VOGONS


First post, by sirlemonhead

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Hi everyone,

I took my old 386 out of the attic at the start of the year to give it a good cleaning and to put it back together.

Unfortunately the battery leaked so I had to remove it. The motherboard got some battery fluid leaked on it. It looked like this: 20120227_210943.jpg

I cleaned it up as best I could with lemon juice which I think should have neutralised the acid? I did notice that the PS/2 keyboard and mice connectors on the back of the case also had that odd blue stuff around the round metal outer part of the PS/2 connector that I never cleaned.. I'm wondering if I should clean that too..

Sorry rambling. Just wanted to confirm that the lemon oil should have neutralised the battery fluid to avoid any damage to the circuit board?

The battery looks like this: 20120227_205530.jpg

As you can see it leaked and went all furry 😀 I removed and disposed of the battery, but retained the lead that was used to connect it to the motherboard header. I'm looking for a replacement and was just hoping to put 3 x 1.5 volt AA batteries in a battery holder and hook that up.

I think the question I had was, is this ok? I know nothing about this type of battery but I heard that some old computers had rechargeable CMOS batteries? does anyone know if this is one of those or is it just a normal disposable type?

Sorry for the rambling post 😀

Reply 1 of 6, by 133MHz

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It says 4.5V Alkaline on it so fitting a 3xAA battery holder with 1.5V alkalines is indeed an exact replacement. 😉

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Reply 2 of 6, by Hatta

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You're also going to want to get rid of that corrosion, and wash that lemon juice off really good. White vinegar would have been a better option since there's nothing in it but acetic acid which will evaporate pretty quickly. Citric acid is a solid though.

What I'd recommend is getting some contact cleaner like Deoxit, and scrub the contacts good with a toothbrush. When it's all gone, rinse it with a large volume of 70% denatured ethanol, and a final rinse of 100% denatured ethanol to remove all the water. Leave it in the sun to dry, if you have any sun this time of year.

Unfortunately it looks like some of those traces on the lower left of the 75c185 are eaten clean through. You'll have to repair those with a jumper wires or a conductive pen. Good luck.

Reply 3 of 6, by sirlemonhead

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I think it's just a bad photo, the traces are fine from what I remember. I'll have another look again tomorrow and try get it properly cleaned soon.

Is this the stuff you mean by Deoxit? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Caig-Deoxit-Contact … =item27c6df7f68

Reply 4 of 6, by Old Thrashbarg

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I wouldn't even bother with Deoxit, unless you already happen to have a can of it around. Regular 90% isopropyl alcohol works just fine, and can be had cheap at pretty much any drugstore.

Reply 5 of 6, by feipoa

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You might want to check for continuity using a multi-meter on some of those questionable traces. I found that sometimes those blue acid-eaten traces are eaten down to the bottom of the trace (no copper remaining), while at others, there was still some copper remaining. I cleaned up my blue bulge with a sharpened mini wood chisel.

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