Quickly remove the leaking battery before any more damage's done, and connect an external battery holder for 2 or 3 AAs on the pins 1 and 4 of JP3. Pin 1 should be positive and pin 4 negative.

Markk wrote:

Quickly remove the leaking battery before any more damage's done, and connect an external battery holder for 2 or 3 AAs on the pins 1 and 4 of JP3. Pin 1 should be positive and pin 4 negative.

Yup, priority number 1 would be to remove the battery asap!!
I cut them at the metal legs (pulling hard = not a good idea 😜 ) and then try to clean up as much of the leaked battery stuff from the board.
The acid of the battery eats away and corrodes the traces on the board. If you leave it, it may eat enough of the traces making the motherboard defective!

The more you remove, the better it is.

If the leaking is severe, it may not be the end of the board though. I've got a 386DX board laying around which had severe leakage but it still works perfectly except for the fact it now has alzheimer 😜

But remove battery + clean up is the 1st thing you should do 😉

I also have a Gigabyte GA-586AL motherboard, and I just noticed that mine shows some signs of leakage too, though not that serious. It seems to only affect the battery connectors. I haven't used it for years, just a quick Am5x86-P75 testing. You can easily find a battery replacement, but as others told you, a coin battery upgrade is safer, cheaper, and highly recommended:

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SB1609 (electrolytic battery)
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SB1762 (coin battery holder)

Thanks for all your feedback. 😀

I will remove the battery as soon as possible. But I don't know what kind of liquid should I use to clean it? 😮

Baking soda and water with a soft toothbrush should neutralize any acid remaining and remove corrosion buildup without damaging traces.

I thought the "acid" was in fact alkaline [potassium hydroxide or some such] so what you did was wash in spirt vinegar. And then rinse with alcohol to get rid of the vinegar. See zetro's post in this amibay thread:

link removed

ratfink wrote:

I thought the "acid" was in fact alkaline [potassium hydroxide or some such] so what you did was wash in spirt vinegar. And then rinse with alcohol to get rid of the vinegar. See zetro's post in this amibay thread:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=16804

Is it? I thought batteries were acidic. Well, whichever it is you use the opposite to neutralize. Acid neutralizes alkali, alkali neutralizes acid. Be sure which it is first.

Oh, and it's a good idea not to link to threads where a signup is required to view them.

ah my bad, i'll edit it out and cut and paste the relevant bit: courtesy of Zetr0 on amibay:

A NiCad Battery consists of nickel oxide hydroxide, and metallic cadmium as electrodes - this is then immersed in (potassium hyd […]
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A NiCad Battery consists of nickel oxide hydroxide, and metallic cadmium as electrodes - this is then immersed in (potassium hydroxide [KOH]) an alkaline electrolyte.

Initially what happens is the reaction process here starts off with with the battery leak - this causes the Potassium Hydroxide to react with the air.... this over a time and room temperature will create Potassium Perxoide. Both of these chemicals react quite strongly with Copper.

Peroxide is a VERY strong oxidizer, when you have this combined with Copper (an oxidizing metal) you have a very compound problem, as you can imagine what starts off small will crescendo to a larger problem in a short space of time.

Environmental factors do play a part in this, from temperature to air humidity - all effect this copper - potassium hydroxide / peroxide reaction.

Now potassium peroxide is an inorganic compound with the molecular formula K2O2, it is also a mild alkaline to a base pending on its strength.

How do we fix it?

To neutralize an alkaline we must use an acid: of course acid will also react with Copper, in fact there are very few things copper wont react with, so we need something safe and controllable - Acetic acid (i.e. spirit vinegar) - although this would react with copper - its relatively insignificant when compared to the peroxide base that has built up in concentrations on the PCB.

The acetic acid neutralizes the base and provides an alternative for oxidization with the peroxide being that its an organic compound. As a plus point it also breaks down the concentrated Copper Hydroxide (those blue/green fuzzy bunnies) left over from previous reactions.

But why?!?!?

Copper Hydroxide is mildly amphoteric, This is the double whammy for the copper tracks as the more that reacts the more alkaline is produced thus the more it reacts until it runs out of oxygen/copper..

There are four driving factors for this reaction

1. The amount of potassium hydroxide that leaks
2. The amount of potassium hydroxide that reacts to form potassium peroxide
3. The air humidity
4. The temperature of the PCB and environment.

In short (for those that skipped)

1. A NiCad battery has an alkaline electrolyte.
2. Electrolyte leaks and reacts with air to form a strong oxidizer
3. Copper is an verilent Oxidizing metal
4. Electrolyte is an Alkaline and will concentrate to a Base
5. Copper reacts with Oxidizer causing more Alkaline
6. Alkaline reacts with Copper and Air creating more Alkaline

Once the battery leaks its like lighting a fuse to a firework and running away.