Clean Your Computer—the Right Way

A dirty computer can lead to everything from decreased performance to component failures—but be careful about how you clean it

by Craig Anderton

Dust, dirt, and hair aren’t good for computers—especially if the dust lodges between the fins of heat sinks, thus reducing their ability to dissipate heat. Here’s the right way to clean a computer.

1. If possible, keep your computer off the floor and away from doors and windows. If less dust gets in, there’s less dust to remove.

2. Opening up a computer entails risks. Of course it should be unplugged, but even then, if you drop something into it by mistake or clean it improperly, your wonderful productivity tool can become a doorstop. So—proceed at your own risk.

3. Never use a vacuum cleaner. All but special vacuum cleaners designed for cleaning electronics can create static charges capable of destroying components.

4. Go to a local office supply store, and buy a can of compressed air designed specifically for cleaning electronic gear. Take the computer outside, and spray air into it from a reasonable distance—don’t blast the components—and do so in short bursts. Avoid directing the spray toward hard drives and optical drives.

5. Fans and heat sinks tend to accumulate the most amount of dust. Short bursts on heat sinks from several inches away will do the job, but for fans, hold the fan stationary as you spray it to make sure it doesn’t spin faster than the rated number of RPMs.

6. Bring the computer back inside, but before reassembling it—and only if you’re confident in your maintenance skills—partially remove any connectors and plug them back into to wipe the contacts. You don’t have to take components all the way out; for example, you can push on the little arms at the side of RAM chips to raise the RAM 1/16th of an inch or so up, then push back down again. Do the same with cards and power supply connectors.

Craig Anderton is Executive Editor of Electronic Musician magazine. He has played on, mixed, or produced over 20 major label releases (as well as mastered over a hundred tracks for various musicians), and written over a thousand articles for magazines like Guitar Player, Keyboard, Sound on Sound (UK), and Sound + Recording (Germany). He has also lectured on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and three languages.