how often should laptop be cleaned from the inside

[shtaklef]

i have an alienware 17 r5 laptop. i am using a coolpad which has 3 rings

in the past when i was in my old bedroom i often noticed that there were dust rings on the 3 coolpad rings and also there were 3 dust rings on the bottom of the laptop. i wiped the dust rings and then it comes back after few weeks

i took the alienware laptop to a repair shop mid july 2020 and a technician removed the back cover to clean the laptop from the inside. i saw that there was a thin layer\bit thick layer in the center of the laptop around the battery area

after july 2020 i had to move to another bedroom in my house. i noticed that there was no longer 3 dust rings under the laptop when i am in new bedroom

now 7 months have passed since i took laptop to repair shop for cleaning from the inside. once a month i am using can of compressed air and i am spraying air through the bottom grill at the laptop fans and through the vents as a precaution to make sure that they are clear and that there is no dust stuck in them

when is next time i have to take laptop to repair shop so back cover is removed to clean the dust from the inside? before i was under the impression that i need to remove the back cover once every 6 months and people told me that's not needed

is it after 9 months or 1 year passed or 2 years since last time back cover was removed to remove the dust?

there are people who are obsessed with cleaning the laptop. once every 3 months they remove the back cover and they use electric duster to remove the dust. that's not necessary and the important thing is that there is no dust on fans and vents and i am making sure of that by using compressed air can. air can is not that efficient and it just unsticks the dust and it shuffles it around inside the laptop and the back cover should be removed to remove all the dust. however, the amount of dust inside the laptop now should be less after i shifted to new bedroom

[🦜Cloud Boy🦜]

People NEVER open their gaming consoles (ps4, xbox etc). And yet most consoles easily lasts for 5 to 7 years, if not more.

As i have said, obviously there will be dusts like any other objects in the environments, but it doesn't affect a laptops performance, at least NOT in its normal use duration (4 to 5 years). 95% of the people NEVER open their laptops in their lifetime. Laptops / Consoles are built for this kinds of use-case in mind.

[Washell]

Escrito originalmente por 🌈Cloud Boy🌈:

People NEVER open their gaming consoles (ps4, xbox etc). And yet most consoles easily lasts for 5 to 7 years, if not more

Cleaning the inside of consoles is an extremely common job for repair services to get them working again. Just because your social circle sees little of it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewziegler/cockroach-video-game-consoles

[Decathect]

Escrito originalmente por 🌈Cloud Boy🌈:

People NEVER open their gaming consoles (ps4, xbox etc). And yet most consoles easily lasts for 5 to 7 years, if not more.

As i have said, obviously there will be dusts like any other objects in the environments, but it doesn't affect a laptops performance, at least NOT in its normal use duration (4 to 5 years). 95% of the people NEVER open their laptops in their lifetime. Laptops / Consoles are built for this kinds of use-case in mind.

None of this is true.

Escrito originalmente por Washell:

Cleaning the inside of consoles is an extremely common job for repair services to get them working again. Just because your social circle sees little of it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewziegler/cockroach-video-game-consoles

Yep, think last year I did around 10 PS4's alone, all of them had clogged coolers filled with dust. So those were cleaned and the thermal paste replaced. Keep in mind I don't do repairs as a full time job just a side thing, if I did I'd have seen many more.

[🦜Cloud Boy🦜]

When i wrote the word ''people'' (comment #16), It does NOT imply repair-services personals.

[Autumn_]

Escrito originalmente por 🌈Cloud Boy🌈:

People NEVER open their gaming consoles (ps4, xbox etc). And yet most consoles easily lasts for 5 to 7 years, if not more.

And those are the same people that cry that their consoles fans are like jet engines, or that they're getting poor performance.

Cleaning (dust out) is needed, it's important, for all devices (except those which are passively cooled without fins, such as phones and tablets.)
Just because you don't like, or want to, doesn't mean dust doesn't build up.

Escrito originalmente por 🌈Cloud Boy🌈:

As i have said, obviously there will be dusts like any other objects in the environments, but it doesn't affect a laptops performance, at least NOT in its normal use duration (4 to 5 years). 95% of the people NEVER open their laptops in their lifetime. Laptops / Consoles are built for this kinds of use-case in mind.

I have had 5 or so laptops, every single one of them had a significant increase in thermals because of dust. And, SHOCKINGLY, removing the dust fixes the performance.
3/5 of them weren't 'gaming' laptops, 2/5 were.

Sure, people don't open them, but you don't need to to clean them out, but opening ensures proper cleaning.
And, again, those people that cry about loud fans, or slow computers/consoles are the ones that don't clean it.

Learn to clean your ♥♥♥♥, then you won't have problems.
You don't expect anything else to last if you don't maintain it, so why should computers/laptops/consoles be any different?

Escrito originalmente por Hardware Hero™:

Escrito originalmente por PiKK\/Mi:

Everyone here is anti-clean team apparently. I bet their PCs look like those in computer cleaning videos.
Really dont need to pay someone for a simple laptop dust removal session. Its simple to do on your own with online guidance.

This opening up a laptop to get the dust is such a waste of time. - My pc is so clean you could eat off of it. If you have a dust problem then you have to take care of that so it doesn't get into your pc in the first place. not keep opening them up and dusting them, what? That makes no sense.

So, you don't clean inside your PC case either? Or does that not make sense?
It's basic maintenance to dust inside out of your computer, so why not a laptop?

