Well, no guarantees, but what has worked for me is this:
1. Power down, and unplug everything.
2. open the case and use the vacuum nozzle to clean dirt off the metal
surfaces (bottom of the case, air inlet holes/louvers, vent slots on power
supply, etc). Use care not to touch any of the circuit board surfaces with
the nozzle.
3. Use compressed air (I use dry, filtered air from an air compressor and a
small pencil nozzle) to blow dirt from all the nooks and crannies. Pay
special attention to the processor heat sink and the power supply. I use a
pencil to keep fans from spinning, so the air stream can reach the heat sink
fins. Again, don't touch the board electronics, but keep the air nozzle back
a bit. Also, don't forget the area around the drives. Modern hard drives run
very warm, and fuzz and lint tend to block airflow around them.
4. I always keep one hand on the steel part of the chassis to try to avoid
static buildup.
Thing to remember is that you're not looking for a white glove cleaning job.
Just trying to encourage air flow and heat exchange so components don't
overheat.
I've found that many office computers are set on the floor beside the desk.
By getting them up off the floor, even just setting them on a 6" high wooden
box, the amount of dirt sucked into the machine is reduced considerably.
I recommend to my service customers that business machines be cleaned 4
times per year, home machines 2 times per year. More or less if the
environment is exceptionally dirty or very clean, based on experience.
>>>
>>> I recently bought a Kensington Desktop Vacuum to use on my
>>> desktop computing
>>> equipment. The instructions that came with it only talk about proper
>>> maintenance of the vacuum and not much about how I can safely
>>> use it with my
>>> computer equipment or WHICH equipment.
>>>
>>> I also bought a can of Memorex Air Duster and again, no
>>> instructions on what
>>> equipment I can safely clean with it or how.
>>>
>>> I look inside my computer and see that the insides really have
>>> a buildup of
>>> dust, but I don't want to do anything harmful. Any
>>> direction on using
>>> either of these two products would be greatly appreciated or
>>> any tips of caution.
>>> I've had computers for years, but have never attempted to
>>> clean one, more
>>> than just dusting with a soft cloth on the outside.
>>>
>>> Thank you in advance for any info that may be provided.
>>>
>>> Donna Parsons
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