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What Is the Best Way To Disinfect Your Laptop?
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?"
Then you won't have to worry about it.
for the crippling virus infecting their machines.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
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.
Keyboard + Mouse + Sunlight. 30 minutes later it's clean.
I could be wrong, but I doubt that germs live very long on plastic.
I don't respond to AC's.
Set it out in the sunshine for about ten minutes. Sunlight is a great disinfectant
Enjoy Every Sandwich
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.
Sounds like you might have been exposed to hypochondria as well. You should go to a specialist and have that checked out right away.
Use a condom?
;)
I kid, I kid.
Bye bye karma
I've cleaned many keyboards by placing them in the dishwasher and running them through a couple of cycles.
Kills anything on them; try it but remember to let it dry out for a couple of days before using it.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Get some cotton balls wet with rubbing alcohol, something with a high concentration (e.g. > 70%). Rub it all over your laptop. Wait about 2 minutes and all of it will evaporate, and your laptop will be clean. I use this on my keyboard/mice/macbook all the time.
I'm not a medical expert (I hated freshman biology) so this may sound dumb but... you've caught this strain of flu - won't your immune system know how to combat it? Aren't you immune to it now? So why do you need to disinfect your laptop now?
If you've already had a given strain of the flu, you generally won't catch it again; your immune system is primed against that virus. So the laptop is little danger to you. Your immediate family probably got exposed through a thousand other shared items, so the laptop isn't making things noticeably worse for them, either. In short, I wouldn't worry about it.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
Just wait a day or two. The germs will die, you shouldn't get sick again since you just got done fighting it, and if your wife's going to get sick, I don't think the MacBook is going to be the reason why.
Goo goo g'joob.
If you're the only one who uses it, then does it matter?
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".
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I'm no biologist but, casting my mind back to riveting documentaries on the BBC...
Your body comes in contact with a new strain of a virus that it has no defense against. The virus moves in. The virus multiplies. Your body figures out how to fight it. Much of your feeling like crap is the process of your body fighting it.
If you get re-exposed in any kind of a short time frame, your body already knows how to produce the antibodies and doesn't get reinfected.
The reason you'll pick up multiple colds during a winter is because you're getting hit by multiple strains.
If re-exposure to the exact same strain was an issue, you'd have to burn your house down every time you got sick. Instead, the things you've come in to contact with are no risk to you, just to others who may not have immunity to that strain yet.
That being the case... Get over yourself, stop being a germophobe, use your laptop just fine.
If other people are using your laptop, they may have something to worry about. You're totally fine.
As for you using other people's stuff and being a raging germophobe, you can use sterilizing hand lotions after every usage... and you too can become one of the idiotic generation that try so hard to avoid any exposure that all they really achieve is having no built up immunity when things do get through.
Man up, get over your phobia, accept that getting sick is a normal part of building a tougher immune system, and get on with living.
Felix Unger posts on slashdot.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
...throw it outside for a few hours.
I live in AZ and just recently got sick too. Viruses and bacteria love moist, warm places. Dry hot ones will kill them good.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
If you're the only one using it, why disinfect it? You did say you're over the cold, right? It isn't going absorb EM fields from the laptop and mutate there by making it immune to your immune system. Maybe less disinfectants would actually be a good idea in your case. Aside from what you get from your mother, your body needs to learn itself.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
It's the only way to be sure.
the icky influenza virus
How can you say that about this cute little guy?!
Just about anything plastic-safe could be used such as a Lysol cleaner or diluted Dial liquid soap, but keep in mind that if you're the only one using it, you can't get sick from the same Influenza virus twice. Even if you get the Flu twice in a season, it's 2 strains that infected you. I'd only be concerned about the actual contact surfaces (KB, touchpad, mouse), and if you've got too much of the OCD, I'd suggest looking into something like the Virtually Indestructible Keyboard with integrated Mousing Stick. It is completely submersible in disinfecting solution up to the point that the cord joins the keyboard. Then I'd wrap the laptop in saran wrap except for the cooling vents. A little overboard, but probably effective.
You're not paranoid if they really ARE out to get you...
i use lysol wipes to clean my keyboard because unlike the spray i can make sure its not dripping inside on the motherboard. either way make sure its dry before you turn it back on just in case although i've never had a problem.
The flu needs moisture to survive and transmits largely through fine mist droplets. Place the laptop in your car, and park in the sun, but make sure the computer itself is in the shade, and leave it for at least a few hours. Problem solved.
Back when I was young we ate the dirt and were thankful for it.
You young whippersnappers these days...how's one supposed to win a war with you?
