Pocket thinks I’d like a NY Times article entitled “How to Clean Your Filthy, Disgusting Laptop”
I’m insulted.
My laptop isn’t that filthy and disgusting. Just a little bit filthy and disgusting.
It gets a lot of use. I blog standing up because of my bad back/arms; it’s much more comfortable that way. I stand on a little rug. The laptop is raised to just the right height with an edifice of books (I could buy something nicer-looking, like one of those electrically adjustable stands, but have never bothered). I use a mouse—can’t stand the wheel, it hurts my hands and arms. I wear very comfy clothes; not pajamas, but the sort of clothes that mean I have to get changed if I want to go out in public.
My laptop is basically my keyboard and mother ship, but the whole thing is attached to a larger monitor so I don’t have to squint to see it. The monitor is up on a stand (actually, it’s a little wooden footstool my son made in shop class in junior high, many a long year ago) so that I don’t have to look down much to view it. That protects my neck from kinks and also I have a notion that it keeps me from getting quite as much of a double chin as I’d be getting if I was looking down umpteen hours a day.
Is my laptop filthy and disgusting? Depends how sensitive you are to such things. It looks relatively clean to me, and I swipe it down periodically but hardly obsessively. But sometimes when I’m traveling and I take it out in a very bright light I notice it’s a bit more disgusting and filthy than I had thought.
Anyway, I read the Times article. It’s very big on those compressed air things, but I’ve never found them to be all that effective. Have you?
I also took special note of this:
If your laptop is particularly old, you may not be able to get rid of the shine on the keys; some of us may type like the Incredible Hulk and have worn down the top layer of plastic.
I’ve gotten much teasing about the fact that I’ve done just that. In particular, the “a,” “s,” “m,” and “n” have been completely obliterated. I understand why the first two; after all, my default typing stance has my left pinky and ring finger resting on them. But the last two? I have no idea.
Take the keyboard off, and it will look a LOT filthier.
I wore the ‘A’ off the key on my laptop. And I totally wore out the O, S, and E keys. (Hence, replacing the keyboard.)
Once you’ve got the keyboard off, yeah, blow that thing (without holding the trigger too long, or you’ll ice your components) out good. Also blow air through your fan – amazing what stuff collects in there.
Thks for the human, rational and pleasant comment, ms. neoneocon.
The NYT should spend some time advising themselves how to clean-up their crap filled site
I just bought a “factory refurbished” Lenovo X240. Great deal, great computer, but they put something on the keys to remove the patina and make them look new. It gets sticky and I have six cats. Need I say more?
My keyboard is due for a good blow-out.
I type on a Das Keyboard with mechanical switches. It’s a bit pricey but worth it. It’s got a beautiful feel.
I’ve had RSI problems off-and-on. For years I used various ergonomic keyboards that seemed to help, but once I switched to an old-fashioned clicky keyboard, like the original IBM PC, my keyboard/wrist problems went away.
I can still get in trouble with the mouse.
You can order the Das Keyboard with blank keycaps. It forces you to learn the keyboard layout. I didn’t go that far. But I read an amusing anecdote about a software consultant who used the blank Das Keyboard to impress clients!
I have replaced three Mac keyboards, two on the present MacN\Book Air.
I’ve written two books , plus a Kindle version of one and type with two fingers. I;m sure that is the reason I wore out the keyboards.
My MacBook’s keys were losing letters on about 6 keys, so I took it to the Apple Store to see what they could do. New keyboard, around $200 and a one week wait. New key caps on selected keys, free. I opted for the latter. They kept the iPad over a long weekend, and that was a pain, but I sure like the way it is now.
I don’t have a laptop, as I am much more comfortable with a big keyboard. My cousin the computer nerd set up his father’s laptop so he could use a big keyboard with the laptop. I periodically disassemble my keyboard to clean out the crud. One problem is keeping track of all the keys I have taken out.
