Just imagine that you have worked on something the whole night and decide to take its print out in the morning. How would you feel when you see the final print out of that work is filled with smudged prints? Even a small fault or obstruction in your printer may result in streaky pages and smudged prints.

It can be costly to take your printer for professional repair. A regular cleaning and maintenance regime can prevent common printer problems. You can do it on your own while sitting at home. Let’s see what basic things we should do before starting to clean different parts of the printer. Paper Towel, Cotton Swabs, Printer Oil, Window Cleaner and a pair of Gloves, are some things we will need to clean the printer.

Before discussing how to clean all the parts of the printer, let us know about its important part in brief

Print Head: This part of the printer causes maximum problems. Every time you refill the ink, try to change the head along with it. Some cartridges may include print head along with them while some ink does not have print head.

Stabilizer Bar: Stepper motor needs a belt in order to move print head. The main work of stabilizer bar is to make sure that everything thing is even and lined up.

Interface Ribbon: you can see this ribbon available behind the print head. Its main work is to tell the print cartridges what color to drop and where to drop.

Paper Feed Assembly: This part of the printer picks up and set the paper into the printer.

Before cleaning cartridges, check whether it has both print head and ink together. Mostly you will find both of them together so in order to clean it, fold paper towel to it’s fourth and add alcohol on one side of the folded paper towel. Wipe the bottom of the cartridge, in this way you can clean the cartridge. While taking print out, you will notice that printer has got a thin layer of ink inside. This layer can affect the oil present on the stabilizing bar, making it harder to move. So to make it work smoothly, oil this bar by putting dabs on the bar and drag the head of the bar manually in order to get the good coating of oil and  make its movement smooth.

There are few things that one should remember before cleaning the printer. Wear your pair of gloves in order to avoid your hands getting in touch with ink. First make sure that the printer is switched off and unplugged, then take out the cartridges from the printer and put them aside. Fold the paper towel and clean the excess ink from the cartridges. In order to lubricate the metal bar of the printer, you can use some oil soaked in paper towel or cotton swab. Once you are sure that the dust has been removed from almost all the parts of the printer and the necessary parts are oiled properly, put all the parts to its original places.

If you know that cleaning the printer on your own is difficult for you, no need to test your skills in cleaning the parts of printer for the very first time. Contact your nearest printer store and take their help.  Don’t soak complete towel in the oil instead just dip one side of towel in order to clean printer parts. Always remember “Excess of anything could be dangerous”.

Tips for Maintaining an Optical Mouse

1. Keep the mouse pad and the situations around the mouse in a dry condition.
2. Clean the mouse regularly. Cleaning is of utmost importance for the maintenance of an optical mouse.

Optical Mouse Cleaning

1. Though optical mice generally need much less maintenance than their mechanical counterpart, they need cleaning once in a while. Cleaning of an optical mouse takes hardly 5 minutes. So, it should be your target to clean it every month. Regular cleaning ensures its smooth and effective functioning.
2. The first step to clean your optical mouse is to unplug it. Optical mouse generally connects to the computer through the USB port. If you own a USB mouse then you can take it out without switching off the computer. If your mouse somehow connects using a different connector, then you should first switch off your computer.
3. Once it is unplugged, look at the bottom of the mouse to find the area where the LED and the lens are located.
4. Moisten the end of a cotton bud with some drops of apt cleaning fluid. Never put fluid straightaway on the mouse. With the damp cotton bud, gently wipe up the area to eliminate any dust or remains. Make sure not to put any pressure on the lens or LED and make sure that no surplus fluid gets squeezed out of the cotton bud into the mouse. Turning the cotton bud between your fingers can be effective. Once it is done, use a dry cotton bud to softly wipe over the area to ensure it is dried up.

Steps to Prevent Optical Mouse Damage

Optical mouse easily gets damaged. You can overcome this threat by following the steps that are mentioned below-
1. Always use a base of light color to use the optical mouse. It is very susceptible to the reflection of the base.
2. Don’t keep moving the mouse when computer is hanged.
3. Don’t touch below lens part of the mouse. It is just a ray of laser like light system.
4. If you find any mouse not running on the very first time, just re-install the drivers and settle the things.

With the steps and methods mentioned above, you can take good care of your optical mouse. These optical mouse maintenance tips will lengthen the life of your optical mouse.

PC has always been a huge investment for everyone and users keep worrying about its hard disk failing, CPU over heating or PC crashing. That is why there are few basic tips that every PC owner should follow in order to keep their machine fit and healthy. If you help your system in getting rid of dust, power protection, checking registration of components, I am sure you would be able to keep your system in a very good condition.

Check out the integrity of hard drives: If your system is experiencing frequent crash, the source of problem may be the hard disk. Continuous usage of any software may cause irregularities with your system’s hard disk and may result into their crash. So try to run some utility programs that scan your hard disk for errors and at least once in a week, go for complete scan of your PC.