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.
only Windows get viruses.....
Updating your virus definitions?
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.
You really don't want to give your nasties to anyone, so I would recommend this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piranha_solution
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
...would be a UV-C Light Wand from this company.
"For every right, an equal responsibility..."
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.
((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x))) http://www.endpointcomputing.com a scientific approach to custom computing.
I heard that's fairly immune to virus's.
The majority of illnesses you are going to catch in everyday life (e.g. influenza, the cold, etc.) are viral. Viruses (with very few exceptions) cannot survive outside of the human body (or some other organism they can infect) for any extended period of time. Unless if you plan on sneezing on your laptop and then having someone immediately lick it, you're probably not going to infect anyone via the computer. Airborne transmission is far more likely. If you really want to disinfect it, though, I'd recommend 70% alcohol (ethanol or isopropanol) on a paper towel. It kills just about everything and generally cleans well. You can also use a 50-50 mixture of alcohol and water. I usually use ethanol to clean my Thinkpad keyboard and screen.
And for the record, IAAB (...biologist).
Fear the penguin.
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
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.
-Matt
Just sell it on eBay. Problem solved.
No offence to people who are actually retarded, but;
Are you retarded?
and as a follow up question to slashdot editors:
Are YOU retarded?
Worst. "Ask Slashdot." EVAR...
Sheesh...
Windows is not the answer.
Windows is the question.
The answer is "NO."
You are typically contagious before you feel sick. The feeling sick part usually happens AFTER your body has begun to mount an immune response, the sick feeling being all the cytokines and such, being released and their effect on the body.
Besides that - you've alreay "caught" it, and are no longer susceptible to that strain. Your other members of the household might still catch it though. And, yes, generally the bugs/viruses don't stay "live" that long outside the body. Most are dead within 72 hours or so.
..........FULL STOP.
Influenza is contagious for about a week AFTER you stop having symptoms. Apparently children shed the virus earlier and for longer -- up to two weeks.
If he's the only one using his laptop, though, I don't think he'll need to worry.
Put identity in the browser.
Install an Antivirus...
What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
Influenza virus remains viable on inorganic surfaces for how long?
Just leave it alone for that long
Or, better yet, don't worry about it at all. Why be hassled to disinfect a device of something your body is now immune to?
Methinks the OP is simply too well conditioned by Madison Avenue to consume the 'dis-infectant' mythos. Maybe just an indicator of lack of attentiveness in Micro-101 class at the community college, eh?.
Senior NCO in the fight against entropy. I've seen things, man. Things no one should have to see.....
...it'll come back cleaner than it was when you bought it.
rj
Install Linux. I don't know about the influenza virus, but it sure as hell stopped the Code Red Virus
(It was a joke people, lighten up)
In all seriousness, I usually just lightly mist Lysol on a soft t-shirt, and wipe my keyboard down with it. I'm not exactly sure how smart that is, but it has yet to damage anything.
Take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
It's safe for the laptop (doesn't etch plastics and glass), and it's commonly use as a disinfectant in hospitals. It's a nice cleaning agent too against grease. Finally it makes the surface you are cleaning hydrophilic, so it repels water. You can buy it in any pharmacy-drug store. Of course don't spray it directly on the PC, but on a cotton cloth. I do this for every PC with dirty keyboards I am forced to work on.
The reason your fever broke is that your immune system figured out what the invader was and now has the ability to recognize those viruses and kill them quickly. You're not going to get reinfected, so unless someone else uses your laptop regularly, it's not going to matter.
Do you have ESP?
lighter fluid works fine to clean anything where you don't want a residue. It's been used for years to remove marks from artwork and i've found that there isn't anything on the apple laptops which are affected by it. (e.g stupid paper stickers)
Please take a look
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 ;-)
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
Want to talk about scrubbing bubbles? ;-)
You'll probably have to replace the display since the thermal shock will probably crack it, but when you get the new display from the factory it's likely to be sterile.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I taught computers in a high school- after all of the joking, etc., here is the serious reply... the Clorox wipes are great and what the school nurse recommended. Wide down the keyboard and all other "hard surfaces"... for the screen, just a rag dampened with some distilled water. That should do it. You really should do this periodically if the computer is shared at all.
An immune system without training would be a weak one when a strong invading army comes. Don't give the enemy a chance, keep your body strong and keep it training on the small stuff so it can fight the big.
Although sunlight and some of the other methods here sound more interesting, I would just like to add that I've used lcd screen wipes on my macbook pro shell-casing to no ill-effect. They smell like they have alcohol in them, I would imagine that any form of alcohol would be able to kill at least bacteria.
