A task most people don’t think about very often is cleaning the inside of their computers. Computers are amazing dust collectors and very nice, warm homes to a variety of creatures. While I’ve never seen it personally, I have heard of people finding mice in their computers; I have seen spiders and all manner of insects.

A major cleaning job should be done once a year or every couple of years at least. However, in between those majors cleanings, you can do some basic cleaning yourself. This will help insure that your computer doesn’t overheat. You can freeze a computer without any major lasting damage, but an overheated computer significantly reduces the lifespan of your computer.

Turn your computer off, get your vacuum and the crevice tool for your vacuum and a screwdriver, (usually a Phillips head ~ the cross) Pull out the tower, being careful not to unplug anything. If you can’t get your tower completely out of it’s home without unplugging something, make sure you write down or better yet, take a digital picture of the back, so you can plug everything back where it belongs.

Looking at your computer you want to take off the left panel, (HP, Dell, Gateway etc you’ll need to find your manual with the opening instructions as those computers have some very imaginative cases). Make sure the computer power is still plugged in.

Turn on your vacuum, connect the crevice tool, and with one hand on the place where the power cord connects (power supply) to the computer, proceed to gently vacuum the inside of your computer. Pay attention to the fans, you might even make the fans spin with the vacuum, this is ok. Don’t touch anything with the crevice tool, just skim over things. Remember, you aren’t trying to do a professional job here, you just want to get the dust bunnies, pet hair, human hair etc.

The reason you want to hold onto the power cord is to keep yourself grounded, this will keep you from accidentally “zapping” your computer. People who work around computers a lot, usually work on grounding mats or have a grounding wrist strap. If I’ve done any work on the inside of your computer, it’s the blue wire running from my wrist to your computer.

Remove the crevice tool and turn off the vacuum, let go of the power supply. Make sure you’re happy with the job, then replace the panel or close the case. Replace any plugs you disconnected and replace the tower.

You won’t see any difference in the speed or performance of your computer, but doing this routine maintenance can extend the life of your computer significantly.

How often you perform this maintenance depends on the environment around the computer. If there is a lot of dust, pets etc then you’ll want to do it more frequently then if the environment is pristine. Even in a pristine environment your computer will collect dust. Think white pants and black hair etc, computers are a magnet for dust.

The difference between this and a professional job? A computer technician will also replace fans, some computers have as few as two fans, some have more. I know someone who had so many fans they had to install a separate water-cooled system for their computer. Fans run anywhere from $7 to over $100. Most computers have two fans around the $20 mark. This does not include the fan on the power supply.

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