Cleaning A Computer/Laptop With A Vacuum Cleaner

This may be a tad silly,

but was thinking, is it at all harmful to use a Vacuum Cleaner for cleaning out a computer since maybe at a certain speed the vacuum may suck/detach a part of the computer (cable, what have you)?

Thanks for all your help!

 

If you use the vacuum to suck from the laptop's vent, you should be fine. Most of the cables and wires are under the motherboard anyways

 

Another thing to be wary of is static.

 

apparently i heard that if you vacuum from outside the case (through the vent) its allright, but if you open the case and vacuum with the inside component exposed, it not alright...

i never actually vacuum from the vents.. but i do vacuum an area about 1cm away from the laptop, to clean up the dust around my desk... am i allright?
err... btw, i use professional grade vacuum....

 

"btw, i use professional grade vacuum...." - does that mean the big ones used for cleaning carpets and not the smaller hand-held ones?

 

If you're worried about loose parts, you can always put a thin screen at the end to prevent any pieces being sucked up.

 

Do not use a vacuum, I tried this, and ended up spending two hours searching through the bag in the vacuum, for the keys and the little plastic pieces which secure the keys to the keyboard.

Use a small electric air compressor. Just make sure its under 100psi.
This is just enough pressure to clean all of the dust out of the system, and all of the gunk under the keyboard.

For heavy dirt, I grab my 4horsepower STIHL BR550 backpackblower

K-TRON

 

yes, a lot more powerful than the puny dyson

 

sure, at low setting and loads of patience if u dont want to spend time looking some flying parts in the bag like K-TRON mentioned. Arkit3kt idea of a thin screen was also good

canned air seemed to be the preferred alternative

cheers ...

 

Thanks for the advice, though, I have heard the comment that canned air simply "pushes" the dust farther inside the computer?

 

i dont know about pushing further inside, but at least it will blow the dust "all over"

cheers ...

 

I've used the vacuum on my laptop's keyboard. There's dust and crumbs of food. Although it never sucked up any of the keys or anything, I always worry when I do this because I will be screwed if it sucks up my keys. So I run it across the keyboard once, then just run my hand across the keyboard, securing it back into place if it accidently got loose when I used the vacuum. But I wouldn't use the vacuum if you're trying to clean the inside. Just take your laptop apart and get a can of Dustfree or something and the dust will be ridden of.

 

I use a regular vacuum on my desktop every 3 months or so. It has 5 fans (4 intake, 1 exhaust) so the dust accumulates fairly quickly. I have never had a problem with it, but I take great caution not to bump any of the boards. Compressed air is good of the boards themselves if you have stubborn dust that won't come up. A Q-tip soaked in rubbing alcohol is also a good way to clean certain electronic parts because the alcohol quickly evaporates.

 

It's years that I often use home vacuum cleaner to clean both my desktop and laptop. Vents, keyboard and edges of LCD of laptop, and almost all parts in desktop case interior!
I had no sucking or damage problems in these years.