Spray atomized acetone on the thing, with the power off and battery out, no mains power, 15 minutes for caps to discharge (should be much faster). Avoid the screen (I'm not sure if the screen has a mylar coating, and the effect of acetone on that).
Acetone evaporates in a few seconds.
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The high tech way have many :
UV light, vacumm chamber, gass chamber, or any combination of these
low tech:
place it under direct sun light. Yeh it shine a lot that way.Slashdot, good to you
...I gaurentee that will render the problem moot.
I say get a freakin' life and don't worry about germs so much. If you've already had it, the germs on your laptop aren't going to re-infect you. (You're immune to that strain.) Also, germs only live so long on surfaces...
For cripes sake you might want to look into getting your OCD and germ phobia looked into though. :)
Says it kills many types of influenza (herpes too, just in case you are posting from Las Vegas).
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Use a little bit of Ethanol. I used to work in a lab where we had to handle Staphylococcus Aureus. We continously sprayed Ethanol on the counters and lab equipment. It kills the vast majority of bacteria, evaporates quickly, and leaves no residue. The more serious disinfecting required heating the equipment in an autoclave. But, we were dealing with large quantities of live, mutant strains. A little bit of Ethnol should be more than adequate.
Trust me ... I'm a microbiologist.
I don't get the "laptops" part of your comment title. Do you suggest tossing the laptop in the dishwasher? I can't imagine so...
So instead, the user has to open up the laptop (eek), get out the keyboard module, toss that in the dishwasher, and while it's in there / drying, carry on typing on the laptop using his spare.. laptop keyboard that everybody has laying around? Sounds like they'd have to borrow/purchase an external (USB/whatever) keyboard as well?
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.
The RDF(TM) automagically repels any viruses or germs. Just another benefit of using a Mac.
"Get over yourself," "Man up"? Come on, you gave good advice but you can hardly accuse the guy of megalomania or unmanliness by wanting to keep himself and those around him healthy. If he's absorbed the REDICULOUS* germophobia of the western hemisphere, that makes him no different that the millions of humble, genderly-fulfilled media consumers who I have the semantic responsibility to call my fellow citizens. I share your opinion that he's got nothing to worry about, but I see no need to insult his ego or masculinity.
----
* I know ridiculous doesn't have an E, but I spelled it "rediculous" for emphasis.
If you are really worried about your wife then buy yourself a USB keyboard and mouse for such occasions, otherwise use the alcohol cleaner towelettes that you get for cleaning eye glasses and wipe it down. If you are that paranoid then do both, buy a USB mouse and keyboard and wipe them down too before giving them to your wife, as somebody at Dell may have had the same virus you contracted from your laptop! I'll just trust that you will feel better being 'ultra paranoid' rather than being just moderatly so. Science has shown time and again that exposure to germs and viruses build up your immune system to help fight off future infections, by the way. Do you really want her to catch the next recombinant version of the same virus you had, or the one you had? Then she can have the luxury of giving it back to you. :-)
If your MBP is anything like mine, a few hours^H^H^H^H^H minutes of full screen brightness, default fan speed, and CS3 on a fabricky surface should do the trick.
No, this is relevant. The article deals with a serious problem: a mania for disinfection in the USA.
After years of expensive advertising by many companies, for many products, in many media, after many years, finally S. C. Johnson & Co. have convinced a substantial number of people that the terrorists, oops, sorry, I mean germs are a huge threat -- HUGE! -- and they are just about to overwhelm us; that we desperately need the help of sophisticated surveillance, oops, sorry, I mean, chemicals to stave off our all-but-certain doom. It's our last hope, our only hope.
Lies, lies, lies.
... read the headline and think: all you need to do to clean off those nasty viruses is to install Linux, then had a double take on someone getting a macbook pro dirty?
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.
10m/s^2 for some seconds will do the trick, specially after it lands.
Anyone with a basic knowledge of biology can tell you: disassemble it and load the components into an autoclave. What the hell kind of nerd are you anyway?
Viruses need living tissue to reproduce and evolve- since you have immunity now they are doing no harm to you. Your wife might not like to get sick though.
That said, if you go to the drug store and get isopropyl alcohol you can take a cloth and gently clean your computer with it. The alcohol seems less likely to be able to damage electronics as it evaporates very quickly, and since your laptop is mostly aluminum it's easy to clean.
Gads you all over engineer this. Pick up some disinfectant "wipes" at a grocery store. They work great on keyboards and mice (door handles, steering wheels, TV remotes, gameboys, etc, as well). Cleans up dirt at the same time. When you grow up and have young kids, you'll want to wipe down the keyboard/mice of the family box all the time anyway, specially during flu season.
