Cleaning Motherboards

[Jamrock]

Hello to all you guys here. I want to recap a few motherboards but they are all dusty. Is there any special solvents that can be used to clean the boards without doing any damage to them? I was thinking of using ordinary rubbing alcohol can it be used?

[Galvanized]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

Smokers in Jamaica? This thread might be of interest.
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1463

Welcome to badcaps.net Jamrock

[Jamrock]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

lol...I have quit smoking going into 5 years now
let me give you a warm thank you for welcoming me to babcaps.net,and i must also say thank you for link with the suggestions..

[gonzo0815]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

Alcohol is ok, but Simple Green is realy a good (far better) stuff. I figured it out to obtain it, and for PCB cleaning i must say it is so far one of the best cleaning solutions i have used. If dust is the only concern, some canned air and vacuum cleaner is all you need.

[Lance Thornton]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

Welcome to the forums! ALWAYS take out the cmos battery and let the motherboard discharge before simple greening it. It works exceptionally well and should breathe new life into the board. Good luck!

[tazwegion]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

We can't get simply green down here in Oz... so an old toothbrush & methylated spirits does the trick for me

BTW Welcome to the forums!

[cods69]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

We can't get simply green down here in Oz

...no but we do have Simple Green (which is what you meant, right?)
See my posts on this page.....
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...?t=1463&page=3
In short, Bunnings has it.

[starfury1]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

Hi All
Cods69, is this the stuff you are talking about mate
Simple Green GP
For that matter is this the stuff everybody else is referring too?

Thanks

I did read that other post awhile back

[cods69]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

Yep, that's it. I found it in the cleaning isle in Bunnings.
I got a 2 litre bottle for about $20.
I use it for nearly everything now (I like the root beer smell) and you don't need to use much either as you can dilute it quite a bit.

[tazwegion]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

Ah great... may give it a try, a root beer aroma eh?

[starfury1]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

Thanks cods69

Hey Taz

[gonzo0815]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

Yep, thats the cool stuff we talk abouth. I have choosen to use Crystal Green, as i do not need green colour and good smell for cleaning elektronics. Last thing i cleand with it, was a Acer FP751, all the plastic`s part`s are realy brown, duno if it was smoke crap or just some other dirth, but it just driped away under the Simple green solution. Awsome.

[starfury1]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

Hi Gonzo0815

Thank you too for your reply.....

I take it its this stuff

crystal SG

Great for Roads too

This mob seem to make a heap of stuff....cleaning units as well

There site is well worth a look through for info on how to use it etc

Enviro friendly....we need more stuff thats nice to our environment

Cheers

[999999999]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

If they aren't covered in tobacco tar, I usually just take the battery out and any fans if present, then immerse in a detergent bath, lightly stroke with a paintbrush while immersed (easier than a toothbrush but you don't want to let any stray bristles stay behind in slots, etc) IF necessary, then rinse with tap water, shake out excess water gently (w/o flexing the board) and put next to a fan for a day.

Some try to be more exotic but this works fine for me, I've been cleaning like this for years. To me it would be a waste to use distilled water, alcohol, etc, unless you had something that needed it (like remaining flux residue).

[gonzo0815]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

This is probably ok, but from my experience, something like coffee with mil and shugar is not that easy to remove from a well sophisticated board with lotsa larg PLCC`s.
And that is for me the situation, when i need something wich is working w/o mechanical power.
Distilled water shure is somehow overkill, but if the gear is expensive like laptop boards i would like to be on the save side.
Remaining flux is easily removed with a paint brush and some acetone.

[999999999]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

I don't like to use acetone because it can degrade certain types of plastics and even wash the print right off of labels immediately. Granted a paper label doesn't much like getting wet no matter what you use, but with alcohol or detergent there is a good chance it will survive fairly well.

[Lance Thornton]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

I only use lacquer thinner or acteone after I've replaced any caps and had to clean the remaining flux on the underside of the board. I use a q-tip or equivalent and gently brush around the solder connections. It seems to work quite well and I've not had any problems yet.

[PotShotScott]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

A little bit of dawn and some fresh water will do fine as well. Nothing fancy. I keep a heat gun around and use it on warm since I don't want to wait overnight. I did a LOT of emergency reclaimation in the Navy. I use Isopropyl Alcohol to get the flux off my solder jobs.

[krazykev64]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

i worked in the electronics industry around 1984/5 where i was making the original psion organiser hand held. in them days we used to clean the PCB with freon which was boiled in a vat (boils at a very low temperature). we used to dip the assembled PCB into the freon for 2 or 3 minutes then remove it. the only problem was that you could not dip a board containing any variable resistors as they would have the factory applied lubricant washed out of them which would cause premature failure. considering that we also made a lot of boards destined for military use this would not have been a very good idea. freon has now been banned as it damages the ozone layer. to think that we used to dip our hands in the crap.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Cleaning Motherboards

That worked good but it's illegal to use Freon that way now.