Oh, the horror! (battery acid carnage)

[UberFreak]

Hi

Yesterday I decided its time to get my old Amigas out of storage & remove the batteries, after reading some stories here about leaked batteries.

I got there too late - two of my A500+ machines suffered quite a bit of damage.
One of them looks very bad, most of the IC sockets are corroded inside & it got to the chips as well (poor Gary lost 2 legs when pulled out, they were too corroded to handle the pulling pressure).

A few questions for anyone who has experience with restoring such damage:
1) Whats the best way to clean the mess? I dont have a dish-washer (a popular advice here) but I did manage to clean some of it with lemon juice.
Is baking-sode + water recommended?

2) Since the IC sockets have corroded, I assume it would be best to completely replace them, to avoid future damage to the ICs.
Is this correct, or is cleaning them enough? (I assume there is corrosion or acid traces underneath the sockets)

Any other advice would be more than welcome!

Added are some horror pictures, for your viewing "pleasure"

Thanx

[Shadowfire]

Oh
my
god.

I know you say you don't have a dishwasher... but you need to put it in a dishwasher, or remove every IC near the battery before cleaning it up. The acid has obviously roamed around (even to the agnus socket!).

Lemon juice is not a good idea. I'm sure others here will pipe in with non-acidic solutions to use.

Replacing the sockets will probably be necessary if you can't run the board through a dishwasher. It needs to be clean. You are correct in assuming that there is acid underneath them.

You might get lucky and everything works after you do the cleanup and replace Gary, but there is a high probability that traces will also need to be repaired.

[rkauer]

@SF: lemon juice or vinegar is OK to neutralize the base attack of the battery leakage. Any other soft acid will do the same effect. Pouring it over the affected area, wait half an hour and then wash everything with a very soft scrub under current tap water is enough.

Putting the board inside the dishwasher is also OK because then you are cleaning the board with a strong alkaline compound (the machine's soap).

After the cleaning you need to replace the affected chip sockets in any case.

But if the corrosion hit the Agnus socket, don't bother trying to recover the board...

[Paul_s]

It's like a horror movie :

Hey, maybe we could make a film about monster barrel batteries that eat people! Zombie /I'm melllting

[UberFreak]

Originally Posted by rkauer

After the cleaning you need to replace the affected chip sockets in any case.

But if the corrosion hit the Agnus socket, don't bother trying to recover the board...

Both boards' Agnus socket is affected, to some degree, it didnt reach the chip itself or the inside of the socket, yet.

The 1st board has too much damage to the print itself, but after cleaning the 2nd one & verifying board traces with a multimeter, it looks like it should work.
My only remaining problem now is replacing Gary's socket, wish I had an electrical solder-pump right about now...

Also checked my A2000, I'm very lucky nothing happened there yet!

[Kitty]

Replacing the sockets will probably be necessary if you can't run the board through a dishwasher. It needs to be clean. You are correct in assuming that there is acid underneath them.

Put it in the dishwasher? wtf, the whole thing with every chip etc on it still? that sounds crazy! after its been through a cycle of the dishwasher, everything will still work once its dry and plugged back in??

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by Kitty

Put it in the dishwasher? wtf, the whole thing with every chip etc on it still? that sounds crazy! after its been through a cycle of the dishwasher, everything will still work once its dry and plugged back in??

Yes, once is dry the board will work flawlessly again (counting the board work BEFORE putted inside the dishwasher).

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by Kitty

Put it in the dishwasher? wtf, the whole thing with every chip etc on it still? that sounds crazy! after its been through a cycle of the dishwasher, everything will still work once its dry and plugged back in??

Yep, I did this on my CD32 recently and it came out sparkly clean.

[seuden]

With or without the dishwasher detergent?