Spray or moisten a cloth, but avoid spraying anything directly on the screen/keyboard. You might also want to get a 'compressed air' can and spray the keyboard, since the macbook pro keyboard doesn't come off easily!
Shingles can be more painful than childbirth, according to an article I read when I had it 4 years ago. When the rash develops, you have to get the antiviral within a day or you will want to die during the worse part. I had to take the drug for about 8 weeks due to lingering pain.
Macs can't get viruses.
just open a couple terminal windows and run a few yes > /dev/null processes while playing a game of guitar hero, you'll fry the little bastards quickly enough.
The stress of worrying about it is more likely to make you ill than a repeat infection from the original pathogen. Stress depresses immunity to unfamiliar pathogens, so chasing your family around the house with a can of lysol in a manic phobia of germs is only going to make you sick.
I'd just like to point out that humanity thrived for millenia upon millenia without the help of lysol, health insurance, or even Barack Hussein Obama.
The influenza virus strains can only survive about an hour without a host.
Those people that went to open the graves in Spitzbergen might have been a bit paranoid.
However, since they were digging up graves and there might have been some living organisms (like worms), it is possible the virus was still present.
We are talking about an inanimate computer here.
You want to disinfect it from the influenza virus?
Put it in a plastic bag, seal it up and leave it alone for 3 hours.
Voila disinfected.
Viruses cannot survive outside of a living cell. Think along the lines of Gu'auld. Parasitic beings which have no means to eat, breath or reproduce outside of living tissue. That said dirt contains gazillions of living cells. The worst place to bury a plague victim is in dirt. Granite vaults would be much better. Frozen corpses, my biology knowledge isn't advanced enough to comment on absolutely, but my money would be on, not possible. Viruses really need to be inside ***living*** cells - from everything I've ever read on the subject.
Unlike bacteria, which can hibernate for years or perhaps even centuries.
If you did indeed have influenza then you have a bit to wait until your are no longer shedding the virus. "Mayo Clinic study indicates that many hospitalized influenza patients shed flu virus for at least 7 days after they fall ill, ..."
Like stated above use a mild disinfectant to wipe it down or just leave it out in the full sun for a hour or so.
Since it's a mac, use soap and a bucket of water :P
as can be seen from the 103-degree fever.
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.
-- -a
1) if you coughed or sprayed on the laptop chance are you've spread mucus under the keys. A UV (or any other) light shone on top of the keys will do nothing to bugs under the caps.
2) See previous /. posts about cleaning keyboards in a dishwasher. It works. Your MAC manual has directions for removing your keyboard easily or check the many MAC repair websites with video on how to remove your KB.. Let dry 2 hours in washer, then overnight in dry air (under 15% relative humidity). If it's rainy use a hairdryer on LOW, stay 8" from the plastic (duh!), wait 15 min and repeat. Repeat again, and wait overnight to re-install. Your KB should now be dry and clean as new. One caveat -- never pull directly on any thin wires or you WILL be sorry, sorry, sorry. Use tweezers
3) Second the alcohol wipes. Use the 90% ethyl if you can find it, 70% ethyl second choice, then follow up with 90% isopropyl. IMHO 70% isopropyl is useless.
4) Still worried? Call around to local hospitals and veterinarians (houskeeping and surgical dept are the place to start) and find one that practices "Cold" or "Gas" sterilization. you doctor may also do this in his/her office or know someone who knows someone...
5) Do you use a cellphone too?
You have a virus on your laptop? Try running something other than Windoze :)
Procrastinators, Unite Tomorrow!!
Autoclave. You should already have one for your toothbrush, anyway.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
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
Don't worry about it. There isn't a virus yet that can make the leap from biological to technological infection. Your laptop is perfectly safe.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virkon
Kills just about everything. Possibly including your laptop, so go easy on it at first. Spray on a sponge and wipe.
The lab I worked in used to dispose of human blood samples with it. Scoop of Virkon in a beaker, little bit of water to dissolve it and pour the blood straight into it. Influenza virus has a whelk's chance in a supernova against it.
Place it in an autoclave for 3 hours. Then go to the Apple store and but a new laptop.
Funny, I thought the Mac was immune to viruses.
Have you had a nasty flu recently?
It is a horrible experience.
It is absolutely worth a couple of hours of work to reduce the probability that you will infect someone else.
It is not 'germophobia' to try to eradicate a virus you know is there. A strain of virus which you know can infect people and cause significant suffering.