Use firewall and antivirus protection: Hackers can break through your system and can corrupt physical components as well as software programs installed on your PC. They use some sort of tools to search for some live connection on the internet from where they can easily hack your system. So if you are internet user, you should install antivirus and enable firewall in order to protect your computer from hackers.

Prevent spam: In order to prevent spam, you can use any spam-blocking software which includes spam-filters. This may reduce portion of spam up to an extent from your mail IDs.

Defragmentation of hard drive: It is a very important process which lets you place your files in cluster and optimizes your hard drive by placing most frequently used files at the top for fast access. This process improves the performance of your computer. You can run this process once a week for complete management of unused space of your hard drives.

Back up for hard drive: you may experience problems in your PC any time so the best way to overcome such situation is to create back up of your files. This will help you in situation where your system gets corrupt or hard drive fails. System backup could save a lot of time and of course your important data.

Apart from software kind of PC maintenance, there are some physical methods too through which you can maintain your PC’s health. You should know that the main reason of overheating is dirt and dust, so keep your system clean from both inside and outside. Wipe it once in a week and turn off the monitor when your system is not in use. No need of wasting power supply if you are not using your system. If you are having LCD monitor try to do this process as your LCD may burn out with continue power supply for longer duration. Don’t keep your PC in cold state. Even if you are not using it try to just turn it on once in a week so that all its components keep working and does not get jam and instead to shutting down your PC, try to keep it in a hibernation mode. When you are opening the case of CPU, don’t forget to turn off the switch if you really want to avoid failure of circuit boards

If you really care for your PC, I am sure after reading this article you are going to follow these steps or else prepare yourself to keep investing and replacing your PC components.

Things Required to Clean Keyboard Keys

1        Cotton buds

2        Lint free cloth

3        Vacuum cleaner or canister of compressed air

4        Dry cloth or duster

5        Appropriate cleaning fluid like isopropyl alcohol

6        Flat tip screwdriver (elective for thorough clean)

Cleaning Your Keyboard Keys

Clean your keyboard keys with the help of the steps given below. Be sure to proceed methodically and be at caution wherever required. The step to clean keyboard are-

1        Shut down the computer and detach the keyboard connector before cleaning.

2        Detaching the keyboard when the computer is running is harmless when the keyboard is connected to the computer via usb.

3        Gently turn over the keyboard and shake to take out dust and particles.

4        Blow between keys with compressed air and remove dirt trapped below.

5        Turn over the keyboard again and shake to eliminate loosened grime.

6        Put a little amount of cleaner on the swab or cloth. They should be somewhat wet to shun dripping liquids into the keyboard.

7        Gently clean the keyboard keys and other outer areas. Do not use scraping action or abrasives on the keys as by doing so you may possibly remove their labels.

8        If grime is still there around the edges of the keys, try to use an alcohol-based dab or a small quantity of rubbing alcohol on a dirt free cloth. Again, this can take away or damage the letters on top of the keys, so continue with caution.

9        Give some time to the keyboard to dry out if indispensable, prior to plugging it back into your computer.

Tips to Clean Keyboard Keys

Always keep the following tips on mind while you are cleaning keyboard keys. These tips can save your keyboard from damage.

1        Never immerse the keyboard in water.

2        Sticky fluids under the keys are almost impossible to get rid of. Consider purchasing a fresh keyboard.

3        Some keyboard keys may be detachable and can easily come off. Read the directions that came with your computer or keyboard regarding such sort of cleaning before trying to remove the keys.

4        Some keyboards are dishwasher secure. If you have a constant problem with dirt and spills, reflect on buying one of these.

A computer is useless without keys. A dirty appearance is only one reason to dirt free your computer keyboard. If dust gets trapped underneath the keys, they may not work as they should. Spilled liquids can be death knell of your keyboard if you don’t take good care. So, now you can not only clean your keyboard but also help others when they ask how to clean keyboard keys.

The hardware part of the computer includes essential components which enable these devices to function. Many users have also been interested regarding their computers in the idea of using tamper proof screws for their computer hardware as they considered them as useful to be used.

There have been made available for users many such computer hardware tamper proof screws from which they can choose the ones that they might consider useful for them to use. One example in this respect is represented by Penta Plus screws which have been included among the best products of this kind. They have been mainly appreciated because they have been considered to be both tamper resistant and vandal proof which is very important for users interested in this idea of using this type of products.

Computer hardware tamper proof screws are considered very useful by users interested in avoiding the theft of certain hardware components included or connected to their computers. The good quality of these products has been considered to be given by the impossibility of them being unscrewed with a tradition tool or screwdrivers which makes its users more certain of the safety of their computer hardware parts, such as the hard disk and the modules being included within the computer.

They have been considered appropriate to be used by public authorities and in schools for example as they enable for the computer hardware equipment to be not only saved from theft but also from all sorts of vandal actions which might be taken against them.

Computer hardware tamper proof screws are useful products for users interested in becoming certain that their hardware equipments will not be either vandalized or stolen. There are many products of this type available nowadays and in this respect many users can analyze them and choose the ones that they might consider as more appropriate to be used.