View Poll Results: How clean is your PC?

**fingal** · 10-05-2006

Hello

Does anyone else find that their keyboard gets clogged up with 'keyboard plaque'? That disgusting mass of stuff that gathers between your keys over the months and years.

If you're not sure, try this. Get a large sheet of newspaper, and shake your keyboard over it.

Did anything drop out? How hygienic is your computer? Mine always end up needing a good clean.

Please note: I said keyboard plaque not keyboard plague! I thought I'd turn this into a poll of sorts, just for fun. You can choose more than one option in case you have more than one box.

**techieMoe** · 10-05-2006

I imagine over time my keyboard "plaque" could turn into a keyboard "plague".

I seem to remember reading that the keyboard and mouse tend to be the dirtiest place in the office... mostly because they never get cleaned. I'll wait for a MythBusters episode to confirm it though. Haha.

**carlosponti** · 10-05-2006

I have spilled liquor on my keyboards when i had some late night gaming sessions. basically the keyboard stopped working shortly after. And my work keyboard and mouse both have nasty stuff built up on them. not to mention the fans in my PC and the motherboard having a nice build up of dust on the surface.

**drl** · 10-05-2006

Hi.

I have a beard, 4 cats, and a significant other. The keyboards gather a lot of (mostly) organic debris.

Shaking the keyboard has not been as effective for me as running a business card right-and-left through the keys. Talk about hair-balls.

I have one server with 7 fans, but I didn't think it got very dirty. On the other hand, the PSU seemed to have burned out this summer.

The air intakes on older boxes that have hefty fans can be amazingly dirty -- even the floppy disk slot. My old fan-less Fat Mac never had that problem

... cheers, drl

**techieMoe** · 10-05-2006

Originally Posted by carlosponti

I have spilled liquor on my keyboards when i had some late night gaming sessions.

I imagine the alcohol probably helped clean the keyboard of any nasty microbes that might have taken up residence on it. Haha.

**fingal** · 10-05-2006

So we have - in the average keyboard - organic matter, a little alcohol, atmospheric humidity and maybe a bit of static. Sounds like a mini eco-system to me. New life forms in the making.

**bigtomrodney** · 10-05-2006

I'm freakish about mine. Mine even has spill gutters in case it does get dirty, and I clean it regularly, though I admittedly thought this poll was about the interior. Mine was always dirty but my new case has air filters in it so the inside is practically sterile. Really cold too...

**fingal** · 10-05-2006

Originally Posted by bigtomrodney

I'm freakish about mine. Mine even has spill gutters in case it does get dirty, and I clean it regularly, though I admittedly thought this poll was about the interior. Mine was always dirty but my new case has air filters in it so the inside is practically sterile. Really cold too...

How did you make the spill gutters? I'm curious now. The poll's about the inside and the outside really: just a bit of fun.

I have a small can of compressed air to clean the inside of my box.

**techieMoe** · 10-05-2006

Originally Posted by fingal

How did you make the spill gutters?

I don't know why that made me think of this:

http://www.markusleonhardt.de/en/oelbilder.html

**bigtomrodney** · 10-05-2006

They were actually built in! I got a wireless keyboard and mouse from Tesco for less than €20. It had perforations and gutters under the keys to let any liquids flow out safely. Nice setup. The keyboard has been on the same set of batteries for six months.

View Poll Results: How clean is your PC?

Thread Tools

Display

How clean is your computer?

Posting Permissions