Spring Cleaning!

Updated your antivirus and antispyware software lately? It's time again. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to run a defrag on the hard drive as well also. Have you wiped the monitor and keyboard clean too?
Did you know the average computer keyboard is 100 times dirtier than a toliet? AGH! Time to clean that thing up. But how often should I do this?

Inside of a typical home pc.

So, here is a rough idea of how often to clean your computer.

* User who does not smoke and has no pets - Clean the computer every five months.
* User who does not smoke and has pets - Clean the computer every four months.
* User who smokes but has no pets - Clean the computer every three months.
* User who smokes and has pets - Clean the computer every two months.
* Business with clean office environment - Clean the computers every five months.
* Business with clean office environment; however, multiple users use each computer - Clean the computer every three months.
* Business that is a factory environment or allows smoking - Clean the computer every two months.
* School computers with young adult users - Clean the computer every three months.
* School computers with pre-teen users - Clean the computer every month. In some cases, this may need to be weekly or daily.”


To clean computer component by component follow next tips:

1. First - put power off – turn the cable from the outlet for safety reasons.

2. Monitor can be cleaned with moist (not wet), soft rag or you can buy a tool for cleaning the monitor (cleaner) and clean it with soft duster (do not add the tool for cleaning directly on the monitor).

3. The keypad is very hard to clean because there are plenty of places where dirt can be located. First, turn it upside down and shake it. After that blow up the dust between the keys with hair dryer (put it in the cold) or compressed air in cans (cost- $5 - $10). If you use a compressor be careful because the pressure is very large and can damage the keyboard. At the end - with moisten rag with alcohol pass between the keys. If you have a laptop be very careful, or you will break a key off.

4. Clean the mouse - the upper and lower sides clean with paper or cloth moisten with alcohol.

5. Clean the computer case in the yard or balcony because it has a larger quantity of dust. Disconnect all cables from the case. With screwdriver unscrew the screws and open the case (Only if you know what you are doing!). First (don’t forget) blow out the power supply with compressed air in cans, or some electric dust cleaner. Use the brush used for housing to clean non electronic parts of the case (valves on processor and graphic card, passive refrigerators etc.). Be aware – do not touch electronic components. If your computer case has a lot of dust blow it with compressor or absorb it with electronic dust cleaner.

More tips: Clean the computer case every 3-6 months, depending on where your computer is located. If your computer is on floor you'll need to clean more often than the one that is placed on a higher position (ex. on the table). To preserve keyboard clean, do not eat and drink on it and don’t work with dusty and dirty hands. Clean the keyboard as often as possible because when dirt once goes between the keys, you will not be able to remove the dust without a full segmentation.

The average life of a pc is 3-5 years. Doing this, you can extend the life of the computer well beyond that.