Cleaning an A4000

[sniken]

What is the best way to clean the entire motherboard?

[davideo]

sniken wrote:
What is the best way to clean the entire motherboard?

Is that for dust and muck or battery leakage?

Muck and dust - a good blow out with air and possibly a gentle wash and leave it to dry for a few days - it worked for mine.

Battery leakage - Lemon juice or isoprol alchohol followed by the above.

Dave G  8-)

[sniken]

Only for muck and dust. I tried compressed air, but doesn't remove the the stuff that's more resilient to air blows

Wash you say? With what, water? Water isn't very clean for such purpose.

[Damion]

It may be a bit time consuming, but a little isopro and/or distilled water with cotton swabs is a safe way to go. (Personally, I prefer not to submerge PCBs in bathtubs or dishwashers.) The liquid should evaporate quickly without leaving any kind of film.

I'll usually stick with just the distilled water anywhere there's anything printed (tops of chips, etc) just to be sure the IPA doesn't take the print off.

Afterwards, a little compressed air now and again will keep it looking new indefinitely.

-edit- One more thing to add, if you're dealing with food stains, distilled white vinegar annihilates them pretty quickly. (I usually use a mixture of distilled water/white vinegar.)

[weirdami]

As long as it's not Mexican water, you don't need to worry about getting amoeba's on your motherboard. If you're still worried, maybe they sell distilled water in a store near you. I don't know where you're going to find deionized water, but you probably don't need to go that far, as far as water cleansiness is concerned.

[sniken]

The distilled water i know where to get, but where would I usually find isopropyl alcohol? I have some aceton, but i fear that to be bit too strong.

[Damion]

sniken wrote:
The distilled water i know where to get, but where would I usually find isopropyl alcohol? I have some aceton, but i fear that to be bit too strong.

Usually a drugstore or supermarket, try to get the highest concentration available (91% in USA supermarkets).

[Damion]

Another (easier) option would just be to get some electrical component cleaner (they sell it in spray cans at electronics stores). In that case you might want to remove the entire board, hold it upright, and spray all the crud off from the top down. Might be less chance of accidentally knocking something off the board that way... I just prefer the first method because I *know* there's nothing that's going to be harmful to the plastic, no streaks, mineral deposits, etc. :p



 

[da9000]

Do NOT use acetone!

Isopropyl or some water on some cloth or Q-tip (or give it a bath + scrubbing and dry it).

absolutely just use the alcohol and q-tips - when working as a tech, I once had to use this technique to clean out a laptop that had red wine spilled into it... the customer insisted on it being repaired (at her cost) and I was surprised at the fact that I was actually able to get most of it off (of course the boards were all worthless anyway, but I managed to salvage the case! lol), so anything more reasonable on a board should come off without resorting to anything stronger (acetone) or even water.

[orange]

I think that acetone 'eats' plastic. I would never use it on Amiga.
dishwasher is not so dangerous as it seems. it would give the best cleaning, and many people have used it. some even say that similar process is used in making motherboards.
I used dishwasher on some PC keyboards and RAM modules with no problems (even using the soap which is not recommended), just need to let it dry for at least a week.

distilled water might not be a good idea, I heard its corrosive.

[boing4000]

Take a strong painting brush and clean the board without the risc of corrosion or destroying parts/chips or even the battery.

This brushes can even clean between the SMD chips pin and inside the RAM/Zorro slots. I always use it for all my Amiga