Tech Top Tip - How To Clean An Optical Disc

As a Retro Computing enthusiast I'm picking up quite a few CDs and DVDs.  Needless to say, not everyone takes good care of their discs so knowing how to clean them properly is a good idea...

Testing and Cleaning an IBM ThinkPad 380Z Laptop - Car Boot Sale Find!

Here's another one of the sub-£2 laptops I picked up earlier on in the year, namely an IBM ThinkPad 380Z.

As you can see the lid is dirty and there's a great big scratch on the screen completely and utterly ruining it :(

On top of that theres a crack in the corner of the screens bezel and there's something nasty and disgusting on a couple of the keys.

There are also some very strange markings and dents on parts of the laptop but I have no idea what they are.

After gathering up my laptop cleaning gear, I got down to giving this latop a thorough cleaning...


One thing I have learnt from doing this video is that going forward, even if I'm not making a YouTube video, I shall start recording anyway as for those of you who have seen the video will know that whilst air dusting the laptop a spring shot off across the screen that basically stopped the power button working!  Luckily I spotted this whilst I was editing the video and found the spring under my screwdriver set and it's now safely in a small plastic bag and Sellotaped to the laptop!

As you will see from the photos below, it's a hell of a lot cleaner than when I started but the weird and wonderfull markings and dents are still there - looks like something acidic has touched the laptop but no idea what.

Because it has no Hard Disk Drive or HDD Caddy, it's covered in scratches and strange dents and has a few cracks in the case I have labelled this one up as Spares and Repairs - you can't win them all, beside for £1.90 it's well worth it for the parts in case I get another one of these that requires a floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive :)

Cleaning A Very Dirty Compaq 7350MT Laptop

I picked up a (very) dirty old laptop the other day for a couple of quid that has clearly been sitting in a barn or garage somewhere for a very long time...

To clean a dirty old laptop like this, I use two different products.  First I give it a once-over with the trusty old AF Foamclene followed by a magic sponge/eraser!

After a very short while you then end up with something like this:

As you can see it has come out really nice :)