How to Safely Clean Your Laptop and Other Gadgets

Like everything else in your home (or pockets), gadgets tend to get dirty. An unnaturally large number of people are not too particular about cleaning their gadgets and that is the reason we end up with layers of dust on our high-end speakers and keyboards caked with dirt.

Apart from the obvious hygiene reasons, it is important to clean your gadgets to ensure that their performance doesn't suffer and so that they don't die on you a lot sooner. Yes, well-maintained gadgets do tend to last longer than their ill cared for counterparts. Due to the complex electronics involved, cleaning gadgets isn't as simple a task as mopping the floor. You need to handle components with care and ensure that you don't damage them while trying to do a basic clean-up. That is just what we will cover in this guide. Read on to find out how to safely clean your gadgets.

What you'll need
While different gadgets need different cleaning materials, here's a brief list of the items you will need during clean-up drive:

1. Microfibre lint-free cloth: This is the cloth that's used to clean eyeglasses. It's cheap and widely available. A must for cleaning displays.

2. Dust blower: This is a portable dust blower that you operate with your hand. Helps remove dust from nooks and crannies you can't reach easily. Available in electronics stores for as low as Rs. 50.

3. Compressed air: A slightly more expensive alternative to the dust blower.

4. Rubbing alcohol: It's not a good idea to use water to clean gadgets. Rubbing alcohol is a much safer choice.

5. Flathead screwdriver: You'll need it when cleaning keyboards.

6. Lukewarm water: Works when you're cleaning plastic components such as the keys in your keyboard. Not to be used with electronic components.

7. Toothpicks: Very useful for removing accumulated lint from charging ports. Be careful not to break them though!

Displays:
Cleaning a display is quite simple, as long as you take the following precautions.

1. Avoid wiping screens with rough cloths such as paper towels and even shirts. This might leave scratch marks on the display, remove anti-fingerprint coatings on touchscreens, or even permanently damage parts of the screen.

2. If you're using water to wipe the screen, do not apply it on the screen. Apply it on the microfibre cloth and then wipe the screen.

3. We don't recommend any chemicals to clean the display. A little bit of lukewarm water on a microfibre cloth should do the trick if a dry cloth isn't helping.

4. Switch off the display (or the laptop, if you are cleaning a laptop display before cleaning.

Desktop components:
If you just bought yourself a shiny new desktop, you don't have to worry about cleaning it. But dusty as most Indian cities are, you might want to keep checking the cabinet at least once in six months to make sure that dust isn't accumulating inside it. In this case, dust often gets caught in the fans on the CPU or GPU, or the vents in the cabinet. This leads to increased heat in the cabinet and that leads to decreasing performance and shortened lifespan of the components. Here's how to clean these components.

1. Switch off the computer.

2. The most important step is to ground yourself. If you don't an electrostatic discharge when you touch the computer (or any component) could damage it. To avoid this, make sure that your hand is in contact with metal while you're cleaning the PC. Detailed steps are available.

3. If you bought a branded PC, remember that opening a cabinet usually voids warranties, so be advised.

4. Use the dust blower to remove any dust from various components. Wherever there are fans or grilles, there's bound to be a lot of dust. You should remove all of the dust. You can use a light brush too, but nothing with hard bristles. Paintbrushes and shaving brushes are ideal