but it can be dangerous if you were to accidentally spill your drink or whatever.

[Nethlyn]

Strange that this thread went up the day before my PC went belly-up, there were other issues involved but I'd also got into the habit of having the case open.

Since it could potentially now cost me anything from a new GPU to a new build depending on whatever shorted out, I'll never do that again personally,the 5mins taking the panel on and off is balanced out by not having to blow the dust out of it 2-3 times a month and continually risk more static/dust shorts or shocks.

[Nethlyn]

OK thankfully it was a dead CMOS battery but had never seen the repeated shorting/cutting out as the last of a charge went out of the battery on any other computer I'd seen before. Will take the hint and as and when I get that new HDD I'm closing the case up properly.