Cleaning and Organizing your Computer

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Cleaning and Organizing your Computer


Disk Cleanup




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Why you Need to Keep your Computer Clean

If your computer is used a lot and kept on for hours at a time, it’s a good idea to clean it every now and again. Dirty computers often do not run as fast as they are advertised to and have a lower life expectancy than ones that re well kept and cleaned often. One of the main problems keeping your computer form running at its optimal speed is dust. Dust inhibits the fans form properly cooling the computer parts and often leads to hardware failure. Dust is also conductive, so in theory it could short circuit your computer and cause it to not work any more.

If you have a desktop computer, then the main place dust accumulates is around the CPU unit and fan areas. To prevent your processor from overheating, there is a fan connected to a heatsink which sits on top of the processor to disperse the heat. This fan blows air down in to the heat sink to cool it down as the heat is passed up from the CPU into the heatsink. Because the fan is constantly blowing in air, it also blows the dust particles from the air in to the heat sink. Over time this can clog up the computer’s heat sink, reducing its effectiveness. Because of the dust, the fans ionside of the computer may have to blow faster to maintain the same temperature on the actual processor. This makes your computer louder and more costly to run. Normally, you can see if the fan is clogged up simply by opening your computer up and looking at it. If your fan’s heat sink is really clogged up with dust, it is a good idea to give it a clean. When dealing with the inside of your computer, or anything electrical for that matter, ensure the power is turned off and your computer is unplugged first.

The best way to clean out the insides of your computer is by using a can of compressed air that includes a special nozzle. This special nozzle is a long plastic straw that protrudes from the sprayer. This tool allows you to reach into very small spaces and clean without having to take apart your computer.  You can buy this from any electronics retailer. When spraying the compressed air on to your computer, make sure you don’t spray it for to long as condensation may form some drops of water. When you spray compressed air, the air is very cold. this cools down the parts of the computer and if you spray the air on one place too long, condensation could form. As we all know water plus electronics equals bad results. After blowing away any dust from your computer’s heatsinks, give it a gentle wipe over with an anti-static cloth for good measure. You can also use the compressed air to clean your power unit and keyboard.

Cleaning the inside of your computer doesn’t take long providing you have the correct equipment, and once it is done, you notice an immediate improvement in your computers performance. The fan won’t need to blow as hard, so your computer will be quieter. And thanks to the processor running at a cooler temperature, your whole computer should generally run faster. I try to clean my computer every 4 or 5 months to keep it running efficiently. Doing small things such as cleaning your computer could have lasting positive effects.

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