dishwashers rulezzzz

[amazing]

ok i have recently bought an a1200 of from ripoffbay
and it was really dirty like someone puked on it

first and easy steps where dismantling the the machine
i putted the 2 pieces and the trapdoor in the dishwasher on 55 celsius and on intensive cleaning

i know from experience that u must NOT put it on 75 celsius
i putted a c64 in it last week and it was wobling all over and could throw it away...pfew glad i have a spare

i also dismantled the keyboard and putted it in the dishwasher...it came out as new
only hard job is putting all the tiny little screws back on

[McVenco]

only hard job is putting all the tiny little screws back on

Well, you've got to do *something* in the weekend, don't you? :lol:

I don't have a dishwasher, but all of my Miggies still have their factory color, so no need to clean them!

[Jope]

Dishwashers are also nice for cleaning out dusty PCBs from old computers.

Remove any batteries before washing and be extra sure that the board is 100% dry before powering it up again (you can dry it in a 40C oven for example).

[monami]

(you can dry it in a 40C oven for example.)

or just get a dragon to breathe on it. :madashell:

[amazing]

so u put the mainboard in it too?

then dry it in the microwave is faster i think :lol:

[Linchpin]

Never heared of compressed air?

LOL

[James]

Good old dishwasher! I remember doing that to a 500 back in the days. Damn thing would not boot, dirty as hell. A quick spin in the old dishy and voila! Worked like a charm. You do need to let it dry for about a week though.

[cv643d]

I got an advice that you should always wash your computer parts with water AND soap, not just water alone.

I do not follow that since I take them into the shower where I spray them with the hose with very hot water. Then I grab a hairdryer and dry the card.

Only did it on old PC hardware and they come out as new!

[adric22]

Old computers are actually quite easy to restore if your only enemies are dirt and adhesive stickers.  You run into problems if there are broken pieces of plastic, scratches, and yellowed plastics.  Even keyboards can be made to work like new again if you have lots of time to spend on them.

However, as cheap as most of them are these days, there isn't any point in wasting the time.. I have bought several machines off of ebay for $10 that were in like-new condition.  I even bought a Commodore 64c off of ebay for $9.99 that had the original box and manuals, etc.  It looked just like new.  

[Jope]

monami wrote:
or just get a dragon to breathe on it. :madashell:

Using a flamethrower on it will have you end up with a burnt motherboard with popped caps. :-P

amazing wrote:
so u put the mainboard in it too?

Yes, but naturally you take it out of the case and remove all batteries so that no electricity is running through it.

Water + electricity = not a good idea.

then dry it in the microwave is faster i think :lol:

If you want to burn all traces and potentially damage your microwave oven, be my guest. :-P

[da9000]

Hahahaha, I laughed my heart out! This thread is totally hillarious (even though serious too)!

I'm gonna have to try it one of these days!

Any suggestions on soap/detergent?

Personally, I clean my old computers including VIC-20s and C64s with rubbing alcohol... at room temperature.

Does wonders with finger grease, cigarette tar and old food stains.

[da9000]

Except rubbing alchohol won't do anything about yellowing and many other kinds of stains...

da9000 wrote:
Except rubbing alchohol won't do anything about yellowing and many other kinds of stains...

Actually, I read an excellent article about yellowing recently.

It appears to be caused by exposure to UV and heat and its root cause is the type of fire retardant used in polystyrene plastic.

When plastic is getting yellowed, it is not just a surface thing, the plastic is getting yellow deep inside and it cannot be washed away.

The best example I can give is my very old early generation VIC-20 (serno 7289) which has almost no yellowing vs most breadbin C64s. The early VIC had no fire retardant in its plastic case.

Alcohol is the main ingredient of flux remover (used in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards) and flux remover can certainly remove any stains... assuming what you are dealing with is in fact a stain and not a chemical transformation of the surface at hand which is the case with yellowing.

[da9000]

eslapion wrote:
...dealing with is in fact a stain and not a chemical transformation of the surface at hand which is the case with yellowing.

...which thus brings us back to the point: alcohol can't remove yellowing.

But I've heard (not tried myself) people talking about getting rid of the yellow, which is indeed caused by exposure to sunlight, and thus UV rays, via washing. Haven't substanciated any evidence henceforth.