Laptop cleaning

[Monkey]

So, I know I can use compressed air on my computer to clean it out, but can I use compressed air on a laptop ?
I plan on taking the back off and cleaning all the dust out of the laptop to make it quieter, I just dont want to hurt the lappy.

 

[Patiszerg]

Yep, sure can. There nothing in there that can be damaged by a compressed air. I don't know if turning a fan with compressed air damages it or not but just in case I hold a fan down and prevent it from spinning when I dust it. So if you see any fans, try to prevent them from spinning when you dust out your laptop.

 

[Monkey]

Patiszerg,

thanks for the reply, i will be sure to try and do that.
I haven't cleaned my laptop before, but I hope it is easy. I cant really mess anything up right?

 

[Luke]

im not sure if that voids the warranty on the laptop (i don't think so though) fans spinning does not do anything so you don't have to hold them down. You could just shoot some air into the vents to get the dust out. That would probably be easier. But if you want a total clean then i guess you could take the back cover off. (my lappy has three different peices i can easily take off the back to expose the hdd, ram, and cmos battery. So i can clean mine rather easily.

 

[Harper]

So, I know I can use compressed air on my computer to clean it out, but can I use compressed air on a laptop ?
I plan on taking the back off and cleaning all the dust out of the laptop to make it quieter, I just dont want to hurt the lappy.

I do this all the time. However it does help to take the laptop apart

 

[JoshSB]

Yup, you cannot really hurt a fan by making it spin.

However, make sure your not TOO close to the motherboard, you could knock over a capacitor or damage one, if you do that then you worst case need a new motherboard (couple hundred).

 

[Luke]

^compressed air would not be able to break a capacitor's solder. Or do you mean hitting it with your hand?

 

[JoshSB]

^Depends on the age of the capacitor.

A new motherboard no, however I have seen older desktops that when you get too close with the canned air a concentrated blast can indeed knock over or at least unseat the capacitor.

 

[Luke]

^I find that very hard to believe. The only thing that the solder would be exposed to is heat, and the solder material is designed to withstand heat pretty well. So unless that mobo/solder was 10 years old that's not going to be a problem.

 

[JoshSB]

^ I thought it was pretty much impossible too.

However, I have worked on hundreds of older desktops trying to fix them up so client's don't have to purchase a new PC, and it has happened a couple of times *shrug* Never said it was likely to happen.