Cleaning Help

[Frontier164]

Hello Linus Tech Tips! This weekend I'm planning on cleaning my PC/keyboard/monitor (EVERYTHING!) and I have a few questions.

 

1: I have compressed air, I know I should shoot the dust off, but then what? Wouldn't it just fall to the bottom of the case? If so what can I do to prevent this?

 

2: What's the best thing to clean the outside of a corsair 550D?

 

3: Tips for cleaning a mechanical keyboard?

 

4: What's the best thing to use to clean a monitor (to get off fingerpribts, etc)

 

5: Any safety procedures I should be aware of?

 

 

Thanks!
 

[Lord Pantaloons]

disassemble pc, clean each part, reassemble.

 

Cleaning 550D

 

Metal: Wipe with rubbing alcohol and cloth/paper towel

Plastic: Wipe with damp cloth(water only) wait till it's 100% dry. Using any cleaning fluids of rubbing alcohol can fade the plastic, I know as I've done this and the top panel of my case has faded slightly.

[BaconComputing]

To clean peripherals I would recommend just using a microfiber cloth and wiping it down. Works fine for me. As for your keyboard you could possibly get a cotton swab and swab in between the keys, however it may not work with mechanical keyboards. I've never had experience with one myself. 

[AshWntr]

Garden hose! . But seriously, you could get a vacuum and spray the various particles towards its direction. I'm probably not the best one to reply since I just hold things out the window and shake them a bit

[LePawel]

Vacuum cleaner tip next to the area you're dusting off (at a fair distance, don't touch the components) in an open case, on the side (all cables out) in the middle of the room with open windows so you don't choke on the dust. You can take out the stuff that's easy to plug back in like extension cards.

For the keyboard, just google your keyboard top view, take all buttons out, clean the shi!t out of it and re-assmeble. My G15 went through few cleaning procedures like this and all I can say is be careful with long/large keys (I've snapped one of the plastic hinges on one of the shift keys, now it won't go down unless you press the 'working hinge').

To clean a monitor, turn it off, plugs out, let it sit for a few minutes, and clean it like a fragile piece of glass. Wet (not soaked) microfiber on one end, dry on the other. Wait for everything to evaporate + another few minutes, power back on. You can kill pixels otherwise.

Safety? And take time. Last thing you want is for a whole can of air or a vacuum cleaner tube to fall on some PCB like Thor's hammer. I managed to kill one of my RAM channels by not being careful.

[W-L]

Linus did a video on it  , just be sure to keep compressed air can upright, hold fans to prevent them from over-spinning when firing compressed air and use microfibre on the hard surfaces to wipe things off:

[Rorgash]

a mech keyboard is super easy to clean, you just pull out all the keys using the tool that came with it.