Absolutely disgusting: How can people let their Amigas get like this?

[LoadWB]

So a couple of weeks ago I found a treasure trove of Amiga stuff.  Unfortunately, this isn't buried treasure which has been protected from the elements, or even in someone's attic.  No, it's been kept outside and in storage sheds.

I've collected a number of GVP HD8+, an A590, some A520s, a few of the better looking A500s, three A600s and an A1200, amongst other misc equipment.

So far I've dissected two of the A600s and the A1200.  All horribly yellow (like caution sign yellow,) and loaded with roach crap.  UGH!  How can anyone do this to an Amiga??  It's a crying and disgusting shame.

So far one of the A600s is known to work.  The A1200 has a Microbiotics 1230 (EC030/40, 882/33) which appears to be in good shape.  The two A600s so far have an A601 with a leaked battery, but the boards appear to be in good condition.  The floppies are surely grunged beyond repair, but I'm going to try.

The RF shields are rusted beyond usability.  The lower half of the cases are stained with rust.

For the yellowing, I took one of the A600 cases, cleaned it up with Scrubbing Bubbles, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, followed by an ammonia-based cleaner, then painted with Krylon Fusion paint.  The results are amazing.  Though the yellowing seems to be beginning to show through the first coat, so I'll hit it again next weekend.  The keys, well, those will have to wait for more patience to arrive ;-)

But, now for cleaning the circuit boards, does anyone have any recommendations?  So far I've cleaned the board with Scrubbing Bubbles and a soft bristle scrub brush, flushed with filtered water, then fan dried.  It looks good and powers up just fine.  The condition of the board after the cleaning is reasonable: some rust staining remains and biological decomposition has eaten the green coat from some of the traces.

This will be quite a project for the next few weeks.  And it's pretty gross.

[madsjm]

Post some pictures?  :-)

[CLS2086]

Hi,
clean the circuit with vinegar and a teethbrush !
Make it dry.
Then use a second time vinegar
make it dry again
wait 2/3 hours
use an electronic contact cleaned spray and a teethbrush !
Repeate it a 2nd time too.
Take a microscope and check it.

It you have socketed I.C. such as kickrom and many more, use also an electronic contact cleaned spray and a teethbrush ! on them and on theirs sockets too !

[darkage]

Might be more wise to use a special eletrostatic free brush

Not sure if a regular toothbrush would generate static but I;ve had my fair share of killed custom IC's.

[mrad]

In a production environment, printed circuit boards are cleaned in what basically amounts to a dishwasher.  Before the CFC ban, tetrachloroethylene was the cleaning solvent of choice, but now most factories use water soluble fluxes and clean with water.  The final stage is a rinse in de-ionized water so you don't get mineral deposits that can alter the circuit performance.  Spot cleaning now is usually done with denatured alcohol.  

Use metal pans, and don't wear rubber shoes, to avoid electrostatic discharge.  Non-distilled water is conductive, so I wouldn't worry about static from a wet plastic brush. If you are paranoid, add a pinch of salt to your wash water (to make it more conductive), and don't scrub during the final rinse in distilled water. You may want to consider dropping a few coins for an anti-ESD brush from the Techni-Tool catalog or similar outfit, especially if you have to scrub a lot with alcohol.
https://webvia.techni-tool.com/VIA/Res/Catalog110/178_TTL_Cat110.p1.pdf

Without a bake cycle, it will take a couple of days for the water to dry out from all the nooks & crannies under the chips.  Or maybe 12 hours in front of a fan, but make sure all the surfaces are exposed to moving air. You don't want to power her up when the board is wet!
 
It sounds like you have a lot of stuff, so you may want to let your dishwasher take up some of the work, though I would go easy on the detergent (maybe 1/4 of what you would use for dishes), and turn off the drying cycle.  Then spot clean with alcohol as necessary and final rinse in distilled water. I don't think the A500 or A1200 have any non-cleanable components...you don't want to wash the lubricating grease out of a switch for example.  

Oh, and the keys.  Pop them off the keyboard, put them in a mesh bag, and drop them in the clothes washer with your next load of cold water.  Though some people have reported success putting keyboards in dishwashers, I cannot say if an *Amiga* keyboard doesn't have grease in the mechanism or places where water will be trapped indefinitely.

[coldfish]

On the positive side, one day, when off-yellow is the "in" colour for computers, you'll be all set.

 :-P