Wine spilled on Laptop PCB

[Deders]

Can anyone suggest the best way to clean red wine from a PCB? A friend has brought me his laptop which had wine spilled on it 5 days ago, I know the acid in the wine can be very corrosive.

I was thinking of soaking it in distilled and deionised water and letting it dry over 3 or so days but I'm not sure the PCB can wait until it's delivered.

 

[C1]

Just go to Fry's Electronics and purchase a professional spray cleaner made for the purpose of cleaning PCBs. Typical:

http://www.amrep.com/PPG_Product_de...SearchValue=&SubCategory=ELECTRONICS+CLEANERS

 

[Deders]

Thanks, Have got some ordered but have no idea when It's going to be delivered. Might try some pure Alcohol first.

 

[cheap5.0]

Please update when you get this done...im interested in seeing how the PCB fairs..

 

[Deders]

None of my local chemists stock any Alcohol so I got the worst of it off with lighter fluid to minimise corrosion, there is still black on some of the legs of one of the chips, not sure if it's burnt out or just corroded. Will use proper spray when it arrives.

In case I need to replace the board does anyone have any experience with removing processors that seem to be on balls of solder and putting them on another board?

 

[Mushkins]

None of my local chemists stock any Alcohol so I got the worst of it off with lighter fluid to minimise corrosion, there is still black on some of the legs of one of the chips, not sure if it's burnt out or just corroded. Will use proper spray when it arrives.

In case I need to replace the board does anyone have any experience with removing processors that seem to be on balls of solder and putting them on another board?

For future reference you can try local pharmacies. Not the big chains like Rite-Aid or CVS, but actual pharmacies. I have one near me and they do stock small quantities of 91% and 99% Isopropyl Alcohol.

As for removing that processor: don't. It's soldered on, there's no practical way to safely recover that processor outside of a lab environment. It also means that any replacement boards for that laptop are already going to come with their own processor soldered onto them, and whatever you're paying for them is factoring in the cost of the processor already.

 

[Deders]

For future reference you can try local pharmacies. Not the big chains like Rite-Aid or CVS, but actual pharmacies. I have one near me and they do stock small quantities of 91% and 99% Isopropyl Alcohol.

As for removing that processor: don't. It's soldered on, there's no practical way to safely recover that processor outside of a lab environment. It also means that any replacement boards for that laptop are already going to come with their own processor soldered onto them, and whatever you're paying for them is factoring in the cost of the processor already.

Good to know thanks. I did try my local Pharmacies but none of the 3 nearby had anything.

 

[Deders]

Ok got the isopropanol, at least that's what I think it is. A Friend recommended a shop to me that sold it but all the writing is in mandarin.

The guy in the shop did his best to warn me in broken English not to use a plastic container to soak it in or it would melt, but what about all the plastic connectors fixed to the board?

 

[C1]

That's why you want to use a professional spray designed for the specific purpose. Using the wrong solvent can krayz/damage materials. (You wouldnt wash your car with alcohol as it would damage the paint.) What even if the solvent you use just washes the print off a component such as an electrolytic capacitor and then you are left scratching your ass if you ever want to try to replace it.

 

[Deders]

I'm waiting for a spray to be delivered but several people have recommended I just soak it in this stuff. Do you think i should take it out?

 

[paul878]

Take it to the sink and use HOT tab water to clean off the wine, then follow by a distilled water bath. Blast off as much of the water as you can with an air compressor.

I hope the laptop wasn't on when the wine was spill...

 

[Deders]

That's what I was going to do before this whole Isopropanol malarky, It seems to be doing ok at the moment. Tbh the lighter fluid got most of the wine stains off quite easily but I thought it would be good to soak just to be sure.

We don't have hot water on tap as it costs too much to keep it heated. Would a kettle be too hot?

Apparently he did turn it on after he tipped some of the wine out, he also put rice in to dry it out. Lights came on for a minute or so but nothing else, after a while the lights went off and stayed off

There are some black marks on one of the chip's legs but not sure if that is corrosion or a sign of more damage.

 

[jackofalltrades]

I would say that the board is junk now. I doubt it survived powering on like that.
Better start looking for a new board.

 

[Deders]

Could be but seeing as the processor is stuck to the board it's going to cost him at least £160, It won't hurt to try. Some MB's can be pretty robust.

 

[paul878]

That don't sound good, don't use lighter fluid!!!!!

A kettle would not have enough pressure to clean under the chip and between the chip pin. At this point I would recommend you to soak the board in hot water ( not boiling) to loosen the wine and then blast it with cold water from a hose. Use a toothbrush if you must..

 

[denis280]

That don't sound good, don't use lighter fluid!!!!!

A kettle would not have enough pressure to clean under the chip and between the chip pin. At this point I would recommend you to soak the board in hot water ( not boiling) to loosen the wine and then blast it with cold water from a hose. Use a toothbrush if you must..

that would be the best.and afterwords i would use a good air dryer to dry the whole motherboard then wait the next day to be sure it is all dry.and good luck with the board.

 

[Deders]

Ok cleaned it up first with the Alcohol and then with the contact cleaner (that arrived a few days later) and a soft toothbrush. It booted up into windows and was fine, I left it to finish all the background processes and just as I was about to start testing it for stability there was a click (hopefully from the speakers) and it switched off before I could even touch it.

After this it wouldn't stay on for more than a couple of seconds so I unplugged it, took both batteries out and left it for a few hours. Sure enough it came back on and I was able to start gently testing it with windows' performance index (just to break it in gently). It completed this so I put the whole thing back together and switched it on again. Was fine for a while but then it switched off again and wouldn't stay on for more than a few seconds.

I've taken the batteries out and am waiting to try again but I don't think it's going to be completely stable.

I wanted to avoid using cold water due to the impurities it would have that might stay on the board, I suppose I could wash it off again with boiling de-ionised water.

 

[C1]

You've got little to lose now.

Put some very warm (almost hot) distilled water into a spray bottle and spray the piss out of the PCB at extremely close range (particularly clearing the CPU pins and chip leads of stain residue) then (non-heated) blow dry the PCB and give it a try.

 

[Deders]

It's actually been OK for the last hour and a half, although I've not had the battery in.

 

[Deders]

Yep it's just the battery that causes it to switch off now

 

[geekali]

I have a friend who also spilled a wine on ultraportable laptop (11'') and his keyboard died after that. Then he bought regular big desktop USB-keyboard which was twice bigger than the laptop and used that weird device for about 2 years, even have traveled to Africa.

 

[aigomorla]

this is why most thinkpads have a liquid spillage breath hole. :X

Have you taken apart the laptop? see if u have any wine residue shorting something out?

ummm submerge in 90% IsoAlcohol and shake, and do it OUTSIDE... (its expensive... however its probably the last route u can go.)

ive done hail marys like that on motherboards where my LC system leaked and shorted the PC to unfixable levels.

for me personally it has like a 25% success rate... hence why i call it a hail mary... a last ditch attempt b4 i chug it.

 

[Deders]

How does the breathe-hole work?

Thankfully this was one of the times it has worked. tested it with the battery from a nearly identical laptop and it works fine with that battery. The keyboard wasn't identical enough though.

Still waiting to hear back from the company that sent me the a slightly different keyboard to see if they will refund the postage if I send this one back to Hong Kong.