Cleaning the actual machine

I've never done this, clean the actual machine (not just the 'parts'). What do you use? I have a major infection in my head and need to be sure it's not comming from pappy.

You don't clean the machine (except to wipe the outside with a damp cloth, if that (you don't want any water to get inside!).

If you have cold symptoms, lower your humidity and see if that helps.

What you breathe when on Cpap is just room air like you're breathing right now - put through a filter to catch any small particles - and you don't get that benefit when breathing while awake of course. There's no need to clean the hose either except maybe twice a year if you feel so inclined, but many of us don't ever bother. It's only the mask, cushion and headgear that need cleaning, and baby wipes (with no alcohol in them please) are pretty good at doing that weekly, or more often if you want.

How long have you been on cpap?
Do you use a humidifier? If so at what setting?
Sometimes the nasal mucosa's reaction to either too much humidity or not enough humidity will mimic a major cold/sinus infection with congestion, drainage, runny nose, etc. If you are new to cpap therapy and this is what happened in your case then you may need to play with the humidity settings to see what your nasal mucosa is happiest with. Some people do better with more and some people do better with less. Google "cpap rhinitis" and you will see what I mean.

If it is a true cold and you have the typical other symptoms of cold along with the nasal/sinus symptoms the cpap machine didn't cause it and any germs laying around are mainly going to be concentrated on your mask and maybe the long hose. It's extremely unlikely that you could exhale against the pressure enough to pass through the long hose and contaminate the humidifier or your machine. To play it safe you can clean the humidifier water chamber daily and also wash the hose and mask daily.
Most people who have a true cold will find that more humidity helps relieve the cold symptoms...think how you feel right after a hot steamy shower and the golden rule of treating cold symptoms..hydration, hydration, hydration

Clean and/or replace the filters on the back. Other than that, there's no cleaning. Any of the things some people recommend to clean the inside of the machine are little more than faith healing and witchcraft in my opinion. Do NOT spray anything into the machine. Anything that's powerful enough to clean the machine or kill germs might damage some of the sensors inside the machine.

In theory, cleaning the machine itself (blower unit) isn't necessary or helpful.

There's a gadget called SoClean that blows ozone to clean CPAP equipment. I'm skeptical about it in general, but even if it works, it does NOT clean the CPAP machine itself. It only blows ozone into the humidifier tank, hoses, and mask.

You can clean the humidifier tank and the removable parts on the humidifier. Some of the humidifier parts come off.

cpap.com and some other places sell Control III disinfectant that you can soak masks, hoses, and humidifier parts in, but NOT the blower unit. It's good, but probably overkill. Read the instructions. The undiluted solution is a fairly nasty chemical. Once you dilute it properly, it's reasonably benign.

Even if your germs did somehow get into the blower unit, if you've recored from the infection, your body knows how to deal with those germs right now, or you'd still be sick. It would be a lot different if someone other than you were going to use the same machine. The blower unit is too dry and doesn't have a lot of germ food in it, so it's unlikely to harbor a lot of germs anyway. Most of the nasty germs don't live long in such an environment anyway.