Introduction: How to Clean and Dust Your PC

!!! PLEASE READ ALL SLIDES BEFORE STARTING A STEP !!!

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Hello and welcome to possibly the most important thing you will see today! We are going to learn how to properly maintain your Personal Computer's life by cleaning the inside of it. Why should you do this you ask? Well after losing a graphics card and a power supply from my computer overheating, I quickly realized this was a problem that can be easily avoided. Disclaimer, this tutorial is only for those with DESKTOPS NOT LAPTOPS!!!

You've been warned.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

You really don't need much to decently clean your computer. I've sorted the items in this list by most important to least important (top to bottom). While not all of these are needed, it would be ideal to have:

1x Can of Duster

1x Strong Heart

1x Package of Wet Wipes

-alternatively paper towels and rubbing alcohol works just as well

1x Pair of Hands

Once you've gathered at least a few of these, you're ready to get cleaning!

Step 2: Pop That Sucker Open!

Most PC's have a side panel with two large screws on the back side of the panel. These should be fairly easy to unscrew as most manufacturers make these easy to twist. Slide the panel off and wipe down the front and back sides of it, as well as getting the edges. Once you're done cleaning the side panel, set it aside and let's dive into the meat and potatoes of our project here!

Step 3: Visible Dust

This step is fairly straightforward, blast any hair or dust you can find right out of your PC with the Duster. You want to clean most of your PC parts with the Duster as any moisture isn't good for the electronic parts inside of it. The Duster method is generally you're best option when it comes to cleaning your electronics. To take care of any remaining dust, use a Wet Wipe to get it out. If you don't have those or aren't trying to risk getting your parts wet, you can use a paper towel to wipe the dust off; or even go as far as lightly wetting the paper towel with rubbing alcohol and wiping down the inside of your PC. You can see my computer most definitely needs a good cleaning!

Step 4: Fans and Ventilation

For this step, you'll primarily just need the Can of Duster . Locate all of vents for the fans on your tower, and clear all the dust from them as this is one of the biggest factors of overheating PC's. The dust clogs up the vents and doesn't allow any air to pass through. It's kind of like a personal heater but with no way for the heat to escape. This can cause some big time damage to you PC's parts so it's best to do an extra good job on this step! Many people forget about the vent on the bottom of your PC. This is for the Power Supply which is constantly running while your computer is turned on. I always hit this with the Duster first because when your Power Supply overheats and short circuits, it can fry everything else in your PC.

Step 5: Finishing Touches

Finally, you make sure the inside of your tower is clean and tidy. Double check to make sure you didn't move any cables around so that they get constantly hit by the fan blades in your tower. As you can see, my cable management is by no means perfect, but this isn't the biggest problem as no fan blades collide with any cables. Slide the side panel back on, and put the screws you had put aside earlier back in. Not too tight as you don't want to have a hard time getting into your PC later. After that, take your Wet Wipe or your alcohol based towel and wipe down the outside of your PC, paying close attention to the places you most commonly touch like the power button or around the USB drives. After you've made the outside of your PC sparkle, you're done! The only thing left to do is clean up!