How to Physically Clean Your Laptop
To clean your laptop, follow these steps:
Laptop Parts to Clean
The parts of the laptop you should keep clean are the case, the display, the keyboard and touchpad, the ports, and the cooling vents.
Isopropyl alcohol, available at drugstores and supermarkets. Because it evaporates quickly and doesn’t leave a residue, isopropyl alcohol is safe to use on electronic equipment and displays. Do not use: ammonia, tap water, mineral water, or household window cleaners.Distilled, purified, or bottled water. Do not use: tap water, which can leave permanent mineral spots.Can of compressed air, available at many types of stores.Lint-free cloth like the kind used for cleaning eyeglasses. In a pinch, you can use a soft, 100% cotton cloth. Do not use paper towels, facial tissues, or scratchy or abrasive cloths.
If you have stuck keys or an extra dirty keyboard (due to a spilled drink on the keyboard, for example), you can remove the individual keys on some keyboards and wipe beneath them with a cotton swab dipped in the cleaning solution. Put them back the right way. Finally, use the damp cloth to wipe the keys and the touchpad. If you opened your laptop to reach the cooling system, be careful when spraying the fans. To prevent the fans from over spinning while you’re blowing air on them, which can damage the fans, place a cotton swab or toothpick between the fan blades to hold them in place. If you’re comfortable opening up your laptop, you can clean its cooling system—the fan and heat sink—but don’t attempt this if you’ve never opened a laptop before. Cleaning the cooling system can help solve laptop overheating problems and related symptoms such as your laptop freezing or shutting down unexpectedly. You should defer to your laptop manufacturer’s manual for the recommended procedure for laptop cleaning, but some steps are fundamental for most laptops.