Oh, and to the "but you're immune now" sociopaths: seek help.
I'm sure you understand that it is very unlikely that you will succumb to the same virus again, so I presume your worry is for other people who may come in contact with your laptop. You seem to have contracted a serious case of compassion for other humans. This is a very serious disease, especially if, as I assume, you work in the business world. Watch TV for a couple of hours, try to feel like America does towards 3rd world countries, and you should be cured.
Remember last year, how there was a story about microwaving a sponge for 2 minutes to kill all the bacteria, but you had to make sure it was a wet sponge, otherwise you'd get fire?
the same thing applies to your laptop, just soak it in water, then put it in the microwave for 2 minutes. when its done, your laptop should be completely bacteria-free.
i can't think of a single downside...
-I only code in BASIC.-
Or so smart... why Google when you can get other people to do it for you...
But you're right, this is a pretty lame question for /.
-Matt
Pyroclave the PC (Pyrotechnic autoClave...)
Or, sick AVG on it... hehhee
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I always keep a clean snapshot of the OS drive/partition using something like TrueImage 11. This gets updated with every month or two.
This is essentially a version of "nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure". Hasn't failed me yet!
Windex + Paper Towels on keyboard, screen, outside, and power cord. Then a bit of water on another towel to get rid of any residue from the windex. I don't do it because of germs, I do it because I don't like the feeling of an oily keyboard from sweaty, greasy hands.
Sig: I stole this sig.
the abundant UV to kill everything.
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
seems like there is already a solution for your problem right....here http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/8f84/
Where I once worked, we handled human blood and were required to wipe everything down using a bleach spray. This may be too harsh for your computer or at least the screen, but it is effective.
Since you are a Mac user, I will recommend a normal Mac solution to the problem.
Buy a new replacement Mac.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
at the risk of being modded flamebait again when I didn't mean it as a flamebait at all, I have to agree.
You(and everyone else)has a body that is magnificently designed to handle infection. Wash your hands, teach your kids to wash their hands, and don't sweat it.
Maybe I just have the constitution of a mule, but I don't give a goddamn about germs and don't really get sick, and when I do I seem to get it half as bad for half as long.
If the laptop truly will ever infect a third party it will most certainly be the first known case of a laptop functioning as a Trojan. And hence forward it is advised to use such Trojaned laptops to eradicate airport riffraff.
a virus cant live outside a living creature. a bacteria can. your laptop is just sticky use alcohol (pure alcohol not beer!).
Q-Tips/Swabs and Iso Alcohol, this is what we use in the factory to clean them.
really.
thank you. Wish I had mod points.
SOmebody may have said this already , and it certainly isn't easy ... but ultraviolet light would be a really good choice to disinfect surfaces that can't be immersed...
I thought this was one of those questions about upgrading to XP with a vista home laptop. My mistake.
"I'm a well-wisher, in that I don't wish you any specific harm."
although its probably too late for the poor sap who posted from Racoon city on /. hoping to get teh answer!
I guess the answer depends on whether Milla Jovovich is in your party, but I'd pop a cap in the Air.
Turn it off, remove the battery, let it sit in alcohol or chlorinated water or something. You may not even need to remove the battery and such. Then take it out and let it dry for a few days.
1&1 - Cheap domain and web hosting.
We have six kids all ten and under. Whenever one of our kids gets the flu we wipe anything and everything down with Lysol wipes. Light switches, door handles, telephones, keyboards, mice (and yes my MacBook Pro too), etc, etc. We also quarantine the kid with the flu and spray any furniture that they might have sat on with Lysol spray. We have repeatedly been able to keep one case of the flu from turning our entire house into a "yak shack." One more thing, throw out your toohbrushes and toothpaste and buy new ones. They're cheap enough. Good luck!
Where's the "slownewsday" tag on that post? And the "NotNewsForNerds" and "StuffThatDoesntMatter" tags?
Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
You are now pretty much immune to that version of the flu (you got well so your immune system knows and can beat it).
So your laptop is only dangerous to others.
UV light is probably your best best. A day in direct sunlight would probably do it without hurting the laptop.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I never clean my laptop. Helps me build up my resistance. Sure you may get sick in the beginning but you only get stronger as time passes.
I believe the Flu virus can only survive for a short time outside the human body, so just leave it. That said, you are already immune to that particular strain, so you can't get reinfected.
umm... Fahrenheit.
Lies! They are all wrong! Now, what you need to do is immediately send the contaminated laptop to me and I will (selflessly and for the good of all humanity) dispose of it for free.*
* Offer valid for 5 min after posting, a nominal $100 fee must be paid after the initial offer expires to cover handling and disposing of biological waste.
