I received this Abit KT7R a couple days ago, and before I got it out of the box, I could smell that nasty stale-ness that's always present on a piece of hardware that comes from the home/business of a smoker. Some are more mild than others, but this was a bad one.... The stench almost made me gag, and the board was sticky to the touch (almost didn't want to handle it). I put it on the test bench to see what it would even do before recapping it. I fired it up, it POST'ed, counted 319mb of RAM (out of 512mb), started to boot into my diagnostics, and froze up. The freeze was most likely the bad caps, however, why 319mb of RAM>!??!? LOL They're Crucial DIMM's, so its highly unlikely they're bad. I removed the DIMM's from the slots, and they were caked with nicotine crud, badly! I stuck a 256mb stick of my own RAM in, and it counted 192... I know for sure that stick is good, so this board left me no alternative...............Hotwash in the deep sink!!! 
If any customers see this and wondered why their extremely disgusting board came back looking brand new, this is how it's done. I normally don't divulge this secret, as most don't realize its not harmful if its done right, they just panic and think their board will melt when wet.... 99% of the boards I get for repair do not get this done to them, a blast with the air compressor and dust brush and they're good to go. There's the remaining 1% (like the one demonstrated below) that need far more detailed cleanings. I thought this would make an interesting writeup for those out there that want their boards looking good again, especially those with windowed cases.......
Anyway, here it is:
Things you will need for this:
1) Deep sink or any sink the board can sit flat in
2) Mean Green available at any Dollar General store(Mean Green works the best) or Simple Green.
3) Hot water. Cold water isnt as effective.
4) Air compressor
5) Box fan or similar source of moving air (I use a heat register in my house or shop).
BEFORE:
Owner is obviously a heavy smoker. The pics don't bring out how foul this board really is, but it is absolutely AWFUL! You will note the brown scum on the DIMM holders, CPU socket, PCI slots, and just about any white surface on the board.
-------------------------------------
MAKE SURE the CMOS battery has been removed before doing this!!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!
Remove all perifs, CPU, RAM, and CMOS battery. You can also wash the CPU, cards, and memory, just do them separately.
Spray the board down good with Mean Green on both sides, making sure everything gets coated good. If your board is really foul like the one I received, you can hold it up and watch the nicotine just drip off it.....
Let it sit for a few minutes, then turn the hot water on it to rinse it off.
If you see spots that are still stained, wash it again and scrub it with a toothbrush if you need to.
-----------------------------------
To dry it:
Let it drip dry for about 30 minutes. Then you need to take your air compressor and blow out every crevise of the board. This includes under all the chips, under and inside all slots. These include CPU socket, PCI, memory, AGP, BIOS ROM, northbridge, southbridge, VRM(s), FET's, caps, and anything that could hold water under it.
Final drying phase: (VERY IMPORTANT)
I've fired up boards I washed only 5 hours after washing, and not had any issues with them. I definitely don't recommend doing it that soon!! Place the board in front of a fan. I always put it by a furnace heat register. In the summer, I place it in front of a box fan. Let it slow dry overnight just to be sure.
Of course, I now have to recap this one.... However, just to illustrate my point, I fired it up, and all the memory showed up, and it actually booted just fine. If you smoke, go outside with it!! Nicotine is even more harsh on your optical drives!!
If any customers see this and wondered why their extremely disgusting board came back looking brand new, this is how it's done. I normally don't divulge this secret, as most don't realize its not harmful if its done right, they just panic and think their board will melt when wet.... 99% of the boards I get for repair do not get this done to them, a blast with the air compressor and dust brush and they're good to go. There's the remaining 1% (like the one demonstrated below) that need far more detailed cleanings. I thought this would make an interesting writeup for those out there that want their boards looking good again, especially those with windowed cases.......
Anyway, here it is:
Things you will need for this:
1) Deep sink or any sink the board can sit flat in
2) Mean Green available at any Dollar General store(Mean Green works the best) or Simple Green.
3) Hot water. Cold water isnt as effective.
4) Air compressor
5) Box fan or similar source of moving air (I use a heat register in my house or shop).
BEFORE:
Owner is obviously a heavy smoker. The pics don't bring out how foul this board really is, but it is absolutely AWFUL! You will note the brown scum on the DIMM holders, CPU socket, PCI slots, and just about any white surface on the board.
-------------------------------------
MAKE SURE the CMOS battery has been removed before doing this!!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!
Remove all perifs, CPU, RAM, and CMOS battery. You can also wash the CPU, cards, and memory, just do them separately.
Spray the board down good with Mean Green on both sides, making sure everything gets coated good. If your board is really foul like the one I received, you can hold it up and watch the nicotine just drip off it.....
Let it sit for a few minutes, then turn the hot water on it to rinse it off.
If you see spots that are still stained, wash it again and scrub it with a toothbrush if you need to.
-----------------------------------
To dry it:
Let it drip dry for about 30 minutes. Then you need to take your air compressor and blow out every crevise of the board. This includes under all the chips, under and inside all slots. These include CPU socket, PCI, memory, AGP, BIOS ROM, northbridge, southbridge, VRM(s), FET's, caps, and anything that could hold water under it.
Final drying phase: (VERY IMPORTANT)
I've fired up boards I washed only 5 hours after washing, and not had any issues with them. I definitely don't recommend doing it that soon!! Place the board in front of a fan. I always put it by a furnace heat register. In the summer, I place it in front of a box fan. Let it slow dry overnight just to be sure.
Of course, I now have to recap this one.... However, just to illustrate my point, I fired it up, and all the memory showed up, and it actually booted just fine. If you smoke, go outside with it!! Nicotine is even more harsh on your optical drives!!
Funny how some people freak when you put water on a circuit board. 
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