(looks down at my keyboard)
Well, I’ll be darned. Same keys worn off, with D also about halfway there. Neat.
I have a Logitech and the A is gone, and the top half of the S. I think I’ve had it for 3 years or so.
Google up “cleaning your keyboard using a dishwasher”. It works, and amazingly well, but follow the instructions not to add any detergent, not to use any forced heat, and thence to let the thing air dry for several days before plugging it back into your computer. But this method is not, repeat not, repeat not for laptops!
I’ve got two Logitech K520 wireless keyboards, each about 2 years old. One’s in my office and one’s upstairs in my home. Both have the paint coming off most of the keys. The top letter row has Q W Blank * 4, U, I, blank, and part of a P.
I blame it on the fact that I’m not a touch typist and with my two-fingered pecking away I end up hitting the keys with my fingernail ends not the pads on the bottom of my finger ends.
I’d definitely check with the manufacturer before putting a keyboard into the dishwasher!
The Das Keyboard website says no.
According to wikihow the dishwasher method is a last resort:
There are many conventional ways to clean a keyboard, such as blowing or shaking out the dust and wiping with a damp cloth. This way is a bit more radical. It’s the sort of thing you should try if an entire large drink spilled on a beloved keyboard. Before tossing it, try the dishwasher. Whether or not it works, you’ll at least have something to talk about!
https://www.wikihow.com/Clean-a-Keyboard-in-a-Dishwasher
Fastest way is to probably reinstall the OS off another source. Although some people reformat. If you do a reformat, you lose all the apps and data on the hard drive, which may or may not be important.
There’s a way to transfer most saved files and settings from the user/app folder over, manually. Saves 90% of the work resetting up your UI settings after a new OS.
but they put something on the keys to remove the patina and make them look new. It gets sticky and I have six cats. Need I say more?
I use a plastic or ceran foil wrap, the clear ones, over keys.
My decades old keyboards still look new, due to the foil.
I learned to type in high school in the early ’70’s on Olympia manual typewriters that weighed at least 50 pounds. The one time the teacher had me try an IBM ball electric I nearly wrecked it. 45 years as a mechanic haven’t helped, I now use external keyboards and consider them expendable…
I go into places like Best Buy, and it’s all laptops and tablets, with just a few desktop computers. I could get a new one, but few laptops come with a 17″ or 19″ display, and almost all external monitors are just too big at even 22″ or 24″. In the last few years, I have gotten an external keyboard, and that’s much easier and more comfortable to use than the standard laptop’s smaller, flatter layout.
There’s nothing wrong with still using a laptop from 2004 that runs on Windows XP, right? I’m asking for a friend.
I use a Northgate Omni-key keyboard that I purchased in 1989. It has the F keys on the left side like the original IBM PC keyboard. I find the layout so perfect that I have three, one for home, one for the office and one in reserve in case of a disaster.
I’m pretty sure that is why G-d put a little finger on our left hand.
Not blowing the dust off and out of the fan ports is one of the ways you laptop gets to overheating and then, one day, makes you glad you kept your backups up to date in a separate drive.
It saved me.
You DO keep your backups up to date on a separate drive, right? Right? Right?
Compressed air? Hmmm… that’s a thought. I have to go out into the backyard and find that can of air. I last used it to throw at a squirrel … maybe a rat… that was getting into my bird feeders outside my window.
Pretty sure it was a squirrel. Just had a really skinny tail. for a squirrel.
I got a cardboard stand up desk (it comes in a flat pack and you fold it and put tabs in slots to assemble it) which you put on top of table or desk. It works pretty well; it costs $25 now. I use it at home and take it to conferences. When it wears out from being in and out of the car I’m probably going to replace it with a slightly more expensive one that folds flat for travel.
I got a cardboard stand up desk (it comes in a flat pack and you fold it and put tabs in slots to assemble it) which you put on top of table or desk. It works pretty well; it costs $25 now. I use it at home and take it to conferences. When it wears out from being in and out of the car I’m probably going to replace it with a slightly more expensive non-cardboard one that folds flat for travel.
