How to Clean a Computer's Insides Safely

Video Transcript

"You know, having a lot of dust on your computer, especially the CPU, the processor, is a lot like you trying to run a marathon, wearing a sweater. It causes a lot of strain on the machine. My name is James, computer hardware training coordinator for InterConnection, and I can show you how to clean, your computer. The first step, you want to open the side of the computer. All computers open a little differently. Just, take your time. You should have it looking somewhat like this. Now, the primary areas you want to clean here, is your processor, all these heat syncs. Cause, A, they "ju", this is where all the heat is, and B, these things tend to hold dust. Your graphics card, if you're computers equipped with one, and just the general area. Also, you have any areas where you can spray air in, that dust can get stuck in, such as inside your power supply, through the fan ducts, you want to do a little dust off in there too. So, now at home, you guys are probably using a can of dust off. You can buy this at any office store, electronic store. It's rather inexpensive, just a little can of compressed air with a little trigger. One thing I recommend with these, don't hold them at any angles or upside down, cause that liquid, is inside, can come out. Comes out very cold, it can actually hurt you, or your machine. For our purposes, we're going to be using a compressor gun, hooked to a big compressor. Now, I like to start from the top and work my way down. First, I'm going to spray inside the power supply, clean the top, fan on the bottom, that you might not be able to see. Now, I'm going to clean my processor. One thing I like to do, cause I have a fan right there, is I put my finger right here, so it doesn't start spinning. It allows the most amount of air in as possible. As you can see, we're already get some dust out. Now, we're going to over to, just the general same "height" of the computer that we've been spraying. Now, as far as the large areas on the computer, the very floor of the computer, and the outside of the computer, you can clean that like you would any other household appliance. Just rub it with a nice, slightly wet cloth. Clean all that goo off. If you really want to, you can even wax it like your car. My name's James, computer hardware training coordinator for InterConnection. I just showed you how to clean, your computer."