Brace yourself; you may be surprised how much gunk is in there

October 23, 2005

Jim Rossman is your Tech Adviser offering advice and tips for computer hardware and programs. Helpful links are included. Jim Rossman is desktop support manager for The Dallas Morning News.

My computer is filthy. It's a laptop, but my desktop computer at work is nasty, too. I want to clean both computers, but I don't want to damage anything. How should I proceed?

D.R., Dallas

Most of us would be shocked if we looked inside our computers and peripherals. It's not pretty.

For desktop computers, most interaction comes between you and your keyboard. Keyboards are often full of hair, dust, crumbs and dead bugs.

Disconnect your keyboard and take it outside. Get a can of compressed air, turn the keyboard on its end and hit it with the air. Keep to one side because stuff is going to fly all over the place.

A good 30- to 60-second session of short bursts over the keys should do it, but keep going until the debris stops falling out.

Then take an alcohol wipe and go over all the keys and the surrounding bezel.

These tips above apply to laptops as well.

Sometimes a drink will spill onto the keyboard of your desktop PC. It won't kill your computer, and you may be able to salvage the keyboard. Unplug the keyboard from the computer and drain as much liquid as you can.

If the liquid is water, you are in luck. If the spill is coffee or a soft drink, clean out as much as you can. You can pry off the keys one at a time and use alcohol on cotton swabs to clean as much sticky stuff off as you can.

Follow that up with a water-moistened cloth and let the keyboard dry for several days. The keyboard should work. If it doesn't, you need a new keyboard.

A spill into a laptop is usually more serious. Remove the power source as fast as possible. Yank the plug and battery to prevent short-circuiting.

If, after draining, cleaning and drying, your laptop is undamaged, consider yourself very lucky.

Most mice these days are optical, meaning there is no mouse ball underneath to collect gunk from the desk surface.

Computer monitors should be cleaned with a soft cloth moistened with water. It's OK to use specialized monitor cleaning wipes.

LCD flat-panel displays and laptop screens should not be cleaned with alcohol. Look for wipes labeled for LCDs or use a soft, water-dampened cloth. Microfiber cloths are great for flat panels.

If your computer tower is on the floor, the fans are probably picking up lots of dust and pet hair. Every six months or so, you should disconnect everything and take the computer outside to blow it out with compressed air. It's better if you can remove the cover to make the job easier.

Don't forget to blow out any crevices such as a floppy drive or CD drive. If your PC has been sitting under your desk for more than a year, it will be quite obvious where the dirt is hiding.