by Jim Hill

Created on: June 29, 2009

When I get a computer that is in need of a cleaning, I normally give it a two prong attack. First, I like to make sure that it is physically clean. Then second I clean the software. Make sure no electrical cords are plugged in. Next involves taking the left side of the computer off (when viewed from the front.) Before I do anything inside the computer, I must ground myself by touching the metal chassis with a bare hand, as this gets rid of any static charge I might be carrying. Static electricity is one of the fastest ways to destroy computer parts. Optional instructions suggest wearing an electro-static discharge band around your wrist which is grounded to the chassis. I then take a can of compressed air and blow out parts of the computer that have dust bunnies lurking in there. I take a finger and hold any fan I can access from spinning as I blow dust away. Using the compressed air can get a fan spinning much faster than it was designed to go, thus damaging the fan. Outside of static, heat is the number two enemy of electronic parts. Dust becomes a very good insulator at keeping heat in the tower. Don't forget the power supply box as it will be dusty also. Spray around the interior of the tower to finish eliminating the dust. This should be performed twice a year in normal environment, more often in dirty environments (shedding pets etc.)

Now that we have gotten rid of the dust and dirt, it is time to get into the software and clean it out. If the computer will not boot, the best way I find to get it going is to take it out of the tower and connect it to a good computer. If it is a SATA drive, you will connect it accordingly to the motherboard. If it is a PATA then you can connect to USB with an IDE cable adapter, or use the secondary area of the ribbon cable. Once you start the computer, find your drive by clicking Start > right click My Computer and choose Explore from the menu. Depending on the Anti-Virus, you may be able to right click on the drive and run the A-V just on the drive. Cleaning this way should allow you to put it back in your computer and start your computer.

If the computer can boot, then you have part of the battle won. There are four free programs that you want to run on this computer. They are: 1) Ad-Aware from Lavasoft, 2) Spybot S&D, 3) Superantispyware free edition, and 4) Malwarebytes anti malware. If you can't get them to download from the internet, the best method I find is a flash

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