How To: Dust A Computer

DUST

Dust is a potent enemy to the proper ventilation of your computer. Dust is an obvious yet easily ignored threat to your computer. It collects slowly at first, but once enough has settled in the vents of your computer, exponential amounts of this suffocating substance begin to choke the life from the constantly radiating components of your machine.
It may seem like a simple thing, but enough dust can cause a computer to overheat and burn out. If that's not enough motivation for you, imagine: Like you, the computer needs air to survive. Without air, the computer will die.
With this sentiment in mind, review this list of cheap and commonly available materials for cleaning the dust from your computer.

• Air duster (canned air) – This item comes in a small aerosol can with a spray nozzle for directing the flow of the air. The contents of these cans are non-corrosive and will not harm the circuitry of a computer.
• Anti-static cleaning wipes – This item is preferred to a rag that you may find in your home. The material prevents the collection of static electricity, yet another threat to your computer. It may seem like a superfluous item to put on this list but for the sake of safety and good practice, I recommend that you use anti-static cleaning wipes when removing dust from your computer.
• Anti-static vacuum – This item replaces the air duster if it is available. Never use a home vacuum. Most vacuums are not anti-static and all vacuums if not specified, create electrostatic discharge that can damage the hardware.
• ESD (electrostatic discharge) wrist wrap – This item is a wrist wrap that is worn by the user and then clipped to a grounded object. This prevents the flow of electrostatic discharge from you to the computer, instead routing it to the ground. Some may think this a superfluous item, but I always use one when I work on a computer.
• Screw driver – Use a screwdriver that will fit the screws that secure the chassis to the case.

These are all the tools you'll need to clean dust from a computer. When you have assembled all these materials together and are prepared to clean the dust from your computer

Cleaning dust from a computer is easy. The most important thing to remember is to use the right tools. It's easy to grab paper towels and dab at the dust, but for a safe and efficient job well done, use the materials listed above.

• Shut down your computer and unplug all wires from it.
• Move your computer to a comfortable workspace. Lay it on it's side.
• Equip your ESD wrist wrap (if you have one) and connect it to a grounded object.
• Remove the chassis from the case. Given your case design, you may use the screw driver here. Some case designs do not require any tools to open, but are accessible by pressing buttons or sliding tabs.
• Examine the inside of the case and identify all of the most congested areas. If the computer is very dusty, it may be a good idea to also remove any stand-alone components that are plugged into the motherboard so that you will have more room to work and so that you can get at the dust that has collected around these components.
• If you are using an air duster, attach the nozzle and hold the duster 6 inches from the target area and at an angle when dusting. If you are using an anti-static vacuum, hold the hose a short distance from the target area, sweeping back and forth slowly to vacuum all of the dust.
• After air dusting/vacuuming the larger part of the dust from the computer, carefully use the anti-static cleaning wipes to remove the remainder of the dust from the computer. Be careful when using the wipes, there are several components in a computer that can snag the wipes.
• Touch up with the air duster and the anti-static wipes where necessary.
• Re-secure the chassis to the case and hook the computer back up.

A clean computer is a happy computer. Don't expect a huge increase in performance when you power your computer back on, however you can expect that your computer is ventilating at 100% efficiency and that should mean something to you. Remember, without proper ventilation, the computer will overheat, burn out and die. Don't forget to regularly clean the dust from your computer.