Spring is finally sprunging and one of these days the grass might actually start to riz. That means it's time to start thinking about renewal – whether via the planting of seeds, hosing of windows, or even airing out the house from its winter button-up.
It may also be time to start looking at some spring cleaning for your home technology, too. You don't want to hose this stuff down, of course, but some cleaning and preventive maintenance for your stuff could definitely be in order.
To that end (and undoubtedly to raise some awareness about its products), Crucial technologies, which markets a variety of memory-related products from RAM to USB thumb drives, has come up with some tips for sprucing up your computer – some of which is pretty handy advice for getting the best out of your best technological friend.
And it's more than just wiping down the case, though that's a good place to start. And remember, I said "wiping down," not "hosing down!"
Crucial's first bit of advice before embarking on such a cleanup is to remove any disks you may have in disk drives – optical or (remember these?) floppy – to prevent the media from being damaged. While CD's, DVD's and Blu-rays have been marketed for years as being virtually indestructible, I can tell you from experience that the only person who should believe that is the person who never has enough coasters lying around the house.
Anyway, the second bit of advice – and this is, er, crucial – is to shut down the computer before proceeding any further. This should be obvious, but probably isn't. Not only will it help prevent any horrid electrical problems, it'll help ensure you don't accidentally confuse the computer with keyboard and/or mouse commands. Crucial recommends you unplug the computer as well, and I can't fault that advice, Murphy's Law being what it is.
Once you've unplugged it, press the "Power" button (not the "reset" one) to discharge the power, then pick up the box and move it to somewhere your significant other won't have a fit if flying dust abounds – preferably someplace smooth like a workbench or table, and one that isn't prone to static (you'll get that later from the significant other when you unleash dust all over the place).
Avoid places like carpet or fabric, which can promote static.
Take a can of compressed air, which is available at all kinds of electronics outlets, and use it to blow out the keyboard, the connections on the rear of the computer's case, and even places where dust likes to gather such as the edges of your monitor(s).
That's the easy stuff. Now the real work begins. Crucial advises that you take a mild soap/water or ammonia solution and wipe down the surfaces of the computer case, keyboard, mouse, and the rear panel of your monitor. Don't spray the stuff directly on the electronics; put it onto a lint-free cloth instead. The cloth can be damp, but not soaking wet!
You might also want to consider something like a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser or Cyber Clean for getting rid of keyboard gunk, but don't use them on the monitor screen surface itself.
Crucial says you should wipe down the monitor with "display-friendly glass cleaner" and that's true, but if you have a cloth like the Toddy you can use it as well, without cleaner. It depends on whether your monitor is more dusty or "finger printy" than stickily gross – and of course upon whether or not you have a Toddy.
I recommend the Toddy highly. I have two, a small one that's great for my smart phone and glasses, and a larger one I use on my iPad (about 20 times a day!), computer monitors and flat screen TVs.
Now we get to the guts of the issue…
Open up the computer's case. Many can be opened merely by sliding off the side panel, perhaps after removing a few screws. It should be pretty obvious, but if you aren't sure, check the instructions in your computer's owner's manual.
You kept it, didn't you?
Take that can of compressed air again, and use it to blow all the grunge out the fans and other moving parts before working it over the whole interior of the case. Be careful not to dislodge anything! Crucial reminds you that the idea is to remove the dust, not just blow it around and have it land back inside. Turning the case on its side should help with this. Ideally, you could have a little vacuum handy to suck up all the stuff you dislodge before it settles again, which you can be sure it'll do if you let it.
If it were me, I'd also make sure to blow the compressed air at the memory slots, to hopefully help keep the connections clean and firm. And while you're at it, Crucial reminds (coincidentally, I'm sure, since they sell memory), you might want to see if there's any space left to upgrade your RAM.
You can never have too much RAM. I recently upgraded my PC, doubling its RAM, and it was like getting a faster processor.
Think of RAM as your "virtual desktop," or "virtual elbow room," in that the more space you have to pile stuff, the better. So more RAM means you can have more things open at once without it slowing down your system as much.
This is where Crucial turns its advice into a pitch, and you just knew it was coming, didn't you? They offer the "
Crucial System Scanner" to help you find out which "100 per cent guaranteed compatible modules will compliment your sparking clean computer."
I downloaded and ran the scanner (there are instructions at the abovementioned link), which opens in a Browser window and pores over your PC. It couldn't identify my system (probably because I built it myself), but it did gauge my motherboard, RAM, CPU and the like, and noted helpfully that I still have two RAM slots available. And they sell RAM! Go figure!
Still, it can still be a helpful guide for finding out what's in your PC's guts.
Crucial offers more tips and tricks on
their YouTube channel at.
Or you can just keep your system gross and disgusting. I tend to do that, and then am grossed out completely when I have to open it up for whatever reason. The last time was when I added the extra RAM, which gave me a chance to use some of these tips to keep my system sparkling.
Unfortunately, where I live (just downwind of a major source of dust) a good cleaning lasts about half an hour...
Fortunately, other than it being a bit tedious, cleaning your computer's a comparatively easy task.
Copyright 2011 Jim Bray
TechnoFile.com
