Does your computer get the TLC it deserves?

[adam.tropics]

So I am just off to get a drive cleaning disc in the off chance that my DVD drive isn't totally knackered (i/o errors in Linux or xp and will no longer read at all), but realistically, I am pretty sure it is so long overdue that it will be a replacement issue. This is down to me, since, being a builder, coming home from work, and straight to the computer, must, if the rest of my room is a guage (!), cause pretty bad dust issues in my laptop! So I squarely take all the blame for this.

Just curious though, with the exception of upgrades, do people tend to give their computers any maintainence, or have we arrived more or less completely at the age of disposable parts and computers?

[Demio]

I regularly clean up my laptop with a humid cloth. I also from time to time open my PC box and clean up the dust with compressed air.

[beercz]

I regularly look after my pcs too. Clean them and regulary maintain them.

I also look after the data that is on them, backup very regularly, patch and update the software.

The data is by far the most important part of all my computers, I look after that.

[etomic13]

I open my computer often so it always stays clean.I take very good care of my shuttle box though..

[adam.tropics]

Yeah ok, you're all putting me to shame here! Desktops I always looked after, I admit, and data, yes, but laptops....somehow they tend to get neglected until they die a very overheated death! I should be more careful too, since I already voided my warranty by not having just xp on it!

[Engnome]

Well I clean the screens when they get dirty but I'm not gonna open my laptops just to clean them. One of them is hands off as it is the schools and they'd kill me if I would open it. Having linux on it is bad enough.

I should be more careful too, since I already voided my warranty by not having just xp on it!

How can you void your warranty by having Linux on it? Besides all you have to do is format the drive and they will never be able to prove it.

[adam.tropics]

Well, they won't do repairs at all unless the drive is formatted as purchased, and since not cleaning etc has screwed the dvd drive, reinstalling is a pain, not to mention painful experience. No drama. Warranty about over anyway. Still, I do wish I'd been a tad more careful. Warning to all builders..If you do much plastering.....Shower first, Online second!!!

[deanlinkous]

With my laptop I usually use compressed air and a vacuum cleaner fairly often and I have taken it apart and cleaned everything once or twice in the past year.

My desktops I use the extra drive slots and place filter material on one of them along with the bottom air slot which also gets filter material then I close up everything else. Inside stays clean as a whistle and I just occasionally vacuum the filter material and I can see when it starts getting clogged.

(yes I am a clean freak)

[adam.tropics]

With my laptop I usually use compressed air and a vacuum cleaner fairly often and I have taken it apart and cleaned everything once or twice in the past year.

My desktops I use the extra drive slots and place filter material on one of them along with the bottom air slot which also gets filter material then I close up everything else. Inside stays clean as a whistle and I just occasionally vacuum the filter material and I can see when it starts getting clogged.

(yes I am a clean freak)

Ok, so I have built a lot of desktops, and normally have no issues dismantling stuff etc etc, but would you really recommended that with a laptop....somehow, that idea is a bit disturbing!

[deanlinkous]

recommend compressed air and vacuum - maybe (carefully)
taking it apart probably not unless your laptop is like my inspiron and only needs one strip popped off and lift the keyboard and everything is right that needs to be cleaned.
Sorry I should clarify, I pop it apart and clean the fan and heatsink.

[maniacmusician]

the only problem is not losing any screws and remembering where they all go. I had to do this recently lol, and it's not as easy as it sounds.

[viper]

the only problem is not losing any screws and remembering where they all go. I had to do this recently lol, and it's not as easy as it sounds.

The amount of times i have screws n stuff left over is nuts!!!!!!!

[djsroknrol]

I give the compy's in the house a good cleanup every other month, paying special attention to the fans and CPU heatsinks...they all get vac treatment and while they're open, I check all connections.

Dust is a big issue here in the Mohave desert, and I've seen it gunk up a few friend's rigs....

[Titus A Duxass]

Never touch them until they go wrong.

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Maintenance can actually induce more failures than would normally be expected.

[adam.tropics]

Never touch them until they go wrong.

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Maintenance can actually induce more failures than would normally be expected.

This is fair enough, and like I said, with laptops, I suck. But having maintained many desktops, especially since moving to the top end of Australia from the Uk, even just a general clean up can be frightening. The most common discovery up here, besides the truly terrifying amount of dust, is bug infested, and I mean infested machines. It's quite a sight!

[deanlinkous]

Well I have always cleaned my systems often especially before I came up with my filter thingys. I still have my 200mhz system, my 450mhz system, my thinkpad 600 and my newer systems, as well as my xbox which was bought the first year they came out so I think I am doing OK!

Your experience may be different than mine but I cannot see waiting until you have problems especially when a computer in a smokers house that has carpet and pets can look like this in only a little over a year.
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/2438/before1vs3.jpg

[adam.tropics]

Well I have always cleaned my systems often especially before I came up with my filter thingys. I still have my 200mhz system, my 450mhz system, my thinkpad 600 and my newer systems, as well as my xbox which was bought the first year they came out so I think I am doing OK!

Your experience may be different than mine but I cannot see waiting until you have problems especially when a computer in a smokers house that has carpet and pets can look like this in only a little over a year.
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/2438/before1vs3.jpg

Man alive, that's nothing! Anyway, about your filters...no heat issues?

[deanlinkous]

Nope. All I do is take one of the spacers for the drive slots and make it into a frame and glue in some filter material. I use black filter material so it matches my black case and so I can see if any dust is building up. Run the vaccum across it when it looks dusty.

Of course make sure your filter material is not thick or restrictive but most air filter type stuff is fairly free flowing. I also do the same to the floppy slot which is right above my hard drive so it gets pulled in there also. Also the bottom slot on the case if it has one and I think it needs it.

I think I have some worse picture of another system but cannot find them. But that system I had just cleaned around a year before that and told them to make sure they did not keep the system sitting down on the carpet. Doesn't look like they listened. ;)

[xhaan]

Clean my computers? Heck no.
The dust is what holds them together and keeps them working! :p

My IBM PC300GL had about 10 years worth of dust in it, it was like an arcology for dust particles. I was going to take a picture but then I remembered when I was fiddling with hard drives I evicted all the dust bunnies, mainly because they were going all over the carpet and making my fingers look sooty... so now it only has a layer of dust inside instead of actual dust piles.

[bigken]

My laptop gets the odd wipe now and again but my box I strip clean and rebuild quite often about every 6 months or so 8)

[steven8]

Never touch them until they go wrong.

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Maintenance can actually induce more failures than would normally be expected.

A fella I worked with went to college for some kind of technical polymer degree or some such. Anyway, a professor told them one day to be very careful after you graduate and go get a job at Dupont or some such, and you get put in charge of some machine which is making synthetic cloth or some such. Anyway, the machine is disgusting, with goop all over it and stuff bubbling out of it, so you decide to show how good you are as a new, college educated employee, and you take the machine apart, clean it all out, put it back together. . .and it won't run for the next six months!! :-)

I have my machine open a lot. I have put in so many upgrades the only original parts are the floppy, cdrom and the motherboard. :-), but I don't clean it out regularly, just when I change a part.