Cleaning electronic components

Wash them in electronic grade isopropyl alcohol.

Tepid water with a surfacant like "Micro" brand cleanser will be OK for boards which do not have parts on them that have cavities open to the outside air.

Al

PS:

You mean like things like the memory sockets, ZIF CPU sockets, IDC connectors, D-Type connectors, the bios beeper, the battery etc.?

I think a better idea would be to take it apart and (outdoors) give the parts a blast from can of compressed air intended for this job. I would avoid using a regular vacuum cleaner as the plastic nozzle can build up a static charge.

Wipe the case with a cloth wetted with airfreshner perhaps.

That's right. For example, you can use the detergent on the memory modules you remove, but not on the motherboard. That detergent I specified is a low residue detergent. Even then the modules should then be rinsed off with distilled water and air dried. Of course, any paper labels will be affected.

Al

Hi, Yes, Thanks for all your helpful tips. I 'm sure I will use most of the them to get that nasty smell erased. And a good blast from an air hose would do a lot to help also.

Dan

We do cleaning of electronic circuit boards, and devices when they come in for rebuilding.

Use a high grade of isopropyl alcohol to clean the various components, circuit boards, and surfaces. Use distilled water to rinse the circuit boards. All the devices are then forced air dried at 140 F to 160 F, for more than 24 hours.

After the devices are taken out of the drying area, they are allowed a few hours to cool down to room temperature. The units are then re-assembled, let standing for another 24 hours, and then troubleshooted for any failures. When completely finished, the units look like new if the client didn't dent or scratch them, and they perform to specifications.

The cost of this type of service is high. Therefore, only devices that are feasible to overhaul are serviced. These are mainly calibration and test equipment, or high end computer equipment.