Clean Up Routine

[countryparson]

Hi,
I'm new here having stumbled into retro computing picking up old stuff to learn my way around linux on.  The rush of nostalgia from booting into old machines got me interested in tinkering with old systems themselves though.
I was wondering what sort of clean up routine (hardware and on the system itself) folks normally do when they pick up a new, old computer.
Thanks,

[RedWolf]

Hi,
I'm new here having stumbled into retro computing picking up old stuff to learn my way around linux on.  The rush of nostalgia from booting into old machines got me interested in tinkering with old systems themselves though.
I was wondering what sort of clean up routine (hardware and on the system itself) folks normally do when they pick up a new, old computer.
Thanks,

Welcome to the forum, countryparson!

When you see clean-up routine, do you mean physical cleaning of the computer?  If so, then I usually don't clean my equipment unless it is Grade A nasty.  But if it is nasty, I'll vacuum inside wherever I can reach (or open the case if it's a PC tower, etc.) and wipe down the outside with a Magic Eraser, water, and then mop it up with paper towels.  The Magic Eraser (melamine sponge) gets off just about any gunk you throw at it, although be careful around painted logos, as it can rub them off.

Cleaning software wise, I'd just do a low-level format on a hard drive, if that's what you mean.  Don't trust any disks of any kind without scanning them for virii.

[RockinKat]

When I think of cleaning in a classic computer sence, I think of it as physical appearance... I generally wil open the computer and use my air compressor inside it to blow out as much dust as possible.. I've blown out what looked like it could have been housing insulation in the past. I used my air compressor on my dad's 286 and got what looked like a sheet of insullation... clumped up dust and hair and fur and dander, about 1/2 inch thick and matted laying on the floor next to the comptuer when it shot out from under the motherboard when I aimed the air compresser under the other side... it was so f'ing nasty....

Generally for body greese or food mess like soda residue or just that mysteriouse black dirt that gets stuck to what would seem like a smooth plastic surface(like that of a commodore 1084 monitor), I'll use scrubing buubbles on the computer case.... I'll take the top half off and spray it down with the same stuff I use to clean my toilet... let it sit and foam for about half a minute and t hen wipe it off.... maybe run it under water to get the cleaner out of the vents... and rinse off the cleaner's own residue........

When using it on monitors I have to be extra carefull not to spray around vents... or to simply spray and rub it into a rag and t hen run that on the monitor... though it doesn't really work as well if it can't foam up on the surface being cleaned... I turned my 1084 a few shades lighter using scrubbing bubbles because it was so covered in dirt when I got it.

For keyboards, I pluck off all the keycaps, put them in a bowl with some water, and heap on a bunch of scrubbing bubbles on top.. and then wipe each single keykap down with it and then let them dry on another towel..

....sparing that I sometimes will put the keykaps in a closeable silverware basket and run them through the dish washer.... but then I still have to try to knock the water out of the keycaps and  then still let the dry out on the rag. There's also the risk of food particles getting stuck in the bottoms of the keycaps.