A Motherboard is one of the most important parts of any computer as it hosts all the major components of your PC. You have to maintain it properly because a single dent can cause any major issue to your computer and its performance. If you don’t know how to maintain it or be precise How to clean a Motherboard, then I’m going to teach you exactly how it is done in very easy terms. Just follow the steps which I’m going to talk about below and you’ll be good to go.
Before we dive into the main topic, Let’s understand first, Why cleaning a motherboard is important and what are its benefits?
Most people get busy in their work (or gaming) after purchasing a prebuild pc or building their own PC and forget to clean their computer i.e a Motherboard. They don’t realize that just like any other thing, a Motherboard needs to maintain on regular basis to properly function and last longer. If your motherboard causes any serious issue due to dust while doing important work, you would be annoyed right? That’s a couple of main reasons to clean a motherboard. I hope you have got my point till now.
The benefits?
There are two major benefits of cleaning a motherboard.
1. The first and foremost benefit of cleaning a motherboard is health and hygiene. There is a high chance that the dust and bacteria which get stored in the corners of a motherboard can cause you several health issues from allergies to bacteria. You shouldn’t take your health for granted and it is better to safe than sorry.
2. As you may already know, the CPU cooler is what makes your computer stay under the right temperature. If the dust gets stored in the CPU cooler, it’ll block the rotation and will surely lead it to overheat. This isn’t a good thing because overheating can cause multiple issues to other components of a PC and you should definitely try to avoid it in any case.
So now you know the benefits and reasons to clean a motherboard and now,
Here are the things required to clean a motherboard.
1. A screwdriver.
2. A compressed air or a blower (Will cost you around $50).
3. A Makeup Brush
4. Cotton.
5. Isopropyl Alcohol (should be 90% or more is better)
Okay. Now that you have everything. Let’s get started on the main topic without wasting any time.
Contents
- 1.1 1. How To Clean Motherboard Using Compressed Air or a Blower
- 1.2 2. How to Clean Your Motherboard with Isopropyl Alcohol
- 1.3 Easy Steps to follow while Cleaning a Motherboard:
2 Easy Ways to Clean a Motherboard:
There are two simple methods to clean any motherboard.
1. By using compressed air or a blower.
2. By using Isopropyl Alcohol.
You can choose any one of them as per your choice.
Let’s talk about the first way.
1. How To Clean Motherboard Using Compressed Air or a Blower
If you are thinking to opt for cleaning your motherboard using compressed air or a blower, then you are on the safe side. After completely shutting your computer and dismantling each part, keep the motherboard in a safe place so that it doesn’t fall anywhere while cleaning it.
After placing it in the right place, use the compressor or a blower to get rid of any tiny dust particles which have stored in the motherboard. There might be some chance where getting rid of dust using an air compressor isn’t possible. In that case, you can use the makeup brush which I have mentioned earlier. Use the brush gently to remove tiny dust and then use the air compressor again to remove the remaining dust and that’s it.
Congratulations. Now you have got rid of dust in your motherboard without any risks which may have damaged your computer.
Now let’s move on to the second and one of the best ways to clean a motherboard. It requires you to take some risk while doing it so be cautious about everything.
2. How to Clean Your Motherboard with Isopropyl Alcohol
For those of you who haven’t heard of this term before, let me try to briefly explain What is Isopropyl Alcohol?
Isopropyl Alcohol is a chemical that is flammable. They smell like vodka and similar type of alcohol. It is really helpful for cleaning your electronics parts such as PC, Motherboard or even a laptop. The purity level of this alcohol varies from 70%-99%. The most common purity level among those is 90%-91%. I would highly advise you to use 90%+level of purity to clean your PC or Motherboard. If you want to learn more about Isopropyl Alcohol, then I would highly recommend you to read this article. It’ll give you more info about Isopropyl Alcohol.
I hope you may have got the idea about Isopropyl Alcohol till now. Let’s see How to use Isopropyl Alcohol.
There are two ways for Isopropyl Alcohol to clean your motherboard and I’ll mention both ways here. If you want to quickly remove any sticky element from a motherboard, you can use a cloth swab and apply the alcohol on it. After applying it, you can use that cloth swab to clean any sticky material from the surface of a motherboard.
If there are any hard element which hasn’t got cleaned even after cleaning from a cloth swab, you can pour some alcohol in the motherboard and clean it from a new cloth swab. You can also use this technique when some part of your motherboard isn’t functioning properly
Both ways work perfectly fine and I would advise you to use the correct way based on your situation.
Easy Steps to follow while Cleaning a Motherboard:
Step No. 1: You have to shut down your PC completely before cleaning the Motherboard. Also, don’t forget to unplug all the power switches connected to the PC. This will ensure your safety as well as your PC’s safety from any damage.
Step No. 2: Disassemble your computer and gently remove the Motherboard from it. You shouldn’t use much power or energy while doing it because it may cause some serious damage to it.
Step No. 3: As I said earlier, you can use compressed air or a blower to remove any type of dust particles from the motherboard. Don’t be in a hurry. Invest a couple of minutes while doing it and your motherboard is going to last a long time.
Step No. 4: Apply some Isopropyl Alcohol in a cotton swab to remove the sticky elements from the motherboard. Here also you need to be very careful while cleaning it and you need to be a little gentle about it.
Step No. 5: Pour a small amount of Isopropyl Alcohol into the motherboard if hasn’t cleaned by a cotton swab. You have to be a little cautious about it.
Step No. 6: Allow the motherboard to completely dry before powering your computer. Again, don’t be in a rush. Have a little patient while the motherboard gets dry.
Step No. 7: Assemble the computer back and make sure you have set up everything right before turning it on.
And that’s it.
Final Words:
Cleaning a Motherboard isn’t at all a very hectic task. You just need to be a little patience and follow the basic and simple method to do it. I hope you have learned How to Clean a Motherboard the right way with the help of this guide. If it did, please let me know by leaving me comments below. Thank You.
