Be honest, and ask yourself when was the last time you cleaned your PC, or even better have you ever cleaned it?
Many people buy a computer and they are not aware that they need to clean it every once in a while. Like cleaning your system files to make your PC faster, you should do it physically too. No matter if you’re using your PC or not, dust will always find a way to get into it, and believe me it can do serious damage to your computer.
What Can Happen If You Don’t Clean Your PC?
Well, nobody likes cleaning but if you want to have a healthy computer you need to put in a little effort. Dust, hair, and other dirtiness can cause big problems to your machine. We are talking about problems like :
- Clogging heatsinks and fans which will lead to overheating. This will reduce the performance of your PC and its lifespan.
- Components become loose and lose connection.
- The thermal paste on the CPU begins to break and lose its effect.
- And many other problems.
So don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty for the good of your machine.
How Often Should You Clean Your PC?
If we take a look at other things you need to clean almost every day, cleaning your PC should be a “piece of cake.”
For a healthy system, you should clean your PC every three to six months. But if you have a pet or you live in a dusty environment you should do it more often. This should become your routine.
Best Way To Clean Your PC
So what would be the best way to clean it?
If you maintain your PC regularly, light dusting should be enough. So I recommend you to get a product like this cleaning duster spay or if you looking product for long-term use then an electric air duster is a better choice for you. But if you haven’t cleaned your PC in a long time you should follow these instructions down below.
Cleaning Guide
*Little note – before you start cleaning, make sure that you turn off the electric power from the PC for your safety and the safety of your computer.
Ok, let’s get to the point and start with the case.
1. STEP
Remove all the dust filters (if you have them), unplug all the cables, and wipe them.
2. STEP
Gently open your case and start cleaning your PC from the inside. Just use microfiber or any other soft cloth. Please be careful because you don’t want to damage any of your inside parts, especially your motherboard. Use a vacuum cleaner for larger dust accumulation.
3. STEP
After you wiped the dust from the internal parts and your case, you want to clean the dirt from the heatsinks of the CPU cooler and from the GPU. For this step, you should use some air dusters which we mentioned above, for blowing the dust from places that are very difficult to reach.
4. STEP
Your next move should be cleaning the fans. You can do it with a toothbrush and a little bit of alcohol. Just dip your toothbrush in alcohol and gently scrub the dust off of the fan blades. *This method is for those who didn’t clean it for a very long time. In most cases, a good wipe should be enough.
5. STEP (Deep cleaning)
Self-Grounding
For deep cleaning, you need to remove some of the components, but make sure that you are properly grounded (discharge static electricity) before you touch any of the internal parts of your PC. You can get this anti-static wrist band or you can try other methods like touching metal on your kitchen sink or some screw on a wall.
If you choose to go with this second method you need to be careful after grounding yourself.
Do not drag your feet on the floor and swing your arms too much while you are going back to the computer. Because when clothes start rubbing, they can build up a charge which can be very dangerous for your motherboard and other internal parts.
After you did all the necessary things for proper handling, you can start removing the parts.
Removing CPU cooler
To remove the graphic card you just need to remove all the screws that secure it to the case, unplug the cables and gently pull it out of the case.
Removing the CPU cooler can be a bit harder than removing other parts and this step is not recommended to do every time when you’re going to clean your PC, because you can damage the CPU if you don’t do it properly.
To remove the CPU cooler you need to :
- Unplug the CPU fan connector.
2. Turn the push pins 90 degrees to the left to release them.
3. Pull up on all 4 push pins
4. Gently, with little force remove the CPU cooler (you may feel the resistance until the thermal paste is released)
You can see how to remove your CPU cooler in this guide here.
Removing thermal paste from the CPU and CPU cooler
Now you need to remove the old thermal paste from the CPU and from the CPU cooler. For this action, you’ll want to take some Isopropyl alcohol (99%) and put it on a microfiber towel, or a regular household paper towel, and rub away all the thermal paste.
However, you could also use 70% alcohol, but it won’t be as effective as IPA (99%).
After you did all of this, you can apply the new thermal paste and install the CPU cooler back on its spot.
Cleaning case from outside
Last but not least, clean your PC case on the outside. You can use a slightly wet towel and wipe away the dirt.
At this stage, you finished cleaning your case which requires 70% of the total cleaning time, which means you are almost done.
How To Clean A Monitor?
Cleaning your screen is very simple and you can’t make a mistake with it. You just need to unplug the power cable and disconnect it from the computer. This will prevent any possible damage. Then you want to use microfiber or another soft cloth, and gently wipe the dust off the screen.
For removing stains from your screen, you can dip your cloth into the water, squeeze it out, then wipe the stains off the screen. Don’t forget to be gentle!
How To Clean Keyboard?
The last thing you left is to clean your keyboard.
You have 2 options depend if you have a mechanical or a membrane keyboard.
If you own a mechanical one then you can pull out each key one by one and clean it with a wet cloth. After you pull out every key, wipe the whole keyboard.
Note: take a picture with your phone of your keyboard before you start cleaning so you don’t mess up your key order even better while you’re pulling out the keys, put them up in the right order on the side, so you know where each key goes.
But if you own a membrane keyboard easiest way to clean it is just to turn around the keyboard face down and shake it so all dirtiness between keys can fail out, after that just wipe the keyboard and you are ready to go.
At this point, you successfully cleaned your PC and you enabled a longer lifespan and better performance.
It’s not too hard and it doesn’t take a lot of work, just a little bit of will. That’s all!
