Weird, When I was younger I had an old rig that would eat pounds of dust and I always just threw it on my bed then took it apart piece by piece cleaning them as I went. I never had a problem with shorting anything, However I always made sure the PC was unplugged , but even then I would run it 2-3 weeks strait no restart with the case open on my desk. Now that I think back on it, I tortured that poor box and the only thing that ever happened to it was a dead HDD. Still it's always better to be safe than sorry..