HELP NEEDED - Varta Damage to 386 Motherboard. References for repair needed. \ VOGONS

HELP NEEDED - Varta Damage to 386 Motherboard. References for repair needed.

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First post, by gryffinwings

Posted on 2023-06-05, 23:13

gryffinwings Offline

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Rank: Member
Posts: 105
Joined: 2018-09-09, 17:40
Location: San Diego

Hi guys, I have, what appears to be a JOINDATA SYSTEMS, INC. G386U-1 Motherboard. It has damage near the battery, it appears that is where the damage stayed as well as part of the nearest ISA slot, but I am still inspecting the board.

Looks like some surface mount components were damages, maybe traces, not sure, I intend to get some deoxit to get the area really clean, and hopefully I can figure this out.

Main Computer: Custom - Intel 12900K, Asus Nvidia 3080 Ti, 64 GB DDR5.
Retro Computer: Packard Bell Legend I - AMD 286, 640KB RAM
Retro Computer: Dell Dimension 4400 - Pentium 4 2.8 GHz FSB 400 MHz, ATi Radeon 9600XT, Sound Blaster Live!, 768 MB RAM.

Reply 1 of 3, by verysaving

Posted on 2023-06-06, 01:20

verysaving Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 89
Joined: 2017-09-01, 00:33

Got the same board some years ago from a friend,
with the same VARTA killer.
Removed the battery and forgot about it for months
until I eventually decided to try to clean and check it.

Lot of people use vinegar or citric acid, but I
usually use a gel containing hydrochloric acid (the
stuff used to clean toilet!) that do the job pretty
well in minutes, but that time I used 10% hydrochloric
acid that cleaned the ares literally in few second.
Of course rinsed it well with lot of water ...

The big meshed copper area of the board prevented the
alkaline electrolyte from doing further damage.

The board, with a VGA and and HD hooked to a multi IO
ISA card, powered up, posted good, booted to DOS fine,
but didn't do any further test and I put it in storage
since then.

Reply 2 of 3, by gryffinwings

Posted on 2023-06-06, 01:57

gryffinwings Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 105
Joined: 2018-09-09, 17:40
Location: San Diego

verysaving wrote on 2023-06-06, 01:20:
Got the same board some years ago from a friend, with the same VARTA killer. Removed the battery and forgot about it for months […]
Show full quote

Got the same board some years ago from a friend,
with the same VARTA killer.
Removed the battery and forgot about it for months
until I eventually decided to try to clean and check it.

Lot of people use vinegar or citric acid, but I
usually use a gel containing hydrochloric acid (the
stuff used to clean toilet!) that do the job pretty
well in minutes, but that time I used 10% hydrochloric
acid that cleaned the ares literally in few second.
Of course rinsed it well with lot of water ...

The big meshed copper area of the board prevented the
alkaline electrolyte from doing further damage.

The board, with a VGA and and HD hooked to a multi IO
ISA card, powered up, posted good, booted to DOS fine,
but didn't do any further test and I put it in storage
since then.

It's so similar, the main difference in the damaged area is that mine has a bunch of SMT resistors and capacitors.

Reply 3 of 3, by verysaving

Posted on 2023-06-07, 00:38

verysaving Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 89
Joined: 2017-09-01, 00:33

Same chipset but lot of chips are smd in your board.
I didn't notice at first glance.

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