No matter how fast and shiny your laptop was when you got it, time takes its toll, and your laptop's now dirtier, hotter, slower, and less effective than is was on day one. Here's how to give your laptop an extreme makeover and bring it back to—or at least closer to—its former glory.
How to Use This Guide: Everyone's laptop is different, and the process for opening it up isn't the same for everyone. This guide is a starting point, demonstrating solutions to common problems along with the ease or difficulty of those fixes. For the purpose of demonstration, I'm refurbishing a 2007 white MacBook, but most of these processes should work with any laptop—Mac, Windows, or otherwise.
When you sit down to fix some problems on your laptop, having your model's manual comes in very handy. If you have a Mac like I do, iFixit has just about everything you'll need, with fantastic step-by-step instructions for getting to any component inside your machine. If you have a Windows PC, check your manufacturer's web site—a lot of them have full service manuals available in the Support section of their site. If not, you'll need to do a bit of googling—usually something like Acer Aspire One ao32h repair guide will help you find what you're looking for.
The Easy Stuff: Cleaning the Outside
Remove Grime with a Magic Eraser: A little cleanliness goes a long way, and while your laptop may have a host of problems, cleaning off that superficial layer of grime can make any laptop feel a lot nicer. Our favorite tool for cleaining up a laptop's exterior is the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, which'll cost you about $5 at any grocery store. Just get it wet, wring out as much water as you can, and wipe down your computer—all that dirt, hand oil, and other grime will come right off, and your laptop will be as shiny as it was when you first got it. See the image above for an example to see my Eraser success.
Clean the Keyboard with Compressed Air: You'll also want to grab a can of compressed air, which you can get at places like Target, Wal-Mart, or Best Buy. Open it up, attach the plastic hose to the end, and point it toward any dust-filled crevice on your machine to blow it out. This is great for your keyboard, which has probably accumulated a lot of crumbs and debris under the keys. You may even want to gently pop your keys off the keyboard and give it a more thorough cleaning. This can help fix keys that stick, don't go down all the way, or have other problems. Check out our guide to cleaning your keyboard for more info.
Wipe Your Monitor Down with White Vinegar: When it comes to your monitor, you can use a soft cloth and some white vinegar. That should get the dirt, fingerprints, and other gross smudges off the screen.
Of course, none of these tricks will make your computer run any faster or cooler, but it'll definitely make it feel like less of an old beater. If you want to give it a bit of extra speed, you may want to give it a few upgrades.
Boost Your Laptop's Speed with Hardware Upgrades
If you really want to give your laptop a boost, you'll want to upgrade its hardware. It may cost you a bit of money, but it's a lot cheaper than buying a new laptop, and it can go a long way. You can't upgrade the processor or video card, but the RAM and hard drive are free game.
Boost Your Multitasking Powers with More RAM: Adding more RAM (think of it as your computer's "quick memory") to your laptop can improve multitasking, often allowing your laptop to better keep up with the latest software. Crucial, one of the top RAM manufacturers, actually has a great online tool that helps you find the right kind of RAM for your specific model of laptop (since every machine requires something a bit different). You can then either buy it right from Crucial, or seek out another brand if you so choose. When it comes time to install, just grab your laptop's service manual and check out our guide to performing a RAM upgrade
Launch Apps and Boot Up Faster with a New Hard Drive: Replacing the hard drive on most laptops is very easy. In general, all you need to do is make sure you buy a 2.5" hard drive, which is the slim, laptop-sized drive. 3.5" drives are meant for desktops, and won't fit in your machine. Getting one with more space won't make your computer noticeably faster, but it will give you more room for apps, music, movies, and other files. However, if you really want a speed boost, we highly recommend upgrading to a faster drive like a solid-state drive. Solid-state drives are extremely fast drives that will make launching apps and booting up your computer very snappy. In fact, it's one of the best upgrades you could possibly make to an old computer. Check out our complete guide to solid-state drives to learn more, and when it comes time to do the upgrade, see our guide to upgrading your hard drive to see how it's done.
