Washing computers

Specifically laptops where the motherboard is under the keyboard where the coffee, beer and crumbs settle.

The washing up liquid thread made me visit this (the cheap Aldi stuff dilutes to about 1000 to 1).

I am familiar with washing audio mixers, guitar amps and so on and letting them dry in a clean environment to wash off the clicks, bangs and sizzles.

Has anyone done this with laptop motherboards? Are there components on there that don't like a good rinse? Those little tracks and wires seem awfully close, so will a good soaking help?

I have a machine with a dead mainboard. A light rinse with a soft brush produced brown water in the bowl, but I now need to try the stage 2 scrub routine, as it still doesn't work.

Reply to
Bill
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and contains salt, not soemthing you want to leave on electronics

help what?

I cant imagine a wash making it work again, unless there's some big pile of wet gloop on it.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

How about borrowing the use of a sonic cleaner, that should do it.

Reply to
Broadback

Forget water and washing up liquid, loony idea. Cans of spray de-greaser are what's wanted as it dislodges the goo, washes it away and then evaporates. Cotton buds are good for mopping up large areas of residue. I use the Toolstation Brake Cleaner (green spray can) for laptops (and about a million other things; very occasionally brakes too.)

Reply to
Scott M

You have to pour a fairly copious amount of liquid into a laptop keyboard to have hope of it making its way through it. They are usually designed to be somewhat spill resistant - even if they themselves die in the process.

Not generally.

Hopefully those tracks should be well insulated from the world by a layer of solder resist.

There are a multitude of reasons for a board to fail, being "dirty" is one of the far less common ones. (the contamination would have to be quite severe)

Keyboards on the other hand are more susceptible to damage by contamination - but motherboards with no moving parts, or switching contacts far less so.

Reply to
John Rumm

There are a lot of machines out there that have faulty soldering on them. AND CPU and Nvidia graphics spring to mind. You need to google your model and see if its affected. If so re-flowing is a temporary fix, re-balling may fix it permanently but as some of the faults are the package design may not.

Reply to
dennis

Interesting

Reply to
stuart noble

I left a load of electrical stuff including a PC with a neighbour after my loft tank burst and the ceiling collapsed for "safekeeping", his kids managed to cover the insides of it with thick black ink. I only found out when I turned it on and nothing happened, so I dismantled it.

I took everything off the motherboard that would come off - fan, CPU, memory modules etc., gave it a good wash in the sink with (strong dilution) washing up liquid, good rinse, then let it dry for about 3 days on a working radiator to be sure, turning it around and upside down every so often. It worked fine when I put it all back together. In my case, the ink had "insulated" some of the connections like the memory and various plugs, so removing the ink made it work again. I cleaned the memory modules and CPU connections with wet wipes then a clean rag (remembering to wear rubber gloves to prevent static of course).

I'd be surprised if washing helps any of the soldered components or fixed connections come back to life if they've died though. If the laptop just stopped working without any obvious external cause, it's probably knackered. And if you spilled coffee in it while it was on, it's probably knackered.

Reply to
Mentalguy2k8

Personally, I've never managed to get anything back by wasing it.

I think too much residue is often left and some of the moisture gets inside components in any case.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Indeed, and I'd not do it on mixers either there are special lubricating cleaners for that purpose.

Most of the completely dead motherboards in laptops are dead power regulation parts, often bespoke and unobtainable now.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Some people[1] recommend (as a "hail Mary" try) actually putting the mainboard in the oven. This apparently helps thermal shock any dodgy connections (it is also supposed to remake 'iffy' solder connections but I would not have thought domestic ovens could get anywhere near the temperature required to melt solder, and subjecting the whole 'board to those(melting solder) sort of temperatures strikes me as 'interesting').

Wouldn't have thought washing it with washing up liquid was a good idea (too much residue) if you feel you have to use liquid

Make sure it is powered off The battery is removed Only use water. (de-ionised water will NOT conduct electricity but it will pick up ions really quite quickly[main reason there are no water submerged rigs]) It is totally dry BEFORE applying ANY power.

Better still to use some form of easily evaporated de-greaser.

If it still will not work, maybe source a substitute mainboard (beware of buying used computer parts on Ebay) and replace or buy a new laptop (if flush) and get any required data from the hard drive of the defunct laptop. Sometimes (especially with computers) the technology advances so fast that items should be replaced rather than much time spent repairing them.

[1] All information worth what you paid for it e.t.c.
Reply to
soup

Bill explained on 03/12/2013 :

I, as a matter of course, wash any electronics I am working upon. Washing a laptop, I would remove the HDD and the keyboard and use an absolute minimum of detergent.

Water under a membrane keyboard can be almost impossible to get out, unless the membrane can be removed.

I then rinse very well under warm water and use compressed air to blow the surplus water out, then a long spell on a radiator or on top of a hot water tank to dry it out thoroughly.

Be aware of any mechanical parts, where the lubrication might be washed out.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

In message , Brian Gaff writes

Thanks to all. I'll follow up Brian because I think he is wrong :-)

On the old fashioned audio mixers that I knew and loved it was standard procedure to yank them apart and head for the toilets, especially when it was hot Lemsip that the DJ had spilled. Proper faders can be cleaned and lubricated easily. I bought a couple of the grandsons-of-Dermic-oiler that were in the Aldi remainder bin a month or so ago, and they seem quite useful.

I have some of the non-lubricating electronic cleaner, but the brake cleaner sounds interesting and I might try some.

The current laptop in question was bought off ebay to break for parts (case, hinges etc.) with dead mainboard and is a Lenovo, so there are drawings and even a huge, horrifying circuit diagram available. It has Intel graphics, so that is likely to be OK. The fan/heatsink comes away quite easily.

The little square spillage drains don't seem to have worked too well and the rinse over a bowl of water did turn the water brown even though the board looked quite clean before I started. I was just thinking that a good soak and thorough airing might possibly revive it and nothing will be lost if I have to scrap it. I take the point about salt in washing-up liquid.

Stage 3 might be the electric blowlamp reflow at a slightly greater distance than I used to use to reclaim TTL from boards.

I have a sonic cleaning bath, but it's too small.

Reply to
Bill

Vacuum cleaner for the crumbs

Salt laden washing up liquid + water = a daft approach. I'd use washing up liquid sparingly applied to a dishcloth to clean greasy marks from a disconnected mains plug and mains leads, nothing more.

For PCB's, Isopropyl Alcohol or Electrolube Safewash and Saferinse

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All will have been rinsed and probably fully immersed in aqueous based cleaners during manufacture, some with ingress protection, but that is to clean off manufacturing debris and flux, not general grime.

If not performed correctly It would only help move debris from somewhere visible to somewhere not visible where it could cause further problems

'Dead' is not usually due to dirt. It could be anything, soldering, cracks in the board or component failure such as bad caps. Liquid spills will kill a computer if it is left for any time with power connected (mains, battery, CMOS backup battery)

Reply to
The Other Mike

CMOS backup batteries, if the coin cell often used is left in place you will get immediate electrolytic corrosion.

Reply to
Peter Parry

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