Retr0bright. Do a web search for that. 😀

For cards that are just dirty I literally dip them in a sink of water and dish soap. Rinse them well, shake them a bit to get most of the water off, and then let them dry for a day perhaps by a warm window.

you serious about just dumping cards in water?

yup 😀 Just make sure it's dry before you try to use it again. It's a good idea to use compressed air to get water out from under chips. And then like I said let it sit for a day near a sunny window to be sure (or use a hair dryer).

Take batteries off of mobos too.

I have pretty hard water here, so I use an extra step of rinsing with distilled water or isopropyl alcohol after cleaning with tap water, otherwise I'll get little traces of minerals left behind after the board dries. Also, for really tough dirt (tobacco residue, etc.), Simple Green works quite well... just be sure to rinse thoroughly afterwards.

Yeah that's a good idea. Tap water always has dissolved ions in it. I've tried isopropyl alcohol and distilled water as final rinses. The alcohol is great for getting rid of the water, especially if you use the 91% stuff.

Sometimes I don't bother though and just use tap water for the whole process. I haven't killed anything yet.... 😀

uhhh wtf you can always have minerals bridge connections i'd take the case completely off.

Fortunately the tap water in the Netherlands is very soft 😀

For cleaning I either use a paintbrush for dust and rubbing alcohol + paper tissue for cleaning contacts.

If retrobright is something you're not willing to try, theres always teh good paintjob 😁

I use the paintbrush too, both wide and narrow ones, to dust off the dirt from the cards.

Till I can find the time (out of my lazyness) to mix up a soup of retr0bright, I usually resort to my trusty aftershave and a bit of water to remove the stains, for a quick fix (usually to clean up the front bazels of cd-roms, floppy drives, etc.).

I bet your computer smells loverly 😉

Davros wrote:

I bet your computer smells loverly 😉

🤣, hell yeah retrobright with a smell of Old Spice 🤣 😀

Davros wrote:

I bet your computer smells loverly 😉

Actually (lmao in my head already), when I clean cases, I first 'demount' then fully (front bezel, metal parts and everything electronix like LED's and the pc speaker) and wash them (not the electronic parts obviously) in my bathroom with an old very big sponge and, depending what I have, use some dishwasher or shampoo, whatever is close by.
One of my cases now has a very faint smell of peaches ahem!
But it was WAY better then it was before, it seemed like it was pulled from out a muddy puddle, there were clumps of dirt and twigs in it!

I've put old grubby Amiga mobo's, cases and keys in the dishwasher before (do not use any detergent or the dry sequence). I'm not the only one who's done this either 🤣

WolverineDK wrote:

Davros wrote:

I bet your computer smells loverly 😉

🤣, hell yeah retrobright with a smell of Old Spice 🤣

It's Faberge's BRUT actually! 🤣

I just use the air compressor and let it crank up high, i think it set around 70 or 80 PSI. I aim for the biggest clumps of dust and use about half pressure. then the i give a general sweep over the whole case full tilt and then behind the front bezel i give it hell as well. Never had any problems. a lot of people say you will rip parts off. unless you point 0.5 mm away from a capacitor it will be fine.

There's nothing like a delicate soapy rinse to get stuff like nasty tobacco stink off of beautiful old parts though. I kid you not. Video card splish splash. It really brings back the PCB green and you'll think that magical new-computer-part smell is back too. 😁

I hadn't considered enhancing the experience with cologne, however. Hmmmm....

A common method of cleaning old Macintosh motherboards was to put them in the dishwasher using water only then drying them thoroughly before reinstalling.

As a smoker and PC tech, my magic for monitors (or any of that "beige-ish" plastic used on a lot of things):

409 spray (or other comparable kitchen surface spray) and elbow grease, followed by 91% isopropyl alcohol and more elbow grease... works like a champ 😀

I used to assemble and repair PC boards at one of my previous jobs, and I can tell you that it is perfectly safe to wash boards in water. In fact, durint manufacturing, right after the components are soldered on, the next step is to wash in warm water (and sometimes a special soap) to get the solder flux off. And if a customer sent in a dirty board for service, sometimes a hand-wash with 409 was the best thing to do!

But, nothing safe is foolproof, so if you are immersing board in water, take care of a few things:

-Remove all power. File this under 'duh'. If your motherboard has a removable lithium battery for the clock/cmos, remove it. (The soldered-on nicd batteries should be fine. Its more of a practical reason to not get water trapped in the connector under the battery.

-Not all components are water proof: Some parts came with a wrapper, that after soldering and washing the board, you peel off. This is mostly components like potentiometers which have moving parts, or piezeo buzzers that have a little hole. If a part has a hole in it, tape over it!

-If parts are in sockets, remove them prior to washing.

-After washing a board, don't let it air dry. Shake it off, then use a hair drier. Used compressed air to get all the water out of connectors and sockets. And make sure its totally dry before trying to turn it back on!

Now go clean your filthy electronics! 😀

I didn't expect it to be officially approved, but that's good to hear. 😀