How do you clean your laptop?

Question

I work in the countryside gathering requirements, so my laptop often gets a lot of dust, and I cannot dedicate too much time for cleaning it, nor opening it.

I'd like to hear what solutions you use for cleaning your laptop, especially the screen and keyboard. I prefer home-made solution before special products, that I cannot buy at work.

Answer 1

Well I'm no expert on laptop cleaning, but I will share with you my experiences and practices.

I used to have an older HP notebook that I used to control my 8" telescope. I also used it for geocaching and GPS with logbook when I went offroading in my Jeep. So it got pretty dirty and banged up. After every excursion, I would use an air can to blow out any particles in the keyboard and the ports. I would also use a screen cleaner to remove the dust and dirt from the laptop's screen. Then I would use an alcohol wipe on the keyboard and trackpad. After particular dirty runs, I'd let gravity draw out particles from the keyboard. These simple techniques kept the HP going for quite some time. It finally died when I didn't secure it in its mount in my Jeep and it toppled out on a rock climb.

I replaced it with a used Panasonic Toughbook last year and that thing is practically impervious to dust, dirt, and my carelessness.

Your laptop will likely fail sooner than a non-ruggedized one will because of the harsher conditions, but if you clean it regularly it should be ok.

Answer 2

an air can works great. if you have a jeweller's screwdriver you can take the keyboard out to really get the crud out.

Answer 3

A vacuum cleaner and damp cloth on the keyboard works well.

Answer 4

If it's plain old dust, a damp cloth will do for most of the system. If it's the screen, many manufacturers suggest a 50/50 mix of isopropyl alcohol and water, and a soft cloth.

If it's between the keys or tough stuff, I recommend cyberclean (warning, obnoxious Flash-filled site) - a kind of gunk that dirt sticks to, very reusable (I've cleaned some pretty nasty stuff with it), and still going strong after use on 3-4 laptops.