How often should we clean out laptops?

A desktop computer is much easier to clean, everything is widely spaces and well, right in front of me.

Laptops are much harder to crack open, or better yet to not-crack while opening.
I finally decided to clean my laptop five years after I bought it, when something stuck on the fan rendering it unable to spin (also yes, I had a lot of overhearting issues and was making a lot of noise before the fan finaly died). So I pulled up a dismantling video on my phone, picked up a screwdriver and started digging my way through to reach the vent.
I had to mind how to unclasp the mask, and then I had to open the connections of the keyboars, mousepad and screen just to reach the vent (that's Toshiba for you). All in all it was a huge pain to figure out, and while it propably wont take me nearly as long to dismantle it again...I wouldn't do it every weekend.

So how often are we supposed to clean our laptops all the way through?

 

It depends where you use your laptop. If the place it is used in is dusty, then it's obviously going to affect your computer more than if it was in a much cleaner place. I would have thought that you should be able to go for a couple of years with a new laptop before thinking about major cleaning. Having said that, I think mine is now over 4 years old, nad never been opened up for cleaning. The fan does seem noisier these days, so it is probably overdue for a clean!

 

I guess you supposed to clean it whenever you can or when it is dirty. Lucky you, you know how to take out things to clean thoroughly. I do clean my keyboard and my screen but don't dare to open the back of the laptop to do anything to it. I am afraid I will touch something and it will stop working!

 

Yeah I was pretty spooked myself at first. I only know the basics about harware and maintanence, but I had to do it because it was a Sunday and I needed the laptop running. So I opened a few videos on my phone, read all the comments, and then googled everything that I didn't know how to do, like disconect the keypad cable from the motherboard.

I have one of the least practical laptop models when it comes to maintenance because I had to dismember everything to reach the fan, with other laptops it's just removing a few screws and you're already on the fan.

 

Ideally you don't want to let it sit for 5 years before cleaning. As others have said, where you lose your laptop is really important in terms of when you should go about actually cleaning it.

The common signs you get before you need to clean it are:
The fan will always be loud, no matter what. This one is pretty obvious, and it is usually coupled with the second sign:
Your laptop will stay overheated, or will heat up very quickly. Usually the main sign of when a laptop needs to be cleaned is when the fan starts malfunctioning in some way, and so the symptoms of that are what you're looking for.

Sometimes you'll even see an entire layer of dust from outside, though this is in more extreme cases.

Luckily taking apart a laptop really isn't too hard as long as you follow the manual word by word, so doing it once every couple of years isn't a problem.

Tbh many laptops out there require you to take out almost all the screws in the back, as you need to usually take out the entire front bezel to get to the mobo and the fan. Though some nice laptops just need you to remove the keyboard.

 

I don't remember cleaning my laptop. With our desktop, I see my husband once in a while using a small paint brush in cleaning our home desktop. He would open the case and brush the inside and sometimes he would use the car vacuum to suck in the dust. But with my laptop, I just use it and keep it in the case when not in use so maybe that is one way of avoiding dirt, particularly dust, so there's no need to clean. But that excludes the keyboard which I sometimes wipe with wet cloth.

 

Actually I have never cleaned my laptop in my entire life of laptop usage. Well, to be more clear, the only clean I did was on the outside... nothing beyond clean the screen, keyboard, and the case. I had never cleaned the fans. However, I bought an external laptop fan to put it under my laptop. It helped.

While I agree that clean the inside of the laptop would help further with the heat issue, I was just too lazy to do it. My first laptop still lasted for 7 years before it finally went out on me. Then again, my laptop was only under heavy load during early the first a few years. During the later years, it was used for simpler tasks such as browsing and Office software. So the heat issue was not that terrible.

 

Try and clean it at least every four to five months. Dust and small particles get lodged in the keyboard or motherboard and hence it is important to clean it at least three times a year. This helps your computer cool down faster and also improve the efficiency of your laptop.

 

Well whatever the correct answer is I know that I am behind schedule. I think that there is just a certain fear that I have of doing it myself where I can just never end up pulling the trigger. I know that it will help though, and it nothing else I can get my keyboard working properly again. It is fine but the buttons are always getting stuck. Every four to five months might not happen, but I should try to increase the frequency a little bit. Thanks for sharing.

 

I already said that I think we should clean our things everyday. Not thoroughly but just a general wipe so that your laptop stay clean for as long as possible. A thorough clean should be done from time to time whenever you see it is needed, meaning when you feel your buttons are not responding properly and you can actually see all the small cavities are filled with filth. However, by regular daily cleaning you should avoid that happening.

 

Well, I personally do it whenever I see it necessary, sometimes you do not even need to clean it, it all depends on the place you have it on and that sort of detail. I always carry a little brush so I can swipe things up whenever I want, it's a really useful tool. I highly recommend people to carry one of these everywhere.

 

I do it 1 time per year...

 

I like to clean mine once every 3 months, I think it's a reasonable period of time. You don't want to tear apart your laptop too often otherwise the pieces will start to become flimsy and you'll risk breaking it. If your laptop has dust protection then you can even clean it once a year (dust will still get through, though not as much) to make sure everything is good.