What Is the Best Way To Disinfect Your Laptop? 545
akutz writes "I've had the flu since Tuesday afternoon. My wife picked me up from work with a temperature of 103.6 and it finally broke at 98.7 around 3am this morning. Yay. The problem is that I used my laptop during my periods of feverish deliriousness, contaminating my shiny 15" MacBook Pro with the icky influenza virus. I am asking my fellow Slashdotters if they have ever sought out a good way of disinfecting their lucky laptops after an illness. Do you use soap? A light acid bath? Just get the family dog to lick it until it looks clean?"
Lysol (Score:5, Informative)
Just spray some Lysol on a rag and wipe it down. If you are really worried, you could spray the machine directly, but I'd be concerned of damage.
UV light (Score:5, Informative)
Germs on plastic? (Score:3, Informative)
Set it out in the Sun (Score:5, Informative)
a gentle cleaning (Score:4, Informative)
Use the gentlest cleanser you can (the cleaner they sell for lcd televisions works pretty well), a microfiber cloth (not wet, just damp), and go over it once, let it dry, go over it again, let it dry, then a little bit of sunshine really does help kill germs.
Use rubbing alcohol (Score:4, Informative)
Aren't you immune now? (Score:3, Informative)
Now that you have survived, and, correct me if I am wrong - but aren't you immune now to that virus?
That said, I'd say damp (as in no drips possible) cloth made damp by some soapy water to wipe it down ought to do the trick. The mantra in my EMT class (and a number of test questions) was "The best way to avoid spreading disease is to wash your hands often".
Re:UV light (Score:5, Informative)
lysol disinfectant wipes (Score:2, Informative)
About 2 days (Score:3, Informative)
If you can wait about 2 days you are pretty safe.
Clorox (Sodium Hypochlorite) is a pretty good general disinfectant. About 3/4 cup in a gallon of water makes a good antiviral wash solution.
Isopropanol works fairly well too.
Water. (Score:5, Informative)
First, turn off the laptop. The aluminum casing of the MacBook Pro can withstand wiping with Lysol, the active ingredient of which is benzalkonium chloride in a low concentration. Do not saturate the surface, but do leave it damp for a few minutes--then go back and wipe down with water. For the screen, simply wipe with distilled water. Use the black cleaning cloth that came with your computer--it is included in the same package as the installation disks.
Under no circumstances should you use anything other than water to clean the display.
If you are *really* paranoid, leave the computer out in bright sun for 30 minutes. While this is not really an "official" way of disinfecting things, the UVB rays could have enough energy to disrupt the activity of bacteria and viruses. If you were really serious about this approach, you'd get a dedicated UVC disinfection unit which would irradiate your laptop. But I don't know what that might do to the hardware. *shrug*
The point is, if you've been coughing as a result of your illness, you've already spread live viral particles all over the place. It's not all that useful to think about sterilization when your living environment is teeming with all kind of infectious organisms--not just viruses, but bacteria and fungi.
Re:If it's hot and dry where you live... (Score:2, Informative)
Isopropanol, and a little time (Score:3, Informative)
Let's assume you share this laptop with coworkers or some friends are coming over, or there's some other reason why people who might not have been exposed while you were sick will be exposed to virus particles protected by little blobs of snot on your laptop.
Take a cotton ball, soak it in isopropyl rubbing alcohol 70% concentration (commonly available at drugstore), squeeze some of the alcohol out so you aren't just dribbling it all over, and then rub down the keyboard, mousepad, screen, case etc with the cotton ball.
let it dry for a minute or two. Repeat.
Wipe off the excess with a dry cotton ball.
You're good to go. Do the same to your phone and any other gadget you might share with a friend or coworker.
It also does a good job of getting grime off your keyboard.
Not a problem, but 70% alcohol if you must. (Score:2, Informative)
And for the record, IAAB (...biologist).
Time, and other methods... (Score:3, Informative)
Assuming it's really influenza, and not some other virus, time will kill it. Influenza can't survive for extended periods of time on dry surfaces. Most influenza viruses only last a several hours on a hard dry surface. Under the right conditions they may last up to 72 hours, but they'll still die off over time.
http://aem.asm.org/cgi/reprint/73/6/1687.pdf [asm.org]
Of course, 3 days is a long time to not have a laptop, but you can safely handle it. You won't get re-infected now that your body is surging with antibodies targeting that specific strain. Just wash your hands afterward so you don't spread it to the non-immune.
