How Frequently Should I Clear Dust from Laptops and Desktops?

Computers reduce temperature by using several fans that allow air to circulate through the case. Unfortunately, dust and other small particles commonly ride that moving air and end up inside your pc. Over time, this will put extra strain on your fans. They will ultimately stop working if this dust is not cleared out. Once your fans break down, you will need to obtain new ones or your parts will overheat. Overheating pieces of hardware will stop working very quickly. Many people never figure out that their fans are not working until a piece of hardware dies.

However, there are just a small number of safe ways to clean dust from your pc. The devices that clean dust can also hurt pc parts. Even the safest methods should be used sparingly. There must be a balance between these two concerns.

The simplest tool for cleaning dust is a can of compressed air. When you buy canned air, you want to ensure that the specific product is safe for use on computer parts. Since canned air is pretty inexpensive, price shouldn’t be an hurdle in this pursuit.

If you are dealing with a desktop system, you will need to open the case in order to clean the dust from your pc. When you begin spraying the canned air inside your case, you could see a white foam on the surface. This is liquid butane being forced out by the compressed air (usually because you are holding the can sideways) and it evaporates in very little time. While this does no damage to your computer, you may want to attempt to keep the can perfectly straight as you are spraying so that it lasts longer. You could want to keep the fans from moving while you’re cleaning by placing a safe object alongside the fan blade. This is a divisive step; many people dust off their fans without doing this. Use your own discretion. You should make sure to blow the dust off of all of the fans in your pc. There might be several case fans. You also may have another fan on the heat sink of your CPU. If you have a high performance graphics card, it might have a fan as well. Your power supply fan is a particularly important one to clean; a dusty power supply fan can literally catch on fire.

You will also want to clean dust on all of the other parts inside your pc. Once you have done this, you could note an improvement in the operating temperature of your pc. If so, you have probably waited too long to clean out your system.

If you are dealing with a laptop, this will be a little more complex. You can wipe off the exterior very easily. However, the inside of the laptop will get dirty too. You can access the fan intake and exhaust with the small straw packaged with most canned air items. For most people, this will do the trick. You might need to take your laptop apart once in a while to dust off the rest of the inside area. This is an advanced step. If you don’t know how to open up your laptop safely, you should probably not experiment with this.

You shouldn’t obsessively clean dust from your pc, though. Cleaning too frequently might hurt your fans or other parts. However, you should try to do it every few months. This will add years to the lifespan of your computer parts.

Geek Choice knows that a dust-free pc will survive quite a bit longer. As a nationwide computer service and repair company, Geek Choice is devoted to helping everyone learn good system maintenance habits. Geek Choice provides on-site expertise for any computer repair crisis. If your fans are not properly cooling your pc, contact us at 1-800-GEEK HELP (433-5435).

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