One of the problems that laptops often have is that they are much more difficult to clean than a tower. The reason? Well, plain and simple we cannot disassemble them to the same degree and therefore there are places where it is impossible to clean. The biggest problem that we can find? Well, we find insects on the laptop and also smaller fauna that can be harmful to the PC’s circuitry.
At HardZone we have often recommended doing regular maintenance on your PC, which not only consists of updating drivers, but also cleaning the computer’s internals and avoiding extreme cases such as the appearance of all kinds of insects. Of course, it may be that a second-hand tower has come into your hands and needs a good cleaning. Whatever the cause, it is important to get rid of them and for three reasons: hygiene, temperature and hardware wear.
How to remove bugs from inside the laptop?
The first thing we have to have is that insects are living beings and therefore need to eat. What does this mean? Well, the appearance of insects on the laptop is due more than anything to food debris. So since prevention is better than cure we recommend that you avoid eating on top of your computer and keep the environment as clean as possible. Keep in mind that if there is no food then there are no insects and with them we will avoid having to clean it in the future.
By the way, if when measuring the temperature of your laptop with a benchmark program you find that it is higher than usual and you know that there are no background programs running, then a cleaning may be necessary. Since the presence of bugs in the laptop is one of the factors that increases the ambient temperature of the computer.
Disassemble the computer to prepare it
Of course, we may already be at a point where we must carry out the cleaning operation urgently. So first we are going to perform the classic disassembly process, which consists of the following steps:
- Turn off the computer.
- Disconnect all the cables that are plugged into the different plugs of the laptop.
- Remove the battery if our model allows it to be done.
- Place the computer upside down on a clean towel stretched out on the table.
- Unscrew the cover of the computer to expose the computer’s circuitry.
- Carefully unmount the RAM, hard drives, and SSDs. Let’s not forget that bugs can be in the most hidden bays of the computer. Try to do it carefully and in an orderly manner.
What you must not do
Now, at this point, we have to put a series of points on the table or rather warnings. The main one is that do not use insecticide of any kind, since its chemical composition is not intended to be used on top of an electronic device. Not only that, but they are highly flammable products and if there are remains, an unexpected spark can cause a fire or explosion. Another thing that we do not recommend is the use of insect traps.
The right tool
The next step is to remove the insects from the laptop, but we are not going to use any chemicals, but we have it as simple as using a small vacuum cleaner, which we will go through all our laptop. If there are also any nooks and crannies that are difficult to clean, then we can help with a compressed air spray. Once the cleaning is done, simply put the parts back in place, put the cover back on and screw the computer back on. Stop, we are not done, the next step is to do the same, but doing the same process with the laptop keyboard and the screen. And make sure from now on not to eat on top of your computer.