If that's not good enough, you could try wiping the case with a cloth *very* lightly dampened with some kind of benzalkonium chloride based disinfectant (i.e.: well squeezed out lysol wipes or something similar). I don't know if that will damage the plastics or not (ie: the screen), it shouldn't but I've never tried it, so be careful here. And of course you have to be careful not to get any liquid into any of the vents.
Re:UV light (Score:5, Informative)
You borked the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection [wikipedia.org]
Re:Germs on plastic? (Score:5, Informative)
Viruses don't "live", as such. Some of them can persist for a very long time, and the influenza virus is one of them. The opening of some old graves from the Great Flu on Spitzbergen a couple of years ago was considered risky, because the virus would likely have survived.
However, you also become immune to a strain of the influenza virus once you've had it. So there will normally be no dangers in using a computer that has traces of influenza virus from when you yourself were ill.
That said, it's not really certain that the OP really had influenza. People tend to throw the word influenza around a lot, for all kinds of infections with flu-like symptoms, whether it's really the flu or not. If a bacterial infection, chances are greater that the bacteria will die, but there's also a greater risk of re-catching the same disease. If a virus, but not an influenza, the longevity of the virus might be way different.
Re:Isopropanol, and a little time (Score:3, Informative)
Not only is it a disinfectant but it's regularly used as a cleaing agent for electronics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isopropyl_alcohol [wikipedia.org]
The isopropanol I have at home isn't labeled as rubbing alcohol but as electronic cleaing spray because it disolves oily substances but doesn't readily interact easily with electronic equipment.
It's hopeless, get over it. (Score:5, Informative)
Please take a look [infectionc...ltoday.com]
The primary issue is that of the severity of the virus or bacteria, not keeping it clean. At best, you can disinfect the surfaces, not the interior. And although it sounds gross, you probably sneezed on, or near, the unit. Perhaps there was some moisture on your fingers when you touched the drive bay, or maybe you got your sickly hands on a CD before you inserted it, spraying fine droplets of moisture through out the unit.
As long as it is something normalish like the Flu, Cold, Chicken Pox, etc . . . just give it time. Most of that stuff dies in 24-36 hours without a host.
If its something horrifying, like Ebola? Stick your electronic item in the oven, put it on "Self-Clean", and get a new one. Discard the ash in a biohazard box ;-)
You'll never, ever, ever, ever succeed at "disinfecting" consumer electronics, because they are never sealed well enough. About the best you can do is those Virtually Indestructible Keyboard&Mice. Anything else just isn't cleanable, and you should do your best to maintain good hygiene (wipe the keyboard and unit every now and then with a good alcohol wipe (or spray alcohol on a paper towel)), and get over the "scariness" of illness.
Furthermore, if its your family your worried about, you've already given them ample opportunity to get infected, if you shared utensils, a bed, skin contact (Hugs and Kisses, anyone?) or even an indoor environment.
Disease isn't that scary unless you or someone you know immune system's compromised, and in that case you should turn to a health care professional to figure out how to make your environment safe. Otherwise, get over it ;-)
Disinfect laptop (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Use rubbing alcohol (Score:3, Informative)
CAREFUL with this! I was cleaning my laptop keyboard with isopropyl alcohol, and it worked great. So I started to clean the palm rest area, and it instantly marred the finish. (It's a Dell XPS m1210.)
I don't really care that my lappy doesn't look new anymore, but the other guy might.
Re:Cleaning keyboards/laptops (Score:3, Informative)
it's a macbook.. so the keyboard isnt coming off.. not even like a compaq laptop..
So anyway, damp rag with isopropyl alchohol will kill the bugs.. really consider it once a week, as keyboards are nasty..
Storm.. Molecular Viologist.. um Biolifist... I have a degree in skience
Re:Cleaning keyboards/laptops (Score:1, Informative)
How the hell did this get modded up? A keyboard can survive a trip through the dishwasher if the temp isnt too high, but if you stick a LAPTOP in the dishwasher you will destroy it.
Sure the circuit board may survive, but say goodbye to the LCD screen, hard drives, lens of the optical drive, power supply...
Use Ethanol (Score:3, Informative)
Nothing is necessary (Score:3, Informative)
Your notebook is safe - influenza and common cold viruses die quickly when exposed to open air.
It's not the case with bacteria, of course. Especially with sporulating bacteria. Endospores can survive almost anything.
