posted
Had my laptop for some time now, and it wants a good cleaning. What's the best way to clean the screen?
And is it possible to clean under the keys? I've got a couple of keys that are sticking but I dunno if I can pry things up they way I can a regular keyboard. Help?
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'd be careful prying off keys. I've had a few pop off and since I've reattached them, they're slightly crooked and not very sturdy.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Yeah, I couldn't get one of my keys back on (it was the Fn key anyway so I didn't care). Thankfully I sent the lappy in for service for something unrelated and they fixed that up also. I bought my father in law a can of those lcd screen cleaning wipes, works really well on their LCD monitor and new TV.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I clean my screen using a lint-free wipe dampened with water, when the computer is off. People I know have had success removing the keyboard keys to clean underneath, but I've never tried it.
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
TheTick, what company manufactured your laptop? I have a Dell and they told me they could neither send me replacement keys or fix it during service. Now my 'v' key sticks quite a bit. It seems like such an easy thing, and yet, no.
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I just got a Compaq laptop and that thought occurred to me, too. With our old computers, it was no problem to replace the keyboard, and we did. (I have to admit, we do eat at the computer, and my husband smokes.)
So the first rule for the kids was, no eating at Mom's computer.
But I know something bad will probably happen someday ...
Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Assuming you don't mind voiding the warranty, Dell itself has an online guide to disassembling their laptops. This is the guide to the model I have now, and you should probably be able to find a similar guide for your model by either using their search function or Google.
I had an older Dell laptop that wasn't cooling properly, which was causing some serious performance issues, and the warranty had expired. So I used their guide to completely disassemble it. After I had it strewn all across the room I was finally able to remove the heat sink, reapply the thermal gel, seat it properly over the processor and reassemble it. It only took about an hour, and it works perfectly now.
If you're going to go that far, the only piece of advice I have for you is to be very anal about remembering which screw came from which hole. Other than that it shouldn't be too difficult.
Posts: 563 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
Kensington seels a screen cleaner for laptops and LCDs. I've used it with a soft cloth, and it works well.
I have popped keys off a laptop keyboard, but it's trickier than a regular keyboard. I would not pop off the larger keys like the shift, enter, and space bar. If your laptop has a Trackpoint, you might want to stay away from popping those off, too. I broke my left shift when I popped it off to try fixing a weird keyboard issue; one of my coworker's is missing the H key, for similar reasons.
I sometimes "clean" standard keyboards by holding them upside down and shaking them, but I wouldn't do that with a laptop... more sensitive electronics. An air can would probably work well. I sometimes fold a bit of paper and run them under the keys to dislodge dust and crumbs... it's never hurt any machines I've done this on, but I'm not entirely certain it's the best thing for them, either, so take that one with a grain of salt.
Posts: 1805 | Registered: Jun 1999
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