How Should I Clean My PC/Laptop?

Do you have the required tools to open your laptop/pc to clean?

Have you turned off your computer properly?

Have you used a vacuum to clean the vents first?

After opening your laptop/computer, did you clean the vents from the inside using cotton swabs?

Did you clean the area around the cpu and the hard drives?

Did you clean the case after closing the computer?

To safely and efficiently clean your computer, you'll need a few inexpensive items. Buy a can of compressed air, for blowing particles out of sensitive areas, at any computer store. Purchase cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol from a supermarket or pharmacy. Buy small or medium-sized Phillips-tip and flat-tip screwdrivers from a hardware store. Have paper towels, lint-free rags, and water on hand. If you already have the tools, then no need to worry about buying them.

For desktop computers, this means shutting down the computer, turning off the surge protector or power strip, and unplugging the cord from the back of the tower and for a laptop, shut it down completely, unplug any power cords from it, turn it upside down, and remove the battery pack.

Over time, the fan and air vent and CPU heat-sink area that helps regulate your computer's temperature can get clogged with dust, dust bunnies and fibers, causing the CPU to overheat and hardware to malfunction.

Start with cotton swabs or a pair of tweezers, and remove all of the larger dust bunnies and other debris you see. Follow through by spraying compressed air to chase the rest of the dust out of the vent system. Spray it everywhere else you can reach, too, taking care to keep the nozzle a few inches away from the components and I/O ports.

Clean the CPU area and around hard drives and such in a desktop computer, but be careful not to touch any electronic soldered or bare wire, and such parts with your fingers. You should also re-apply a thermal paste under your cpu as well (this only applies to PCs).

Put every part you opened or removed back in its proper place and close up your computer again. Once that's done, take a duster, a dry microfiber cloth, or some dry paper towels and brush obvious dust and dirt off of all sides of the computer case. Follow through by dipping one tip of a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol and running it along every seam and edge of your machine.

After cleaning the main parts of your computer, you should clean the extra peripherals such as mouse, keyboard etc, as they have a lot of accumulated dust stuck to them as well.