It does not matter what type of computer you have or what you use it for, all computers need cleaning. Now I am not talking about virus cleaning or registry cleaning (I will talk about that latter), I am talking about physical cleaning of dust, dirt and whatever else may have ventured into your system. This goes for both laptops and desktops.
Now you may be wondering why it matters how a computer looks or how mush dust is on the inside. The main reason is heat. A hot computer is not a happy computer period. Computer components like your processor, video card, etc. all generate heat. How much heat they generate has to do with what model of part you have and on what you use the computer for. For example playing games or editing videos will stress the components in the computer much greater then web surfing or type a word document. When a component gets too hot a wide range of things can happen to your system, none of them are good. In most cases the part will throttle back its speed to reduce the temperature, or shut itself down completely. However if your computer is running at high temperatures for long periods of time, this will reduce the life span of the components and could lead to critical failure of one of more system components.
Ok so now that you know what happens when your computer overheats, what does this have to do with cleaning it? Computers use metal devices called heat-sinks to transfer heat away from hot running components. Heat-sinks are normally assisted by fans inside the computer that keep cool air blowing over the heat-sink transfer area. What happens over time is dust will begin to build up in-side the computer and on the heat-sinks. This drastically reduces the rate at which heat is transferred from the heat-sink/component to the surrounding air thus causing the component to run hotter. This fact is made exponentially worse when the heat-sink is used with a fan as dust will build up hundreds of times faster due to the constant air flow. Fans themselves may also be damaged as dust leaks into the fan motor and destroys the motor itself. This in turn leads to fan failure and extremely high temperatures inside the computer.
So what can you do about? Thankfully there are many ways to clean dust out of the inside of your computer. The best method to use is to blow the dust out using a can of compressed air or an air compressor. When cleaning a desktop computer you need to first remove the side panel to ensure all of the dust is blow out of the system not just recirculated inside. To do this most on most computers all you will need to do is remove the screws on the back of the computer and then gently push the panel back until it comes off. Some computers have keys or latches that secure the side panels instead of screws. Now that you can see the inside of your system don't touch anything (unless you know what you're touching of course). You will now most likely want to take your computer outside or to your garage as the dust will go everywhere.
Spray away! Grab your trusty canned air and go to town! There are a few areas that you will want to make sure that you hit that tend to hide more dust then it seems. The first and most important is your main processor heat-sink. This looks different from one computer to the next but you are looking for a heat-sink in the middle of the computer with a medium to large fan on it. Depending when you were cleaning the system last, there could be lots of dust packed inside. Be sure to give it a real good spray for about 10 seconds or until the dust is gone. Next you will want to clean out the video card (if your computer has one). The video card can be identified by the large add-in card that is perpendicular to the large circuit board. Most video cards have their own heat-sink and fan assembly and you want to be sure to again spray the fins of the heat-sink and the fan for at-least 10 seconds or until the dust is gone. The last major section to clean is the power supply. It is the large box with all the wires coming out of it normally at the top or the bottom of the computer. You will want to blow into the back or front of it again for about 10 seconds to clean the dust from it. Don't forget to blow out the rest of the computer as well, including any other fans you see.
A word of warning to those who use air compressors. Air compressors operating at over 40psi have the power to damage fans inside the computer. While it may be fun to hold down the air and spin up one of the fans really really fast (I have done it many times myself haha) it can easily blow out the bearings in the fans and destroy them. You will want to hold the air source farther back from the computer when using high pressures.
To clean laptops it is much simpler. Simple turn the laptop off and close the lid. Turn the laptop over on your lap and blow out into all of the vents along the bottom. and the side to remove the dust. You will want to take extra care to not spin up the fan to fast because laptop fans are much more fragile than the larger ones found in desktops.
DO NOT use a vacuum cleaner or any vacuum related devices when cleaning your computer. Vacuums generate a large amount of static electricity and computer components are extremely sensitive to static activity. and excessive exposure will damage components permanently.
Well there you have it. A clean computer will provide a faster, most stable and the most reliable computing experience. I recommend that depending on how dusty your house or work place is that you clean your system every 3 months to ensure you are always one step ahead of the dust invasion. You may also want to clean the plastics on your system using a good screen cleaner but I will touch more on that latter.
Until Next Time
Kevin White
