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How to Clean Your Laptop

nytimes.com

51–60 of 63 posts

Re: How to Clean Your Laptop

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a citation for this? Because it surprises me. Most smartphones are hard, dry surfaces, which inhibits bacteria growth.

Quick and dirty (pun intended) translation of the most important points of a recent newsitem on a Belgian Dutch tv channel ( https://nieuws.vtm.be/vtm-nieuws/binnenland/video-zo-vuil-je... ) According to a KUL researcher, between 20 to 100 species of bacteria are living on any smartphone (she analysed 5 phones). Almost all species are skin bacteria, but a strand of stafylococcus aureus could cause problems such as se…

/me makes a note to not grind his cellphone into any gaping wounds

Re: How to Clean Your Laptop

#52
I also found the little plastic raises at F and J to be not durable enough on laptop keyboards. I had some laptops where they would wear off and you had too look for the keys every time you started typing.

Re: How to Clean Your Laptop

#53
post #37

I used to work in a laptop repair place. I found that isopropyl rubbing alcohol can sometimes damage or wear some exterior rubbers or plastics on laptops.(works great on interior and metal though!) The best method I have found to clean exterior of a laptop is the following: - Turn off the computer. Standard: - Wipe down exterior, screen and keyboard area with Windex sprayed on a cloth or use Lysol wipes. If Heavily s…

Huh, the article specifically says not to use Windex. You've not found it to damage the screen?

Given the huge variety of materials and construction for different types of screens, I don’t think any single answer here would be reliable.

Re: How to Clean Your Laptop

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, the article specifically says not to use Windex. You've not found it to damage the screen?

Given the huge variety of materials and construction for different types of screens, I don’t think any single answer here would be reliable.

Good point. I was hoping to get answers from various folks. I'm on a relatively common MBP, and have only ever used water. That gets it mostly clean, but not all the way.

The Apple Store folks always give it a good clean when I go in for my weekly (har har) keyboard cleaning, so I've never had to go past water myself.

Re: How to Clean Your Laptop

#55
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to break this to you but _everything_ is covered in bacteria - the only way to be truly safe is to live in one of those big inflatable bubbles

You have around 1-2Kg of bacteria in your body right now. The inflatable bubble won't help you. You'll also probably die if you kill all of these bacteria as some of them are co-living with you.

Fun fact: you have approximately as many bacterial cells in/on your body as you have human cells.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991899/

Re: How to Clean Your Laptop

#57
post #14

Don't eat while using your laptop and you will keep it clean with a dust cloth and a mist of water. Eat while using your laptop and no vacuum in the world will be able to suck that disgusting filth from it.

I often eat while computing for work and personal reasons. Since eating while using a keyboard is a fact of how I live and work, I use a keyboard condom when eating or drinking beverages (especially coffee). Except for my smart phone, I don't really compute in the outdoors. My go-to provider for keyboard covers is http://kbcovers.com (no relation except as a satisfied customer). As the saying goes, an ounce of preven…

this made me wonder if they did something like this for vim...which they do! https://www.editorskeys.com/products/vi-vim-keyboard-covers-...

Re: How to Clean Your Laptop

#58
post #37

I used to work in a laptop repair place. I found that isopropyl rubbing alcohol can sometimes damage or wear some exterior rubbers or plastics on laptops.(works great on interior and metal though!) The best method I have found to clean exterior of a laptop is the following: - Turn off the computer. Standard: - Wipe down exterior, screen and keyboard area with Windex sprayed on a cloth or use Lysol wipes. If Heavily s…

Huh, the article specifically says not to use Windex. You've not found it to damage the screen?

If there is any coating on the screen, glass cleaner can make things worse. I did it to my old plasma display and introduced weird oily/rainbow smearing visible when off or extreme angles.

Never had any issue with laptop displays, glossy or matte though.

Re: How to Clean Your Laptop

#59
post #35

It wouldn't be Hacker News without a few people commenting "let all your stuff get filthy so your immune system stays on its toes".

Not that a dirty laptop applies, but it’s pretty well supported that a too clean environment is bad for the developing immune systems of children.

Sure. This article talks about “cleaning”, not “cleaning excessively”.

Re: How to Clean Your Laptop

#60
post #24

Many moons ago Apple included a nice little microfiber cloth[1] with an embossed Apple logo on it. Ever since then I have taken extra care to clean my devices every so often with the same cloth. [1] https://nicolasbottari.com/uploads/_big/apple_cleaning_cloth...

They shipped these till 2015.
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