[Zetr0]

@UberFreak

The first picture is of a very dead board, you would nothing short of a mirical to get that functioning again, infact I think its the worst Amiga Case of battery death I have seen =(

you would need infinate patience and serious wizardry with 30awg wire to get that board functioning again, even then theres still no garantee's

as we can see the acid has reacted violently with the copper under the PCB laqure.... i fear that once you have removed the laqure... the wont be anything left to solder with lol... although, you do have another A500+ motherboard as a guide if you wanted a restoration project (of epic proportions)

Originally Posted by UberFreak

Both boards' Agnus socket is affected, to some degree, it didnt reach the chip itself or the inside of the socket, yet.

The 1st board has too much damage to the print itself, but after cleaning the 2nd one & verifying board traces with a multimeter, it looks like it should work.

Yes, looking at the second one, I believe that can be rescued! a good clean up is whats needed, as rkauer states you will need to nutralize the acid in on the surface of the motherboard, you can do this with either a base / alkali or even acetic acid (lemon juice/vineger),

The latter acid wont corrode react with the copper, but will help clean of the copper oxide.

Although I prefer a base approach - as you dont have a dish washer, then hot water and washing up liquid will do adequately, submerge the whole unit and gently use a soft-plastic-scouring brush.

you can remove all the soketed chips, but remember these need to be cleaned also.

Originally Posted by UberFreak

My only remaining problem now is replacing Gary's socket, wish I had an electrical solder-pump right about now...

Also checked my A2000, I'm very lucky nothing happened there yet!

To be honest, the age of this solder and the heat required to melt it you wont get from an in-expensive electric solder pump, as such you are likely just burn the pcb substrate, instead I would recommend a combination of both a good quality soldering iron, desolder sucker / solderwick (thin copper braid) and solder flux to remove the socket.

Dont expect to be able to save this socket, the plastic is old and the solder requires way to much heat to flow, perhaps a better approach would be to clip/break the plastic container off and then heat from one side and pull from the other, removing the pins.

Originally Posted by seuden

With or without the dishwasher detergent?

Arguably it really wont matter, I dont bother with detergent, as the dishwasher has salt to add abrasive to the water, it also provides a very weak alkali solution that will clean the board and in this case nutralize the acid.

A good 50c 30 minute wash cycle will do the trick, dont do a drying cycle though as this could damage the capacitors, instead, place the board on its side in an airing cupboard (where your hot-water tank is) to dry, this will give a gentle warm environment for say atleast 24 hours =)

saying that you could add a fan if you were in a rush, it would be dry enough within a couple of hours, but obviously check before use in either case.

[Jope]

Make sure you don't have any dishes in there with it.

[Zetr0]

Originally Posted by Jope

Make sure you don't have any dishes in there with it.

[seuden]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

Arguably it really wont matter, I dont bother with detergent, as the dishwasher has salt to add abrasive to the water, it also provides a very weak alkali solution that will clean the board and in this case nutralize the acid.

A good 50c 30 minute wash cycle will do the trick, dont do a drying cycle though as this could damage the capacitors, instead, place the board on its side in an airing cupboard (where your hot-water tank is) to dry, this will give a gentle warm environment for say atleast 24 hours =)

saying that you could add a fan if you were in a rush, it would be dry enough within a couple of hours, but obviously check before use in either case.

Wow, that is friggin awesome! I want to put my A1200 motherboard in the dishwasher just so I can say that I have!

[PowerPie5000]

Originally Posted by seuden

Wow, that is friggin awesome! I want to put my A1200 motherboard in the dishwasher just so I can say that I have!

I'm too scared to do that with my Whirlpool dishwasher!.... It sounds a bit "powerful" and i can sometimes hear the plates and stuff moving around in it I fear it may blast bit's off the board

[Shadowfire]

Originally Posted by Jope

Make sure you don't have any dishes in there with it.

Oh yeah. You don't want any lead (Pb) on your dishes. I'd actually recommend cleaning out the bottom, and then running the machine through a second washing cycle, empty, before putting dishes back in.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Shadowfire

Oh yeah. You don't want any lead (Pb) on your dishes. I'd actually recommend cleaning out the bottom, and then running the machine through a second washing cycle, empty, before putting dishes back in.

Hehe, and most importantly: you don't want to be picking bits of old food from all over your motherboard.