Cleaning the Inside
If you've had your laptop for awhile, chances are it gets a little bit hotter than it used to, and that fan seems to blow loudly all the time. This is because over the years, your laptop can build up a lot of dust and dirt on the inside, which means more heat, worse performance, and a shorter lifespan for the laptop. The best way to fix this problem is to clean that dust out yourself.
To start, find the vents on your laptop—which are usually on the back, and sometimes on the bottom—and blow some compressed air into them to clear some of the dust out. This'll help improve the airflow to your fan. However, this usually isn't enough; you'll probably want to get inside your computer for best results. To do this, you'll need to open up your laptop. It sounds scary, but for most laptops, all it really requires is unscrewing a bunch of screws and lifting your keyboard off the top.
Here's where you'll want to consult that service manual we talked about earlier. It'll let you know exactly what screws you need to take out, and in what order. I recommend using a magnetic screwdriver and grabbing a piece of paper to keep track of where each screw goes, as shown at the right. This'll help keep you from losing screws inside your laptop, and remembering where they go when it comes time to close everything up. Note that you may have to also unplug one or two cords or ribbons in the process; just be very careful and you shouldn't have any problems.
Once you've got the top case off your laptop, take your can of compressed air, step outside, and blow as much dust out of your laptop as you can, paying particularly close attention to the fan and the vents on the back and bottom of your laptop. Cotton swabs can also be helpful for getting into the more hard-to-reach places. It doesn't need to be perfect; just make sure you get the big dust bunnies out of there and you should be okay. See the image above to see the kind of progress I made. This'll not only keep your lap from getting burned (hopefully), but possibly even fix quirks like random shutdowns, overly loud fans, and other problems caused by overheating.
For Adventurous Users Only: Fixing Specific Parts
The preceding fixes are fairly simple, and can help solve a lot of your problems. But if your trackpad, your screen, your laptop's hinge, or something else is on the fritz, your repair may require a bit more work—but it's possible if you're up to the task. Here are some common ailments and what fixing them would entail.
Buggy or Broken Trackpads: If your trackpad is giving you grief, an external mouse is an easy workaround, but it isn't a true fix. Some computers, when you take off the top case, have easily replacable trackpads, while others (like MacBooks) make it very difficult to get at the trackpad itself—it's just part of the top case. Either way, I'd first check the trackpad cable and make sure it's tightly plugged in. If it isn't loose, you're likely looking at a part replacement. Luckily, single parts like that are easy to find on places like eBay—heck, you can get a full MacBook top case for between $30 and $50, and parts for Windows PCs come even cheaper. For best results, see if you can find the exact part number for your trackpad or top case and search for that online.
Broken Screens and Loose Hinges: One of the more harrowing fixes is your laptop's monitor. Whether it's a loose hinge, broken hinge, or altogether busted screen, you'll probably need to remove the entire top half of your computer and open it up. That means disconnecting more cables and ribbons, not to mention even more tiny screws. Finding replacement screens and hinges should be pretty easy online, though, so if you're up for the challenge, you can just replace them. If your hinge is just loose, though, you might be able to get by just by tightening its screws. I recommend trying that out before you go buying new parts. And, if all else fails, you can just grab an external monitor and turn it into a space-efficient desktop computer.
Dying Wi-Fi Cards and Other Parts: If a specific part in your laptop is broken—like a Wi-Fi card—it should be pretty simple to order a replacement parts on eBay or another site. Then, when you've got the top case open, it should be a pretty straightforward swap—you'll just need to be very careful, since the cables and ribbons inside your laptop can be pretty fragile. As always, consult your manual of choice to find out exactly where the part is and what you'll need to replace it.
Maintenance and Software Fixes to Speed Everything Up
Lastly, we've recommended a lot of software tweaks, maintenance tasks, and other tricks for speeding up an old computer over the years. Here are some of our best guides, which should help you make the most of your shiny, newly-made-over computer:
Photo by Valentin Agapov, Wildstyle, FreshPaint, and MSPhotographic (Shutterstock).