You don't need to open the laptop every time, just like you don't with a computer, more often than not, just cleaning the intake is enough. (Some compressed air on the intake, blow the dust through, or wipe the intake with a damp cloth/wipe.)

You can't exactly install a magnetic dust filter to a laptop, if it was a computer, sure I'd agree, but laptops aren't every friendly to that sort of thing, so claiming that you should 'just stop getting dust inside of it lmao' isn't great.

Dust happens, learn to clean it, it's not hard -- There are more and more computers that allow you to open them up without ruining the warranty, so removing the back plate is no issue.

[plat]

Dust is like a roach: if you see it, there's more there somewhere.

If you're not confident DYI and can afford it, why not take it to a reputable shop like OP was doing from the start? It's preventative maintenance.

But, I would not do this on a schedule, only when you see temperatures are rising and staying there. And when you see it collecting around the vent/s.

[invision2212]

Escrito originalmente por 🌈Cloud Boy🌈:

People NEVER open their gaming consoles (ps4, xbox etc). And yet most consoles easily lasts for 5 to 7 years, if not more.

As i have said, obviously there will be dusts like any other objects in the environments, but it doesn't affect a laptops performance, at least NOT in its normal use duration (4 to 5 years). 95% of the people NEVER open their laptops in their lifetime. Laptops / Consoles are built for this kinds of use-case in mind.

i open my ps4 about 2-3 times a year to clean out the fan and heatsink, and yes they do get dusty and clogged.

[Supafly]

Escrito originalmente por 🌈Cloud Boy🌈:

When i wrote the word ''people'' (comment #16), It does NOT imply repair-services personals.

Just because you don't or people you know don't doesn't mean cleaning should not be done. Gradual decrease in performance is why people buy new laptops because it seems slow. Quite often it's slow because the dust build up inside is reducing cooling causing it to throttle. A simple clean out is all thats needed.

If they bothered to CLEAN they'd maintain same level of performance instead of needing to buy new.

Every person I know that own a PS4, 9, have cleaned it every 3-6 months.

The PS5 even comes with side panels you can take off allowing you to easily reach 2 dust filter/collection holes you can use a vacuum to clean. But hey the designers know full well you DON'T need to clean a console of dust and just made it easier for fun.

Once again. Just because you and people you know and people you wrongly advise don't clean components doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

CLEAN Stuff. It works better when it's clean. The more dirt builds up the lower performance will be. Not to mention it's absolutely disgusting when a person opens it up to repair it.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

With a laptop just take your vacuum and use it's hose and suck the dust off the fans and the air vents is all that is needed. Don't ever use a vacuum on a desktop pc as you can suck off your capacitors on your motherboard.

[Supafly]

Escrito originalmente por Snakefist:

With a laptop just take your vacuum and use it's hose and suck the dust off the fans and the air vents is all that is needed. Don't ever use a vacuum on a desktop pc as you can suck off your capacitors on your motherboard.

EDIT: got the poster, Snakefit, mixed up with someone else so It's funny that you are now talking about ways to clean them when you've said it's not needed. Nothing stops you sucking up capacitors on a laptop or a PC. Capacitors are the same size and can be sucked up from either device....assuming they are loose in the first place.

Also depends on how a laptop was designed. If it's lacked regular cleaning, like you suggest, dust can be further inside and wedged in crevices requiring to be brushed out.

[Washell]

You shouldn't use a vacuum because of static discharge. Capacitors will be fine either way, unless you knock then loose.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Escrito originalmente por Dead Monkey:

Escrito originalmente por Snakefist:

With a laptop just take your vacuum and use it's hose and suck the dust off the fans and the air vents is all that is needed. Don't ever use a vacuum on a desktop pc as you can suck off your capacitors on your motherboard.

It's funny that you are now talking about ways to clean them when you've said it's not needed. Nothing stops you sucking up capacitors on a laptop or a PC. Capacitors are the same size and can be sucked up from either device....assuming they are loose in the first place.

Also depends on how a laptop was designed. If it's lacked regular cleaning, like you suggest, dust can be further inside and wedged in crevices requiring to be brushed out.

I never said that you never had to clean a pc. I always said you had to clean a pc you must got me confused with someone else. I use a air compressor with an inline water filter to filter out the moisture in the air to clean my pc set it on 25 to 35 psi and it blows the dust out nicely. I never said that it's bad to clean a pc. Dust kills your pc by suffocating it. So yea you got me confused with someone else. As i always tell people to use an air compressor to clean out your pc. As them dust cans are junk and vacuuming can cause static. I work at a pc shop that builds and repairs pc's i would never tell anyone not to clean the dust from their pc.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Escrito originalmente por Washell:

You shouldn't use a vacuum because of static discharge. Capacitors will be fine either way, unless you knock then loose.

Which is possible with desktop pc's. Using the hose to get close, you can cause that to happen. Since the vents and fans on a laptop are further away from capacitors using a vacuum is fine to suck the dust out of the fans and vents. I have done that with my kid's xbox one x.

[Supafly]

Escrito originalmente por Snakefist:

I never said that you never had to clean a pc. I always said you had to clean a pc you must got me confused with someone else.

Your right, my bad Sorry about that. Gonna edit that comment.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Escrito originalmente por Dead Monkey:

Escrito originalmente por Snakefist:

I never said that you never had to clean a pc. I always said you had to clean a pc you must got me confused with someone else.

Your right, my bad Sorry about that. Gonna edit that comment.

It's cool. It happens.