Gum/food residue on hands during build

[tempstar]

This may seem like a strange question but bear with me:

I often chew gum while using my PC, and sometimes I use the keyboard after eating without washing my hands (I don't eat over the keyboard though).

After using my PC today, and then opened up my case to install a new motherboard and hard drive. I was wondering, do you think that any gum/food residue on my hands from touching the keyboard/mouse (which I had previously handled after touching food/etc.), and then working on my PC, would cause any issues down the road? My hands did not feel sticky but who knows what kind of gum/food residue could have been on there from all the years of typing on my keyboard?

Do you think I should be worried about food residue inside my PC messing it up? Or am I being overly concerned?

 

[tokencode]

Most likely overly concerned, that being said anything that conducts electricity could be a problem. You want to keep it as clean as possible for other reasons such as gumming up fans, airflow etc.

 

[photonboy]

I have pictures of computers still running that are so covered in dirt and dust that it would shock you.

The only big issues when working inside is to not shock something or pull loose a cord or card.

 

[illfindu]

Its not a huge concern but if you are worried clean the board with a que tip and some isopropyl alcohol some thing 70% or over would be best. Warning all ways make sure to fully unplug * not just turn off * your PSU before working on it

 

[dalauder]

If stuff is dirty to where you're worried about it breaking your computer, clean it.

Otherwise, it should be fine.

 

[tempstar]

Thanks for the feedback.

So I was thinking: our environment is full of various chemicals and contaminants, including household cleaning solutions, bleach, residue from leaky batteries, oil, etc. As we go throughout our day, we touch lots of things and of course not always wash our hands. Do you think residue from this stuff getting on your hands, and then getting on or in your PC would cause any problems? I am thinking not, since we would probably have a lot more dead PCs and devices if this was a case (not to mention our hands would probably burn off first before our PCs malfunctioned), but what do you guys think?