Re:Lysol (Score:5, Informative)
Well, the good news is influenza and norovirus are both weak, short living virus strains easily killed by detergents. so no matter what you got sick with, basic soap will kill it.
there are some spore based viruses and even, organisms that are virtually impossible to destroy.
but you didn't get sick with any of those, so you don't have to worry about really decontaminating it.
Re:Lysol (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly. Drink some vodka and stop worrying about a virus that's already been spread all around you. By the time you sober up the virus will probably be dead anyways.
Re:Trust your immune system (Score:3, Informative)
Before you quite reach the loony extremes of disinfecting your light switches, may I recommend one of the many delicious drugs [wikipedia.org] available for OCD?
hypochondriac perhaps? (Score:0, Informative)
Doctor's Advice (Score:3, Informative)
I'm a doctor, and we use laptops in our office, instead of paper charts. So I carry a laptop around all day long while I see patients.
Personally, I tend to wipe my laptop down every once in a while (maybe twice a week) with some disinfectant wipes, though I only do this when some sort of liquid gets on it.
As for your question, onces your laptop has had a few hours to air out, it's probably safe. Most viruses don't live for very long out in the open, although live isn't really the right term. Once they are dry, they are pretty much going to be inactivated. They are usually spread through little droplets that get on your hands, objects, etc. Those droplets then have to get into you (your mouth, eyes, nose etc) in order to infect you. If there are little virus-containing droplets on your laptop, they will pretty quickly dry out and become inactive.
Frequent handwashing is the best thing that you can do to avoid transmitting diseases. It reduces the chances that you will spread something from you to objects around you, and also reduce the chances that you will infect yourself after touching contaminated objects.
Just to address a couple other issues in the replies to this post:
A previous infetion usually protects you from a repeat infection. For instance, you are probably not going to get chicken pox twice. On the other hand, there are several strains of influenza, and those strains mutate each season. So you can get infected year after year, which is why there are annual flu shots. Or in the example of common colds, there are many different viruses which cause cold symptoms, and each of them may have several strains. So you can get lots of colds over the course of your life, even if you are immune to some of the viruses you have been exposed to in the past.
And one last thing - I'm just going to repeat how important it is to wash your hands a lot if you don't want to get sick. In the winter, I might see 25-30 patients a day, most of whom have colds of some sort. I probably wash my hands 50 or so times a day (before and efter each patient) and I don't get sick any more than anyone else.
Re:Lysol (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Cleaning keyboards/laptops (Score:3, Informative)
The only downside is that I've run across a couple brands of keyboard where it will take off the lettering, so you might want to test it on the "pause/break" key (or your own least favorite key) first to make sure it won't do that. Some people think blank keyboards are great for forcing you to touch-type, but others don't want to be challenged that way
Re:UV light (Score:4, Informative)
You don't even need that. Just keep it dry for a couple hours. Pretty much no virus can survive non-wet conditions for extended periods of time. What's that? Your laptop is dry? Then you're fine.
caveat: mucous can keep things moist enough for pretty long, but not more than a couple days.
Re:Shingles (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Lysol (Score:5, Informative)
akutz (Score:2, Informative)
Wow. Talk about a posting delay. I submitted this on Friday January 25, @03:25PM. I got the flu the previous Tuesday, the day Heath Ledger passed away.
Re:akutz (Score:2, Informative)
And by the way, I'm not a hypochondriac, I in fact seldom worry about getting ill. I was just asking because after being so incredibly sick for several days (I still cannot remember Tuesday through Thursday) I did not wish to pass my illness onto others by carrying a contaminated laptop.
I appreciate everyone's feedback, even the silly posts : )
Re:Use rubbing alcohol (Score:3, Informative)
Why exactly was this modded funny? I used to work for a biological media company making agars and broths for microbiological testing. We used isopropyl to disinfect the surfaces of our kettles, autoclaves, and counter tops every day. IIRC 15-30 seconds will destroy most microorganisms.
Re:Set it out in the Sun (Score:2, Informative)
Us humans cannot survive constant direct sunlight of sufficient intensity, either.
We're just larger organisms. Instead of our entire body dying right away, skin cells die (sunburn).
If humans were suddenly picked up and dropped on an earth just like ours, but with no caves, trees, large plants, houses, shelter of any sort, or materials to build shelter: the sunlight would be a problem.
There are organisms that can readily survive intense direct sunlight over long periods of time, but they are mostly plants, not humans.
Placing a laptop in direct sunlight over time will likely either kill all organisms on the surface, or (the non-viruses that are actually alive) may migrate down into the crevices or underside where there is shade.
