In addition to doing those other things you ought to take care of seasonally, not just once or twice a year (like changing your toothbrush and your furnace air filters), it’s also a good opportunity to clean your gadgets and computers to ensure they keep running well and looking good. You pay good money for your toys and equipment, just a few minutes and a few dollars can be worth hundreds or thousands to you in the long run.
It doesn’t have to take hours and hours. Schedule it in, even it its 5 minutes a day on a new gadget until they are done, just do it. Here are some helpful tips for getting your gear clean efficiently and keep them running longer and better.
Blast them out. Anything you can physically open (primarily your desktop PCs) should be cleared of dust. (If they are on the floor instead of on a desk, they are even more prone to gathering dust). Unplug your computer and remove the case, and take it outside. Get a can of compressed air and blow out all the dust bunnies, paying special attention to any fans in the case. Use quick, short bursts to avoid condensation.
You would NOT believe one I cleaned out last week. No kidding, this gal had been using compressed air to ‘clean’ and I use that word loosely, her Computer without removing it from the floor or taking off the cover. Only from the back, for 4 years! When I got there and took that outside, it was no longer a case for a can of compressed air. We pulled out her yard blower, no kidding, and blew spider webs, 1/4 of dust from parts that were amazingly still working, ( I have no idea how they weren’t fried years ago), and took pictures as this thing took 2 solid minutes of a yard blower to scare out the nasties in this. Folks, you HAVE to clean the insides out.
Use the straw attachment to blow out the vents on your notebook computers, the inside of your printers, the subwoofers, keyboard, fax machines, (open them up and even remove the ink cartridges) Cleaning your laptop is especially important, as laptops have far less room for airflow and can overheat if they aren’t kept free from dust. Happens all the time. An ounce of prevention…..You would be amazed at what will come out of some of these things. (Keyboards are farms for the nasty germs, crumbs, dust, and no-seeums that are under your fingers daily).
Shine and De-germ. If you have children, this may seem laughable, and we tend to ignore their existence since it is a daily dealing of smudges. However, when people touch my laptop screen or TV it makes me nuts, because of the smudges their dirty fingerprints leave. But fingerprints can quickly turn from mere annoyance to permanent nuisance if they’re left there for long, as the oils from these adorable or irritating prints have an uncanny habit of setting in and eventually becoming impossible to remove. (“Nothing will ruin your HDTV experience faster than a bunch of kids’ handprints overlaying your video, forever.” Christopher Null) Purosol, is a cleaner of choice it seems for cleaning off LCDs, but any store-bought LCD screen cleaner should work as long as it is alcohol-free. I suggest getting an extra for the shelves so that you are tempted to grab your bathroom variety when your in a pinch for a cleaning. While your doing your Gadget Spring cleaning don’t forget to add cleaning your camera displays, cell phone screen, iPhones, Flips, GPS screens, and car video players as well. We tend to forget these things, but they gather up nasty germs and prints all the time. Ick.
Repair your media. Scratched CDs and DVDs can be mended. A variety of solutions are available on the market, but the cleaning-paste-and-towel method has always provided the best results for me. Clean the surface of your CD with dish detergent and water. If scratches remain, use a commercial scratch repair kit that includes a thick paste and a microfiber cloth that you rub into the media, then wipe off. You can try the motorized version of cleaners, but you might have better results from your local game and DVD rental store. They have the time, experience, and equipment to try and get those scratches out. I personally have a great deal with my monthly DVD rental store near my home, than trying to do them at home myself. I drop them off, pick them up and pay about $1 each for the service. Well worth it to me.
Renew Your Personal CD’s & BackUps. If you have any CD’s or DVD’s that you have created, don’t we all, it is probably time for a new copy. If they have been hanging around for 2 or 3 years, you should create a new copy on a fresh new CD or DVD. Consider consolidating some of your CD’s into just one. It might take some time to do all this, but older non-professional recording media (what 99% of the world uses) is made defective so that after “X” years, the internal chemistry of the recording media changes and you end up with what everyone calls “laser rot” or “CD rot”. Usually you may be good up to 5 or 6 years, BUT sometimes the media dies after only 2 or 3 years. Temperature extremes and humidity of the storage area also count heavily. What the disc rests against for years also counts (cloth, plastic, vinyl, air gap, another disc, etc.). And get some cases on your CD’s. If you are one of those that has a stack of dozens of caseless CD’s you are running the risk of scratches and unnecessary wear and tear.
The popular and powerful protection software launches its free version on Thursday, April 24, 2008.
