Keeping your computer clean, can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars in repairs.

Your computer is like a small vacuum cleaner, air cleaner that never stops. The fans inside are always
pulling air through your computer. So anything in the air around your computer is sucked inside.
This can and will cause over heating, which leads to that nice BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH.
Or and static shorts, that can destroy your, memory, motherboard, CPU, power supply or/and hard drives.

A few tips on where not to put your computer:

#1 Never put it on the floor.
No matter how clean your house is, it will have tons of dust.

The vents on the side of the case let cool air into the computer. When they are clogged the
computer will over heat.



Notice the rear cooling fan and the center CPU fan, this computer died just from overheating.


Look at the center red card, that is a dead video card from a static short.
Dust plus high humidity equals shorts :)


These are CPU coolers filled with lint & dust. The fins on the CPU cooling block need to always
have air flowing over them to keep your CPU cool.





AND THE #1 THING TO NEVER DO AROUND YOUR COMPUTER IS SMOKE!!!
Not only does it collect dust, the tar from smoking works like glue. keeping all the dust,
dirt and lint stuck to everything in side. No to mention the fact that you can't clean it!

image found here by darqpony http://www.topix.com/album/detail/rogersville-tn/KR63JQKGCNFCSDBQ

#2 Never put your computer in a cabinet.
There is no air circulation, the cabinet & computer will get hotter and hotter until the
computer just burns up.

#3 This is for laptops NEVER PUT THEM ON YOUR LAP, bed, couch...
Laptops need a hard surface, if you flip your laptop over and look at the
bottom. You will see vents, those vent push & pull air through your laptop
to keep it cool. When you sit your laptop on any soft surface you block
those vents. I have seen laptops that have gotten so hot the bottom was
warped from heat! And yes of course they were dead.

It is very easy to clean your computer, call someone. lol Or just use air,
cans of air or a air compressor. You can buy a little air compressors for
about the same price as 8 cans of air. :)

When using any type of air on any of your fans, hold the fan so you don't
over spin the fans bearings. On laptops use a very small screw driver to
hold the very small fans.

5 to 10 minutes of cleaning 4 or 5 times per year can make your desktop or
laptop. Perform at top speed, stop it from having costly repairs, losing
all your personal information.

I put my laptop on my lap, bed, and couch. It does heat up, but I never do it for a long period of time where it start to burn up way too much. When the fan starts working extra hard, I lift it up to let it cool itself down or I move into the kitchen. I also make sure to never fully block the vents.

I have a table (I need to find it again) that is usually used for something like a breakfast in bed. I put my laptop on that to keep the vents from being blocked on my lap.

Another way to keep a laptop cool when it is on a table and seems like it is overheating is to cut out 2 long rectangle blocks of wood. Then, simply put it on the right and left side under your computer. This helps the air flow with the vents a lot better.

I don't clean my laptop as often as I should, but I did have clean it a few months ago with a small air compressor, which as really simple and didn't take long at all.

Richie (Mod) said:

I put my laptop on my lap, bed, and couch. It does heat up, but I never do it for a long period of time where it start to burn up way too much. When the fan starts working extra hard, I lift it up to let it cool itself down or I move into the kitchen. I also make sure to never fully block the vents.

I have a table (I need to find it again) that is usually used for something like a breakfast in bed. I put my laptop on that to keep the vents from being blocked on my lap.

Another way to keep a laptop cool when it is on a table and seems like it is overheating is to cut out 2 long rectangle blocks of wood. Then, simply put it on the right and left side under your computer. This helps the air flow with the vents a lot better.

I don't clean my laptop as often as I should, but I did have clean it a few months ago with a small air compressor, which as really simple and didn't take long at all.


Even just little cup coasters, under the right & left side at the back
of the laptop will make a big difference.