You DO keep your backups up to date on a separate drive, right? Right? Right?
2 Terrabyte external drive formatted into three virtual drives. 1 for photos, 1 for documents, and1 forTime Machine.
If it gets too bad, just replace the keyboard as others did above. If you are tech savvy it can be done for less than $50 and DIY instructions are usually found on youtube.
Also if that is you with the 2TB drive in three volumes, all of your eggs are still in one basket. 3x1TB drives could at least give you one basket each for photos, Documents and Time Machine. Better still would be a NAS with raid.
Little trick: get an USB Hub and an additional keyboard. I have the mouse and the keyboard both plugged in the hub and then the hub plugged in the laptop (so it only uses one USB port from the laptop). That makes typing far more comfortable.
And get a keyboard with some hard/mechanical touch feeling. I always go to the gamer section (best ones use to be there). And once you get used to a good keyboard, you can notice the difference every time you use the laptop one.
For laptops, best cleaning method is the standard vacuum cleaner. I’ve always used the same one I use to clean the floor and never had a problem (just clean a bit the floor nozzle before using it with the laptop).
Partitions tend to make the drive more unstable depending on what actually goes wrong.
Partitions are good for things such as formatting your OS partition to get rid of a virus while leaving the rest of the data alone. If however the damage reaches the partition tables, and the secondary partition becomes unreadable or the primary unbootable, then recovery requires one of those Magic Boot OS discs. It’s still a pain and not 100% safe.
That’s why I don’t partition my drives any more. I can just use a Magic Boot OS to access the data if the OS ever cranks out and refuses to boot up. As people realized with the IRS and Clinton hard drives, it takes quite a lot of damage to make data unrecoverable to modern drives.
Laptops can use external keyboards, mouse, and monitors now. So it might as well be one of those MINI computer boxes the size of 3 lunch boxes stacked on top of each other. Next step up is the case size I use, Micro.
And get a keyboard with some hard/mechanical touch feeling. I always go to the gamer section (best ones use to be there).
I think all the pre 2008 pc keyboards used to be like that, as that is the only stuff I ever got from pre built pc companies. Laptops I notice have silent keys, which removes that feedback system so important to human hand manipulation.
The vactuum cleaner might work really well with cpu coolers too now that I think of it.
It’s very big on those compressed air things, but I’ve never found them to be all that effective. Have you?
They are only effective for white dust not black congealed dust. Black congealed dust is more like tar than dust.
I would do what Yann did, put a vacuum cleaner and attach a thin plastic pipe to it so that it can focus the force on the components.
The M and N is usually due to the nails on the thumb or index brushing up against it. Or maybe the letter print is imprinted using cheaper materials now.
Exactly. Gamer keyboards are not the same, but at least they’re the closest thing to old pc keyboards I’ve found.
It works well, just don’t use it with an open CPU. The nozzle uses to push forwards, so better keep the case closed and aspire through the lateral holes.
There’s nothing wrong with still using a laptop from 2004 that runs on Windows XP, right? I’m asking for a friend.
If it is a 64 bit processor and OS, then it’ll last for awhile still, and be bottlenecked by ram usually.
Laptop life times usually is set by its fans and cooling systems.
If it is 32 bit OS, then as years go on, people will see more and more programs become incompatible. Leading edge game software no longer supports 32 bit, since it is obsolete tech. Mobile games? That doesn’t need much power.
People can probably buy old keyboards from Ebay, since there would be a lot of stock left over from people who bought and sold computers. There’s still a light grey market in old computer parts, although it is not nearly as lightning in demand as first, second, and third gen parts (as measured backwards in time rather than forwards).
There’s so many generations of Nvidia and Radeon, AMD vs intel chips, that it is just easier to count backwards now in terms of generation.