Cleaning the XPS 9550

First of all, sorry if I haven't spotted another topic talking about this. I've been reading different stuff but in misc topics. Maybe it's time to gather information.


How do you clean your XPS 9550? the carbon fiber palmrest and touchpad are magnets for grease, oil and dirt and in less than a day, it can get seriously stained.

Is there a recommended (by Dell) way? How do you do it? Alcohol? Isopropyl Alcohol? Water?

Thanks for your recommendations!

 

If you ask Dell, they will say something super-conservative like "Use only a damp towel with warm water. Do not use chemicals."

But they're really saying that kind of stuff just to cover their own butts, against idiot customers that would use something stupid (like gasoline).

Personally, I've always used glass cleaner (the blue stuff) or Simple Green. Spray directly onto a paper towel to get it damp. Then use that damp paper towel to wipe down the laptop surfaces. It will do a great job at cleaning grease / fingerprints off of the exterior, LCD screen, any glass touchscreen surfaces, palmrest, track pad, and keyboard keys.

 

Why would you need some chemicals?
Just use a decent microfibre cloth with water.

 

I believe that oil/grease stains don't usually come out just with water.

 

If you're just talking about body oil (e.g. from your hands, fingers, skin, etc), then water + abrasion (cloth, towel, etc) will take it off.

Using non-corrosive chemicals (like glass cleaner) will do the job a bit better, since the cleaning chemicals are engineered to bond with the skin oil, and clean it better than just water + abrasion.

 

Does alcohol harm in some way the carbon fiber surface?

There are some body oil stains that don't seem to come out. Maybe if they stay for a while (some days) they get harder to take off? I'm new to this world of having to clean the laptop each time you use it.

 

No, alcohol will not harm carbon fiber. Just be careful to keep the alcohol away from the display, since some laptop displays have coatings that can be damaged by alcohol.

As for some "stains that don't seem to come out.... stay for days... harder to take off....".... uhhhh, let's just say you should keep it simple, and start off with just water + cloth. If for some reason that isn't enough, then you might want to consider using something else like glass cleaner or alcohol.

 

Window cleaner, been using it for years. Isopropyl alcohol spray to get tough stains out.

 

I can confirm that! I use it almost for everything
But it's sooo annoying that this laptop is such a fingerprint magnet

 

But it's such a sexy-looking laptop. I'm not surprised at all that people can't stop touching it.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

Always be extremely careful with any type of alcohol, IPA, ethanol, etc. it can wreck some things like the some layers on lcd displays. The XPS has a glass layer on top of it with the 4K so it isn't as much of a concern, but refraining from using the pure stuff is advisable. Most polymers aren't soluble in IPA, but personally, I am always careful with organic solvents.

Lens cleaner usually works pretty well, as well as cleaning solutions meant for lcd displays. Soft soap and water is usually enough.

 

baby wipes

 

Often read others mention how useful Isopropyl Alcohol can be for cleaning circuit boards, CPU thermal paste etc. Just found these after a quick look on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3RA21OQJVWXQ7

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1GHHA4GPDJQIJ

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

To those have used this stuff, any recommendations? 70% or 99%? One person mentioned that 99% tends to evaporate a bit quick. Presumably that's the only difference between low and higher percentages?

Thanks.

 

70% i rubbing so avoid it. It doesn't evaporate quickly if you spray it on the cloth.

 

I second that.
Simple Window cleaner works best for all surfaces on the 9550.
On the touchpad I use it with a microfiber, but for some reason the touchpad really takes some time and soft rubbing until it's as smooth as before.

 

Guidance from a major producer of LED screens is always worth a review:

http://techlife.samsung.com/ways-clean-computer-monitor-screens-1094.html

 

Thanks for the tip!

The carbon fibre near my touchpad has been oily for months. Gentle rubbing with a dry microfibre cloth removed all the staining in 10 seconds.

A bit of water and a paper towel removed any other stains that remained.