Contributing to at least sixty percent of all computer repair problems, liquid damage is one of the biggest nuisances for the computer-age office worker. Even if it is easily preventable, there can always be accidents. Here are the four most common types of liquid spills that we see damaging our client’s computers.

Coffee

The biggest culprit of liquid damage by far has got to be coffee, likely because those of us that work at our computers all day, and likely all night, need a bit of a pick-me-up. The complex cocktail of chemicals and additives in coffee can absolutely destroy a computer’sinner-workings. They can even caramelize the insides of the device – as well as leave a rather nasty odor, due to the dairy products and sugar Many of us add to your coffee.

Water

Water would be just beneath coffee, contributing to about twenty percent of all cases of liquid damage. Oddly enough it really isn’t even the water that does the damage, it’s what’s within the water. A myriad of minerals in distilled or tap water can cause a short circuit, but completely pure, distilled water itself isn’t even a conductor of electricity.

Soda

Due to the sugar and acidity in soda and other soft drinks, they’re extra-corrosive oncomputer hardware, causing a lot of the same damage as a coffee spill. It’s probably best to keep any liquid fit for cleaning auto parts as far away from your electronic devices as humanly possible.

Beer and Wine

Surprisingly enough, the alcohol in beer and wine isn’t what damages your computer, in fact it’s pure isopropyl alcohol that a lot of technicians use to clean up the components of a computer. It’s actually the additives to alcoholic beverages that typically do all of the dirty work. Sugars, juices, and food coloring can all do severe damage to the circuitry of your computers or other electronic devices.

What should you do when the inevitable accidents do happen? It’s important to know the precautionary steps to take to prevent anymore damage from occurring. First of all, turn off, unplug the device and take out the battery, as electricity still conducts through it even when it’s powered down. You should also seek the advice of a reputable computer technician, like the ones at Tech Force.

The Internet isn’t the only place viruses can be lurking, waiting to cause harm to you and your family.

The keyboard you tap away at on a day to day basis could be absolutely riddled with germs and bacteria. Not only that, but your other computer peripherals like your mouse, touch pad, touch screen, or stylus can easily collect dirt and grime with just a short time of use. Studies done with spectrum lights have shown that most of the same germs and bacteria that can be found on a toilet seat, public water fountain, and even the bathroom doorknob, can also be found on your mouse, keyboard, touch pad and, especially your touchscreen.

When it comes to cleaning your computer equipment; which you have already spent a good bit of money on, you should definitely exercise caution. These aren’t just like your kitchen counters or the occasional buildup of grime in the shower, so harsh cleaning chemicals won’t do the trick; if anything they’ll probably do more harm than good.

​Though most of your peripheral cleaning can easily be done with just a dust cloth, or a can of compressed air – to get at those cookie crumbs and pizza crust chunks stuck between the keys – we strongly advise against the use of most household cleaning agents. The best bet is rubbing alcohol, 90% if you can find it, white vinegar, or a strong ammonia-based window cleaner.

Never spray the peripheral directly, always spritz or pour a little on a dry cloth, you want the cloth damp, not wet. Too much fluid can cause unnecessary drips, that may damage components.  Remember, you are washing computer parts here, not a dirty plate after Thanksgiving dinner.

Soft cloths are best used when de-germing more fragile peripherals, like your touchscreen. When cleaning don’t apply too much unnecessary pressure, this can cause the touch components of a touchscreen to squish, or one of the connections on your keyboard to short out or even get stuck in the forever typing position. The idea here is to let the cleaning solution do the work, not elbow grease.

​If your keyboard or mouse have a large buildup of dirt and grime, use a cotton swab or Q-tip to get within the smaller cracks and crevices. You can also take a bowl with a small amount vinegar or alcohol, dampen the Q-tip – squeezing out the excess liquid –  and then gently clean those crevices.

Mice, touch pads and touch screens have the tendency to get incredibly mucky which can ultimately makes things short out, not connect, and thereby cause them to not work to their full potential. Simple sanitation wipes can do the trick, but sometimes even these have too much liquid, best to squeeze out the excess before tackling any peripheral with it.

​Your computer is a working machine with a fan and parts that move constantly, dust buildup makes them slow down and eventually stop altogether, which leads to an inefficient, slow moving device. Giving the inside of the case a good compressed air spritzing is just good household hygiene. Air borne pathogens can easily get caught is the dust bunnies of a fan to come back later to infect your family.

Our data is everywhere. We have MP3s on our phones, movies on our tablets, books on our Kindles, and stuff for work on our laptops and desktops. This being the case, we sometimes have to wonder if our information is completely safe? Our devices, along with our data, can always be lost, damaged, or even stolen from us.

There has to be a way we can gather all this information in one place, perhaps somewhere we can access from all of our devices. Maybe somewhere we’d even be able to easily share certain files with friends or family. A place where even if we spill coffee in the drawer that holding our backup drive, our data would still be safe.
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There is!

​Cloud Storage, to put it simply, is a folder on a server where you can store your information, and even backup your files. No more desk drawers cluttered with USB sticks, old external hard drives, or even the odd floppy disk or two. Cloud storage is especially useful when getting a new device, making the transfer of data from one place to another easy and efficient.

These services not only make life easier for the casual computer user, but for students, small business owners, or anyone who just wants to be able to access their data from multiple devices.

From the pictures of you last vacation to those top-secret office documents, you can easily store it all on the cloud. This way you can be sure that your most important documents are perfectly safe, even when the most unfortunate happens.

One of the really cool features of storing your data on “the Cloud” is that the data is stored on secure servers, making your data more difficult for cyber criminals to access than it would be on that old laptop that hasn’t been properly cleaned out in years.

The most convenient part? Cloud Storage is typically very low cost and sometimes even completely free! Services like Google Drive are perfect for storing text documents, pictures, or even some of your music collection. With a simple click of a button you can access your files from anywhere in the world!

​Now that more and more of our devices are connected to “the Cloud”, it makes sense to utilize this new technology to not only protect our data, but to also make our lives a little easier.
If you have any questions about “the Cloud”, or need help setting up storage for your office, give the experts at Tech Force a call!