** Additional charges may apply for residents of states not beginning with the letters 'Q','Z', or 'X'.
Step 4:?
Step 5:Profit!
umm, MT...
Flu viruses on hard surfaces supposedly die within 48 hours.
Nothing cleanses like fire!
i feel an urge to emit a sound that quickly moving objects in air do
Rich
Dr Schulze's Air Detox is the best for preventing illness, it's not made of toxic chemicals and you should be using it everywhere anyway. This stuff kicks ass. Air Detox (have to scroll to bottom)
...think of it as "DNA-encoded".
Will get rid of all viruses, and makes it immune against new infections
In case you had bluetooth or Wlan turned on during incubation time, you should quickly speak to your laywers and alarm public authorities. It is quite possible that the virus had spread before it died outside your body. And don't forget the micro of your headset! Don't use it to talk to anyone until you bathed it with your kids. (just kidding.)
how IT is changing the world - http://max.zamorsky.name
How nasty ? Nasty as in 'it's a lot of fun before your liver falls out of you and you die in convulsions". And the basically incurable Echinococosis is only one example.
People who french kiss their dog make me throw up. OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I don't think that there is any serious problem in this case for reasons discussed by many people above; but if your REALLY worried; or happen to work in a place where infection is a genuine possibility, for example the intensive care unit in your local hospital, you might be interested in this work carried out by Intel and the UK's NHS. http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/2500/medical_tablet_pc_launched_by_intel
In many parts of the world, the sunlight contains enough UV radiation to kill off influenzae virus in reasonable time http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/php/2007/00000083/00000005/art00034 (up to several days in the winter). This will of course depend on your location, time of year and weather. Of viruses in visible (irradiated) parts of your computer will be killed, but other parts are probably not touched by other users anyway.
Note that viruses are sensitive to UV radiation. Other "bugs" may still be active.
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...virii are very fragile, and last mere seconds in air. The problem is their protein coats are designed for warm and wet conditions, like the inside of a mammal's body; this is why you don't see plants with the 'flu. Overall, virii are designed very simply: strand of DNA wrapped in a tortilla of long-chain amino acids. Not very resilient against sudden environmental changes, so unless you play pass-the-parcel with your laptop and have the next user clean the keyboard with his/her tongue before they use it, there really isn't much danger of them contracting anything viral.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
I am aware this will probably blow some karma, but seeing as the relevant bits & pieces have been pointed out by others I can ask the question that really concerns me..
akutz: Please tell me, are you
1) a troll
2) trying to be funny
3) suffering under an extreme form of hypochondria, if yes are you undergoing treatment
4) stupid
How do you suppose people survived the icky influenza virus for the last few thousand years? You know, ever since His Noodliness created pirates? Yesterday, I receive a screenshot of Yahoo Answers (question was deleted, else I would link) from a guy who is worried about his girlfriend being pregnant and not getting her period ever since. Today, timothy lets you out of the cage.
What is wrong with you people?
Anything that could live in such extreme environments such as bleach, a high concentration of alcohol, boiling water, etc. wouldn't exactly be well-adapted to living in the human body. Consider hyperthermophiles, which have proteins that function well above boiling but can't survive at "normal" temperatures. Even if they could survive in multiple extreme environments and still be able to live in the body, they would need multiple sets of proteins and be at a huge disadvantage.
Endospores, which can tolerate extreme conditions and come back to life as infectious bacteria, are a real threat. For example, alcohol hand rubs are useless against the spores of Clostridium difficile.
All this talk of cleansing gels and sprays is pointless.
No matter what you do it will still be a Mac.
(-1 Flamebait, I know)
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
The casing on the MBP is made of aluminum. Bacteria can't survive on metal surfaces. You're covered.
(what?!? it's not REAL aluminum?!)
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine -- Robert C. Gallagher
'Flu viruses don't live very long outside the host. From the BMA:
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.
Well first, you can use any number of disinfectant sprays or wipes. Lysol, Oust, generic brands, they'll all do some good. Standard alcohol is also fine. Or if you have access to one, a UV light. But really, unless you have an immune deficiency there's little reason to do anything.
but if you're the only one using it, there's nothing to worry about. You can't get the same strain of influenza twice, can you? After you've recovered from it, your body has developed antibodies.
http://www.lifelinesecurity.com/vg1a.htm Just depends on how much money you have to waste.. er.. spend.
feeble basement lurkers 101: Apple support is more lethal than any basement germ. So keep your fluids in check.
