One of the simple pleasures of a computer person’s life is to be able to check email with the morning coffee and sweet roll. However, this can also be one of the biggest nightmares for the computer operator if they happen to dribble frosting or spill coffee on their computer.
We offer the following recommendations for keeping your computer clean:
Do not have food or drink around your computer. Aside from the chances of spilling, you can get the computer dirty from residue on your fingers.
If you have been doing anything that would get your hands particularly dirty, try to wipe off or wash your hands before using the computer.
Fluids are the number one enemy of electrical and electronic items. If you do spill something on or in your computer, turn the computer off immediately and unplug it. If there is standing liquid, try to dry that liquid off. Leave the off and sitting at least overnight to allow time for it to dry.
Dust, lint, and animal hair can also cause major computer problems. As time passes and these get sucked into computer vents, important components can become covered or practically caked, leading to heat insulation that can be very damaging to a computer. Also, the airways can get blocked up, preventing critical airflow to cool systems. It’s very important to keep your computer room regularly dusted and vacuumed. If you notice that the cooling fans on the computer seem to be running more than normal, or if you notice a lot of dust buildup on your computer, you may want to take it to a computer shop for cleaning.
Be Cool. Or, Be Warm. Every laptop has a recommended safe range of operating temperature. This is not to say the laptop will absolutely not work in temperatures outside of this range. However, a laptop is much like you and me: it does not like to work in temperatures outside its “comfort range,” and usually does not like to work near the outer ranges of that temperature range, either.
Documentation for most laptop computers will recommend a safe temperature range of about 50 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 35 degrees Celsius) for operating the computer. This does not mean that the laptop simply needs to be in an environment within that temperature range. This means the laptop should be allowed to either warm or cool to a temperature in that range as well. For example, if you’ve had your laptop in a cold car and bring it inside, you should allow several minutes for the laptop to warm to room temperature before you operate it. (If you bring a laptop in from the cold and use it immediately, you could also subject yourself to risk of problems from condensation.)
Prolonged exposure of a laptop to extreme cold or hot temperatures can result in a number of glitches and possible hardware damage. As such, we offer the following recommendations:
Do not leave your laptop sitting in the car for extended periods of time. This applies during both hot and cold weather. Aside from temperature concerns, a laptop computer is also one of the easiest targets for possible theft.
Do not leave the laptop computer sitting exposed to direct sunlight or near any heat source for extended periods of time.
All computer documentation we have seen also makes mention of relative humidity. You do not want to operate your computer in too damp or too moist an environment (e.g., don’t run your computer right next to a humidifier unit). Most documentation recommends a safe relative humidity range of 10-80%.
Computer Cleaning Tips
No matter how many precautions you may take, your laptop computer is still bound to get dirty (though hopefully not too dirty). Here are some guidelines for cleaning your laptop:
Clean the exterior case of your laptop by wiping it with a damp soft cloth.
Clean the screen using either a dry or damp soft cloth. Do not press too hard on the screen, as that can cause damage to the LCD panel.
Try to avoid using harsh chemical agents to clean your laptop, as these agents can cause some bad side effects. Also do not spray any cleaning agent directly onto any part of your laptop (again, fluids are bad).
If you want further precautions or instructions for cleaning your laptop, consult your laptop user’s guide.
Protecting Your Data
Basically, backup your important personal files regularly. You never know when you may have a computer hardware or software problem. Things can happen unexpectedly when it comes to safe guarding your data on a computer. When you least expect it, you will come down with a virus, your hard drive will fail, your child will accidently delete your thesis while playing Solitaire, or you will spill a soda right into the keyboard, and there’s nothing you can do about it if you did not regularly and religiously backup your important files.
In our office, we have the means of restoring each laptop’s original factory configuration if something unexpected happens. However, this doesn’t mean we will be able to restore your personal files if the trouble strikes. A backup can save your life.
We offer the following recommendations for saving both your personal files and your sanity:
With the advent of cheap, large capacity external storage devices such as Zip drives, tape drives, and CD burners, the cost of preserving your data is as inexpensive as it has ever been. CD-R and CD-RW drives are the most cost effective storage solutions available. Recordable CDs can be had for about $1 each and hold 650 megabytes each. We DO NOT recommend using floppy disks as your backup medium, as they are unreliable and will soon be a thing of memory.
Keep backup copies of your important files. Backup often. Backup regularly. If you make a regular backup of your important files, you will only lose a finite amount of data if something does happen. Also, keep multiple backups of really important files, such as your AMDR or Capstone paper.
Try to keep your important work in separate directories and folders broken into logical categories — MS Office 97 and 2000 will automatically save files to the “My Documents” folder. This helps you maintain one centralized spot for all your work, and helps separate the crucial school stuff from the spreadsheets of your fantasy baseball league.