How to clean a computer or laptop from dust? | Articles | Gadgets, gifts and accessories

Even if it seems to you that your com­put­er or lap­top is in order and does not require clean­ing, this is not always the case. In fact, in most cas­es this is not the case at all. Every device needs a thor­ough clean­ing and dis­in­fec­tion from time to time, and we know how to do it with­out resort­ing to dras­tic mea­sures, but using impro­vised means. In addi­tion, the dust in the body of the device is dan­ger­ous and some­times slows down the work, so reg­u­lar clean­ing is nec­es­sary for any tech­nique.

Keyboard cleaning

Per­haps the most exposed part of a com­put­er to dirt and dust is the key­board. There­fore, it is worth start­ing with it. If you are using a key­board with a desk­top com­put­er, the first thing you need to do is dis­able it, be it a wired or Blue­tooth device. In the case of a lap­top, you need to unplug it and remove the bat­tery, if pos­si­ble.

After that, the key­board or lap­top should be turned over and shak­en to slight­ly dis­perse the dust and par­ti­cles accu­mu­lat­ed inside.

The next task is more dif­fi­cult: it is nec­es­sary to clean the dirt from under the keys and between them. There are sev­er­al ways to do this.

One option that works great for the task is to mix a soft and sticky mix­ture that will catch and clean dust from cracks and holes.

If you do not know how exact­ly to do this, then there are var­i­ous recipes for this.

One of the recipes is:

• Liq­uid starch — half a glass
• PVA glue 120 ml
• Half glass of water
• Option­al­ly, you can add food col­or­ing.

It is enough to mix all the ingre­di­ents togeth­er until a homo­ge­neous mass. When the con­sis­ten­cy begins to resem­ble plas­ticine, the mass can be used. Due to its sticky tex­ture, it eas­i­ly picks up dust and small par­ti­cles, includ­ing bits of skin and food that some­times get stuck between the keys. Store the mass in a tight­ly closed con­tain­er.

Alter­na­tive­ly, use pieces of clear tape. This method is even eas­i­er — about a few cen­time­ters of adhe­sive tape must be bent in half so that the sticky sides are on the out­side. After that, pass the tape sev­er­al times in the holes between the keys. Make sure that the tape does not leave marks on the parts.

The third option does not require the use of sticky sub­stances, but uses air. You can use a blow­er or any oth­er not too pow­er­ful com­pressed air blow­er to blow the dust out from under the keys. Cans of com­pressed air usu­al­ly help.

When every­thing is cleaned inside, go to the out­side: you can go over the key­board with a dis­in­fec­tant or wipes. At the same time, make sure that there are no strong sol­vents or stain removers on the wipes. Also, make sure the wipes are damp, not wet.

Mouse cleaning

If you are using a mouse, please note that it also needs to be cleaned. In order to clean the mouse, you must first turn it off and remove the bat­ter­ies, if any.

To remove dust from the wheel, turn the mouse over and rotate it. Gen­tly wipe down the mouse with dis­in­fec­tant wipes. Again, it’s impor­tant to make sure no liq­uid gets inside.

If the mouse has addi­tion­al but­tons, then they can be cleaned in the same way as the key­board. Be care­ful and try not to dam­age any­thing inside.

System unit

The largest amount of dust accu­mu­lates in the com­put­er sys­tem unit. Of course, it needs to be cleaned from time to time. In order to do this, you first need to dis­con­nect all bat­ter­ies and make sure that all wires are dis­con­nect­ed. After that, if pos­si­ble, it is rec­om­mend­ed to take the sys­tem unit out­side, because oth­er­wise you will sim­ply dri­ve the same dust around the room.

After that, remove all dust from the out­side with a dry cloth or soft bris­tle brush. The next step is to open the sys­tem unit. Most mod­ern cas­es open very sim­ply, with­out the use of addi­tion­al tools. But for old­er devices, you will need a screw­driv­er. It is enough to open the block from the sides to get to all areas.

Inside, every­thing must be cleaned man­u­al­ly again with a dry cloth or brush. Try not to dam­age the ele­ments. If there are stub­born dirt, the task becomes more com­pli­cat­ed: you will have to dis­as­sem­ble some parts such as the video card and mem­o­ry mod­ules. It will be good if you have a tube of ther­mal paste for such tasks.

All small boards can be gen­tly cleaned with a cot­ton swab. After you get rid of the stub­born dust, you can use com­pressed air or a blow­er to blow the dust off the sur­face.

If you want to walk with a damp cloth, this can also be done, but only with the help of spe­cial clean­ing flu­ids. The rag should be damp, not wet, and the clean­er should prefer­ably be alco­hol-based so that it dries eas­i­ly.

Thor­ough­ly clean all debris.

After the sys­tem unit is com­plete­ly free of dust, you can reassem­ble it. For some time, about an hour after clean­ing, it is not rec­om­mend­ed to turn on the com­put­er so as not to dam­age the inter­nal ele­ments.

Screen

With a screen, things are much eas­i­er. In order to clean it from dirt, you will need wet wipes with a clean­ing agent. The mon­i­tor is cleaned like any optics, you need to turn it off and gen­tly walk in a cir­cu­lar motion on the screen. So that the drops do not freeze on the screen and do not cause dis­tor­tion, be sure to wipe the sur­face with a dry cloth from above. It is bet­ter to use microfiber cloths to avoid scratch­ing the sur­face and dam­ag­ing the screen.

Other accessories

Every­thing else is cleaned like any oth­er item. A sim­ple wet wipe. If you’re clean­ing your head­phone speak­ers, it’s best if the cloth is dry. The ear­buds can be cleaned with a dry cot­ton swab.

Special cleaning products

In order to effec­tive­ly clean the equip­ment, it is not nec­es­sary to always use impro­vised mate­ri­als. Pear JJC CL-B9 can eas­i­ly cope with the removal of dust and small par­ti­cles from the ele­ments of the com­put­er. It is made of soft and dense non-tox­ic rub­ber, which is resis­tant to tem­per­a­ture extremes. The pear fits com­fort­ably in the hand thanks to the ribbed sur­face, is easy to use and con­ve­nient not only for clean­ing com­put­ers and lap­tops, but also for clean­ing optics.

Microfiber cloths are always use­ful in the care of any devices, both opti­cal and oth­er­wise. That is why it is always rec­om­mend­ed to have sev­er­al microfiber cloths on hand. Pro­like CL-C3 is a com­fort­able qual­i­ty cloth that effec­tive­ly removes dust and dirt with­out leav­ing lint, scratch­es or streaks on the sur­face. For pho­tog­ra­phers, this nap­kin can also serve as a gray card for adjust­ing white bal­ance.

Green Clean G‑2016 Hi Tech — Air&Vacuum Pow­er is a 150 ml can of com­pressed gas, which is per­fect for clean­ing old and dried dust. The min­i­mum ser­vice life is 100 one-sec­ond valve press­es at a tem­per­a­ture of +20°C.

Remem­ber to keep your appli­ances clean and tidy and always be gen­tle when clean­ing.