Bring Old Tech Back to Life: Cleaning and Upgrading

Retrocomputing has definitely been on the rise over the past few years, and the hobby is likely to become even more popular in 2025 as the 50th anniversary of Microsoft brings computing nostalgia to a fever pitch. Even Bill Gates himself has gotten in on the action, publishing the original source code of Microsoft’s BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800. 

If you happen to have an Altair in your attic, there isn’t a lot that you could do with it today (apart from selling it for several thousand dollars, of course). Many older computers, however, can still do plenty of useful things from playing vintage games to helping someone financially disadvantaged get online. 

So, do you have an older computer sitting around in your attic? If you enjoy tinkering with gadgets, that computer is a potential opportunity to have a little fun. In the process, you might teach your child basic computer literacy. If you’ve never seen the inside of a computer, you might learn a few things yourself. There’s no need to feel intimidated; working on a computer is much easier than you might think. In the end, you’ll feel the sense of pride that comes with making an old machine work again, and you could even end up helping someone who could use a working computer.

Grab a screwdriver and roll up your sleeves.

Open the Computer and Clean It

If your computer hasn’t been used in a couple of decades, your initial temptation will probably be to plug it in, turn it on and see if it still works – especially if there’s an old game that you’ve been itching to play. We’d caution against doing that, though, because the computer could have an internal issue like a leaking capacitor or battery. Conductive fluid could have flowed over the motherboard, and that could cause permanent damage when you turn the computer on. So, you should open it up and take a look.

The case for a desktop computer is usually held together with screws on the back. After you remove the screws, the case’s cover should slide off. Once you’re inside the computer, take a look around and see what’s going on.

• Is the inside of the computer dusty? You can remove the dust by blowing it away with compressed air. If the dust is sticky – because someone has smoked around the computer, for instance – you can dislodge it with a small brush. Don’t forget to blow dust out of the computer’s power supply to the best of your ability, but you shouldn’t open the power supply unless you know what you’re doing. 
• Check the motherboard and all expansion cards carefully to see if any capacitors have leaked. Electrolytic capacitors are likely to leak after several decades, and capacitors manufactured during the 2000s are particularly likely to experience problems. If you find corrosion around or under a capacitor, you shouldn’t turn the computer on until you’ve resolved that issue.
• Find the computer’s backup battery. Almost all computers manufactured from the 1980s to present have small batteries that maintain their basic configurations when they’re turned off. If the backup battery is extremely old, it may have leaked. If you find evidence of corrosion around the battery, you shouldn’t turn the computer on until you’ve resolved that issue.

Don’t forget that you should never smoke around a retro computer. There are also a million other reasons why you shouldn’t smoke indoors, of course, but the tar and other residue from smoking can coat a computer’s internal components and prevent them from dissipating heat efficiently. Cigarette smoke can also cause a computer’s plastic components to turn yellow. Grab a Lost Mary vape and use that instead.

Identify and Replace Broken Components

Once you’ve finished giving the computer a good cleaning, it’s time to identify and troubleshoot any potential issues the machine might have.

Are you unable to turn the computer on safely because you’ve found potential evidence of a leaking capacitor or battery? 

• Leaking capacitors on the motherboard will need to be replaced before you can use the computer safely – and to do that, you’ll need to be handy with a soldering iron. If you’re not willing to go that far, you’ll need to replace the motherboard. 
• The computer’s backup battery may be installed in a socket. In that case, you can replace the battery but will need to remove the leaked fluid first. If the battery is alkaline, you can neutralize the fluid with white vinegar. If it’s acidic, you can neutralize it with baking soda. Clean the area with rubbing alcohol and don’t attempt to use the computer until the area is completely dry. Don’t forget to wear appropriate skin and eye protection. 

If the computer seems safe to use, connect the keyboard, mouse, monitor and power cable. Turn the computer on and see what happens.

• If nothing happens at all, it’s possible that the power supply is faulty. Unless you know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t attempt to repair a bad power supply and should replace it instead.
• If the computer turns on – but the screen remains dark – the computer will hopefully beep to indicate an error. You might have to research the computer’s error codes online, but the number of beeps should provide some indication of what’s going on. You should also check to confirm that the computer’s power supply and CPU fans are spinning. If a fan isn’t working, the solution could be as simple a replacing the power supply or the CPU cooler. Also, if the computer has been moved around a lot over the years, it’s possible that a component is loose. Try removing and reseating the computer’s memory and expansion cards. Don’t remove the CPU unless you absolutely have to; removing and reinstalling a CPU and cooler can be tricky for beginners.
• If the screen comes on – but the computer doesn’t boot – it’ll probably display an error message that will indicate what you need to troubleshoot. An error message like “No Boot Device Found,” for instance, probably indicates that the hard drive is no longer working. In this case, you’ll need to replace the hard drive and reinstall the operating system.

Decide the Computer’s Purpose

After you’ve followed all of the steps above, you hopefully have a computer that turns on, boots into the operating system and actually works. Now, you need to decide what you’re going to do with it. Maybe your only plan is to play a few old games and put the computer away again – and if the machine in question is from the ‘80s or ‘90s, that’s probably all that you can realistically expect to do with it unless you’re a serious retrocomputing enthusiast or are interested in tinkering with old programming languages.

If the computer is from the 2000s or 2010s, though, it can connect to the Internet and run office software – so there’s no reason why someone can’t do real work with it. If you’re interested in making it an everyday computer for yourself or someone else, though, you might want to consider installing Linux on it unless it’s capable of running Windows 11. Very old operating systems like Windows XP aren’t really safe to connect to the Internet because they’re no longer actively maintained and have unpatched vulnerabilities. Even Windows 10 will no longer be supported by Microsoft at the end of 2025. Linux is free and actively supported, and it runs on just about anything.

Consider Some Modern Additions

Are you thinking about giving your old computer to someone in need or donating it to goodwill? If so, you might want to give it a few modern additions first. Here are some enhancements that you should think about making before you send the computer off to its new home.

• Replace the mouse and keyboard, which are probably unreliable at this point and might be very dirty.
• Replace the original CRT screen with a more legible and power-efficient LCD monitor.
• Replace the original hard drive with a new hard drive or solid-state drive. If the computer is more than a decade old, the original hard drive is probably unlikely to last much longer.
• Install a wireless card if the computer only has an Ethernet port.

These small upgrades don’t have to be expensive, and they can make the computer much more useful and reliable for its next owner.