Go ahead, mod me troll, I'll listen some Amy Wankhouse.
why should I bother about disinfecting my laptop?
...and take it back to the shop.
Tell them that you have far too light a grasp on reality to own such a technologically powerful piece of equipment.
Then you should volunteer to help all those starving and sick children in the world, I would try Africa first, it's always in the news.
After about eighteen minutes you will experience a gradual realisation of how, once, your life was so shallow and empty that you filled it with material things and then obssessed about non-existent threats to your health.
Then you will feel good, proud even, it may be almost an epiphany.
You will then be ready to own any of the many gadgets that makes modern life so filled with purpose.
Hang on a minute! Isn't this just a reworking of the classic Playboy© readers letter about how to keep the stylus on their expensive hi fi free from dust and dirt?
Damn you Troll, you damn you all to hell!
Posts, MyBio or Sig, may contain satire, sarcasm, bolded nouns be sardonic or even witty & be Church of SD
There was an article on how to disinfect sponges recently and I think it would work on your laptop as well: Put it in the microwave on high for two minutes. Make sure you wet it first, or you'll get lots of smoke.
This is not my sandwich.
Quit disinfecting everything and you're less likely to get sick in the first place!! It's just my theory, I'm sure we could all find studies that agree and disagree with this, but... I've always figured the best way to prevent being sick is to maintain a strong immune system. Instead of disinfecting every surface under the sun, trying to abolish bacteria (impossible!!) I just deal with them! I have no qualms against eating with (relatively) dirty hands. Food falls one floor? 5-second rule is too short! Let the bacteria in and you will develop your own immunities. Now I know, you were infected with a virus... and there's not much we can do to prevent them. But having a stronger immune system will still make getting over it easier, or you may never get sick in the first place. Seriously, this whole fad of disinfecting everything is part of the cause of nasty strains of bacteria like MRSA. I seriously believe if this continues, it could easily lead to a. the downfall of the human race, b. all humans having to live in bubbles with no physical contact with ANYTHING EVER, or c BOTH.
It was pretty painful. Even with just a small part on my chest, and another on my back. The reason it hurts so much, is because it's an infection in the nerves. I only had a week of the antibiotics. I was only 25 when I got it. The doctor said the older you are, the more pain, and the more likely it is to stick around. Some older people end up never having the pain go away, and have to use steroid creams to make the pain bearable. At $100 CDN for 1 weeks worth of treatments from a canadian pharmacy, for a generic brand pill, I'm just happy I didn't have to take the pill for 8 weeks.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
The body is busy fighting the infection while you are feeling sick, but the infecting agent is still actively trying to propagate. It's only at the end of the sickness when the body is cleaning out the remains of the battle while you still are feeling sick that you aren't able to infect anybody.
So if you feel sick - stay home to avoid infecting your coworkers. (unless you dislike them a lot).
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I'd just place it (open) in a well-ventilated area for a few hours and let it go at that.
Influenza doesn't *do* anything unless it's in a host. By itself, on its own, without a host, it's completely innocuous. You've already had this strain of it, so it won't infect you. What exactly are you worried about?
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
You see, human beings have a thing called an 'immune system'. Once this 'immune system' has encountered and defeated an infection, that infection will be unable to return, because the 'immune system' will recognise it and know exactly how to get rid of it. Using chemicals or disinfectants all the time is only going to result in getting you sick because it kills off the weak germs that are no threat to you, leaving the more powerful ones with no competition. Also, they don't work on viri. Nothing works on viri. Only your own 'immune system'.
(captcha: obvious)
And please let us know where you parked the car, containing your laptop.
Could you leave it there overnight?
Place nail here >+
I know this is slightly overkill but, a few weeks ago I got MRSA. I have a room mate that is/was very worried about getting anything so I got this stuff Pure Green 24. It uses silver ions and citric acid and kills everything. You can apply it to any non porous surface and after two minutes it has killed a whole slew of nasties.
Read up on Ethylene Oxide . commonly used in hospital operating rooms to sterilize devices that are sensitive to high temperature. just make sure it wont react with the plastic But again, its not you who has to worry: most likely youre now immune to the bug .. its those whose hands you shake and those who might also use your puter that need worry! Why not ask them?
And try a wikipedia.org thing..
thing..
"There are 11 kinds of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who could not care less!"
Odd? C'mon - your parents have been doin' it penguin-style for about 10 years now.
from Advantages in linux on mainframe wiki overiview:
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.
Hope you or someone near your machine does not have allergies, asthma, or aversion to getting cancer.