I would be concerned that a sufficient number hours direct sunlight to kill all organisms may damage/discolor the laptop's plastic surfaces.
Using UV lights may allow you to more adequately and more uniformly expose the unit to organism-damaging radiation.
An adequate approach would be to put the laptop in a tanning bed on the highest possible setting, open it up, and ensure all sides of the laptop are exposed to UV light for 24 hours
Then (assuming it didn't melt over night), and still boots up, it's presumably fairly void of lifeforms, except perhaps cockroaches.
Windex (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Lysol (Score:3, Informative)
Virii can't exist outside of the body. Just leave it for a day and it will be fine.
Re:UV light (Score:5, Informative)
If I recall correctly, thinkgeek has a UV light they sell that will do the trick. Using it is also more cool than using the sun, in more ways than one.
And the link is...UV Disinfectant Wand [thinkgeek.com].
Re:UV light (Score:4, Informative)
Not all viruses die in a dry environment.
And neither VRE or MRSA are viruses. They're bacteria, so the point really doesn't apply as they act completely differently.
Re:Don't worry about it. (Score:5, Informative)
Funny.
If you're over the virus, you can't get it again unless it manifests or whatever they do. You never get the same virus twice. You may have the flu several times, but it's a different strain of the virus.
Re:Set it out in the Sun (Score:3, Informative)
He was joking.
Antibiotics are special chemicals that can kill certain things but don't hurt you. They're very carefully balanced, and therefore not particularly lethal. So the bacteria can evolve resistance to them, just like the resistance your own cells have.
Other things, like disinfectants, bleach, and UV are like the nuclear bombs of the microbe world. It's pretty hard to evolve resistance to a nuclear bomb. Not necessarily impossible, but it tends to take a good bit longer. Like millions of years. Of course, those nukes are useless as antibiotics because they'll kill your cells handily too.
Re:Lysol (Score:5, Informative)
Be careful not to take this point too generally.. some virora (such as Hep A) can survive for months outside of the human body.
Re:UV light (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Lysol (Score:4, Informative)
As good as this sounds at first, I don't think it's a good idea for regular usage as not all plastics respond well. You could end up eating away at the keys or the surface of the laptop with too aggressive chemicals.
I think that's the thing to remember here: the question really is about achieving the golden balance between hygienic cleaning and maintaining the equipment. The best solution would be one that doesn't harm the case or the keys, but disinfects the machine. Also consider that a truly thorough cleaning means cleaning the ports and ventilation openings.
Install Linux on it (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Bring it to the airport (Score:5, Informative)
Just wait (Score:2, Informative)
'Flu viruses don't live very long outside the host. From the BMA [bma.org.uk]:
A study by Bean et al [see reference 21] has reported that the influenza virus can survive on a hard non-porous surface such as plastic or stainless steel for 24-48 hours and on materials such as clothes, paper and tissues for 8-12 hours. [a] On hands, it is reported that the influenza virus can only survive for approximately 10 minutes, although this is more than enough time to allow transfer to other surfaces, such as cutlery, door handles, ATMs, hand rails and keyboards, to facilitate the spread of infection.
Re:Set it out in the Sun (Score:3, Informative)
It's more the case that antibiotics typically arn't toxic at all to eukaryotes, only to bacteria... Hardly suprising given that antibiotics are produced by eukaryotes, typically fungi, though IIRC there are also some produced by reptiles. Bacteria and eukaryotes differ substantially, such that something produced by a eukaryote to poison bacteria, without harm to itself, would be unlikely to be harmful to any other eukaryote. Humans and Penicillium chrysogenum have more in common with each other than either does with bacteria here.
Re:Don't worry about it. (Score:1, Informative)
Its UV sensitive -- just leave it in some sunlight! Plus it doesn't survive well outside the body anyway.
Prevent sickness by boosting your immune system (Score:2, Informative)
penguin-style Re:Don't worry about it. (Score:2, Informative)
Odd? C'mon - your parents have been doin' it penguin-style for about 10 years now.
from Advantages in linux on mainframe wiki overiview [wikipedia.org]:
Linux...can take advantage of mainframe qualities of service, especially their reliability and security features, to support continuous business operations. For example, transparent use of redundant processor execution steps and integrity checking. Many industries, including financial services, need this unique capability for their Linux applications.
Also, mainframes support "hot" processor replacement. Linux and its applications continue to run, undisturbed, while adding or replacing processors, allowing business-friendly scaling according to demand.
So while I don't do the mainframe thing myself, it is a pleasant surprise to see Linux getting around.