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Registered Member #96
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061
Hi all, I have acquired a bunch of fairly expensive electronics that got water damaged.
Rather than just disposing of them, some of the components might be useful so my thought was to ultrasound clean the boards, in the hope that the damage was just superficial. Used "Septeal" alcohol intended for medical use and DI water in roughly 50/50 mix.
So far, the DVDRW drive (fairly recent, 2010 SATA2 and x12) PCB looks better than it did, the 3GB DDR3 RAM also look reasonable and no corrosion is visible under the white water marks. I've done the well documented oven trick to dry it out, lacking a vacuum pump the other alternative is to simply run the oven for 3 hours to drive out any liquids under the chip(s).
The vacuum technique is used on mobile phones, as it guarantees that no adsorbed water is hiding in the PCB after multiple cleanings.
Registered Member #103
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845
I sometimes get some funny looks at work, because I use the hand-dryer in the toilets to dry boards that I've cleaned.
A couple of weeks ago, a guy brought an expensive board from one of the CNC machines next door for me to have a look at. It was filthy with what looked like conductive dust bridging the IC pins, so I took it into the toilets and cleaned it in the sink with a nailbrush! After that I dried it with the hand-dryer for about 5 mins, then handed it back to him. I've heard nothing since
Never thought about the importance of driving moisture out fully from under ICs, but I've used this technique on mainboards etc and never had any problems.
Registered Member #230
Joined: Tue Feb 21 2006, 08:01PM
Location: Gracefield lower Hutt
Posts: 284
Ultrasonic cleaning should be used with care Crystals, mems components etc do not like and will be damaged. however if already wet with water DI water and detergent are good options with a rinse or two and a thorough dry. Alcohol can damage epoxy's and more aggressive solvents more so. remember most electros are made to vent and this is a path for water /solvent to enter. Vacuum drying after is the best but as said elevated temp for many hours will suffice
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Ultrasound cleaning