Lysol inhalation has been a suspected carcinogen for years.
Rubbing alcohol is a far better solution.
Just piss on it
I know I'm being an ass here, but if you've been living with the person, chances are you've already caught (or fought) the infection. Either way, you won't catch it again from a "dirty" laptop.
This whole infection paranoia just leads to weaker humans. Have some freakin' balls!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
So the least effort rule wins here... again!
Darn, guess it's back to tongueing light sockets for me, then.
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.
Or even time will kill it. Viruses able to survive outside a living host are *very rare* (bacteria and funghi fare better). And Influenza B isn't among them.
(For the curious : neither is HIV/AIDS. The virus which could survive longer are those having proteine capsules like the herpevirids. And that only work under special circumstances).
One week later you can definitely bet that a swab+PCR on the laptop will only reveal the usual bacteria living on human skin. (Staphs, mainly).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Formaldehyde. Fumigate the the thing with formaldehyde gas for a couple of hours. The pros do it by heating up pellets on hot plates inside airtight tents. This is how they fumigated after the Marburg virus.
Something easier to access at home would be ozonation. There are lots of automotive detailers who have ozone machines. Have someone you trust do this to your car for a day with your laptop on the inside, and this will kill most pathogens through oxidation. You have to make sure they have a good ozone machine. Lots of them are crap. The good ones really work, however. I've had this done to my house after burning a pot of boiled eggs on my stove. I left for work and let the water evaporate, and the pot caught on fire! A couple of days of ozonation, and that brunt sulfurous small was gone!
Let the salivary enzymes do their job. It will also make sure you have built up the proper immune response. If you get sick again, don't worry you can repeat the process as many times as required.
Speaking from experience (which tells me that Vista is a virus and XP is only an inconvenience, like foot fungus), the only way that really works is to format the hard drive and install Ubuntu 8.04 or later. Of course, if you're referring to your own immune system, the job is already done. Congratulations.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
The first thing you should do is see a psychiatrist.
Your body is over the virus. It isn't going to hurt you again.
I'd suggest licking it clean, but you're already immune.
So in that case, get all your friends, family and co-workers to lick it clean. After a couple weeks, they'll all be immune to that virus.
Keep doing this until your laptop is clean, or everyone around you is immune to it. You'll have done good by boosting the herd immune system a notch or two. Reward yourself with a cookie.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
It's better not to use Windex on LCDs because it can cause them to discolor. Use a cleaner specifically for LCD screens instead.
I'm sure a light misting of Lysol, Oust, or some other disinfectant would do the trick.
Problem solved.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Well for starters the virus that you had cannot infect you again you have already had it. The next thing you have to realize is that the heat that a MBP generates will have killed off the virus that could have been transfered to it through your touch. There is also another reason that you don't have to worry is that there is nothing on the MBP that can maintain a medium in which the virus can replicate itself.
ok, if you are really concerned, unplug the power adapter and remove the battery. Remove the top bezel from your laptop, just stick a black stick or screwdriver under the right part that goes over the right henge and lift up, it might take a little force (don't he-man it but it's ok to use a little force) and it will pop up. This should expose a few screws holding in the keyboard. Unscrew them. Take the keyboard up, and unplug the connector. Take some %90 alcohol (isopropanol, or ethanol, methanol, or just about any light alcohol will work, but I would prefer isopropanol) Hold the keyboard away from the laptop and give it some sprays with the alcohol. You don't have to soak it to the extent of immersion, but get it good an alcoholed. Let it sit for 3 hour so that all the water that was mixed in with the alcohol will evaporate. In the mean time use the alcohol on the screen and all the exposed plastic. Wait an hour. Reassemble keyboard and bezel. This proceedure should kill just about everything, especially if you use isopropanol or methanol. Acetone might work also but I am not sure. Don't be so paranoid.
I have an old laptop that I have spilled a half of a stout onto my wife's dell laptop (bad idea all around). The computer still works (almost) but the keyboard is all messed up (and thus I cannot log in, as it constantly types characters).
What is the best way to fix/clean this? Should I fight fire with fire and use some alcohol (methanol? ethanol? isopropanol? denatured? proof?)?
-Z
LOL, awesome. In reality I'm unwilling to even own a laptop. The car trick also works wonders for cell phones and other small electronics that wont' work right because there's water in them and can't be opened to properly dry.
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
I was boiling a bunch of eggs -- 1 for breakfast and the rest as leftovers. I simply forgot.
Isn't consistently using the most insulting interpretation possible out of a variety of alternatives the quintessential trolling technique?