Quick and Easy Computer Maintenance Tips - Hardware Maintenance
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Dust and pests are your first priority enemies. Dusting is not overrated. Dust can degrade your computer's lifespan and cause numerous issues in no time. It can fill your fans, optical drives and other components. All in all, dust hurts your system's overall airflow and dramatically lowers your cooling performance. This can cause overheating; it can also destroy some of your most important devices.
It is worth keeping in mind that as the deposited amount of dust inside your system increases, the likelihood of pests, insects, mites or fungi dramatically increases. Needless to say, they will do more harm than good. So it's best to prevent them from getting a foothold!
In order to prevent the above problems, it is a great habit to keep the area near your computer tidy too. Do not eat and/or drink at your desk if possible. Clean your keyboard on a regular basis, especially if you spill juice, coffee, beer, soda, etc. Use a cotton swab with rubbing alcohol to clean the keys and such.
Now, let's talk about pets and smoking. Both of these require us to tighten our schedule of cleaning our computers. Typically, a computer that is located in a room where nobody smokes and no pets are allowed needs to receive check-up maintenance every four to five months. If it's in an environment with either pets or smoke then maintenance needs to be performed at least every three months. If both are present, then every two months is preferable.
As a clarification before we move on: tobacco can damage internal circuits.
Always ground yourself before fiddling in the inside of your case. This is to prevent ESD (electrostatic discharge) by any means. Wear anti-static wristbands if possible, if not then just ground yourself to the metallic part of your case. Obviously, we shouldn't forget about unplugging the power cords to be safe...
Now that you understand the crucial importance of computer maintenance, you are ready to clean your computer. Use compressed air to blow the dust away but be sure not to blow it directly into your optical drives and such. Blow the dust out of the box. It's not helpful if you just move the dust around and it remains inside your case.
Focus especially on coolers and fans. You might use a mini vacuum cleaner if you have one. If not, then just blow the compressed air directly on the fans; as a result, you will spread the dust, but then make sure that you blow out every particle.
Before you're done, do not forget to check for possible future issues. Make sure that the cables and wires are firmly connected, that HDDs and optical drivers are still stably attached and so forth. Spend a few minutes looking for trouble. This is one of the best practices that you can do to prevent hardware-related issues.
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