VOGONS


Battery leakage residu

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First post, by Strahssis

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Hi everyone,

I am currently working on a Tulip Motion Line ml 5/90, but I have a question. The CMOS battery has leaked a bit, but luckily no damage has been done to the board yet. The laptop still works fine.

However, there is a bit of blue corrosion on the pins of the connectors on the motherboard both on those of the CMOS and the microphone. Normally I would clean this up, but the laptop is a real pain to disassemble any further and the plastic is very brittle. I know for fact that I will damage the plastic case a lot if I disassemble any further.

My question is simple: is it okay for if I leave the corrosion residu on there or will it continue to spread and kill the laptop in the longterm? I have removed the source of the corrosion: the CMOS battery.

All the best,

Miko

Mimi: AMD K6-2/266, S3 Trio64, Diamond Monster 3D II, Sound Blaster CT2800, 32MB RAM
Satellite 220CS: Pentium 133, SVGA DSTN, Sound Blaster Pro, 64MB RAM
Contura 420CX: 486DX4 75, VGA TFT, Roland Serial MIDI, 16MB RAM

Reply 1 of 4, by wiretap

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It will spread further, but to an unknown extent. Usually it takes a while, ie months or years. I would disassemble carefully with the correct tools and neutralize & clean the corrosion. Usually for brittle plastic, I'll use a tool like this to aid in removal: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MFC7DMJ/

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals

Reply 2 of 4, by AirIntake

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Soak the whole laptop in vinegar to neutralize & clean off the corrosion. Then do another soak in distilled water to remove the remaining vinegar residue. Dry thoroughly before turning it on.

I am joking.

Casio BE-300 Advancement Society (be300.org) alumni

Reply 3 of 4, by keropi

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local vinegar application will work though and neutralize the acid
then you clean it up and it's good to go

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Reply 4 of 4, by Strahssis

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Thank you for your replies, I appreciate the help. I went for the cleaning, but it ended up being a disaster. It turns out that repairs had been done to the laptop by the previous owner. There were a lot of poorly soldered jumper wires to and from a daughterboard, which I couldn't see until it was too late, so I broke one of the jumper connections despite being very careful disassembling. I didn't break any plastic though, which was a surprise. Maybe the most frustrating part was that there was almost no corrosion on the hidden part of the board, so in the end I could've cleaned everything off with a riskless partial disassembly.

I couldn't see where the jumper wire snapped off and I couldn't find the right spot either. I tried soldering it to four spots that looked like they may have had a soldered connection in the past, but it didn't fix it. The jumper seems to be essential, because I tried a boot without it first and it didn't work. I got the same results no matter where I soldered the jumper: power light comes on and stays on, the pc speaker outputs static noise, black screen and no signs of life no matter what you press on the keyboard (I know setup is on F2).

I am very frustrated since I killed a laptop tonight that would have had a couple of months or years left to live. I don't blame you guys for it, I'm just frustrated with myself for killing my only Pentium-1. It's such a shame, because the laptop had a built-in SoundBlaster Vibra 16S too. I guess I will put the laptop in my laptop graveyard, where it can keep one of my Olivetti's company. Maybe it will come in handy someday for spare parts.

R.I.P. Tulip Motion Line ml 5/90.

Mimi: AMD K6-2/266, S3 Trio64, Diamond Monster 3D II, Sound Blaster CT2800, 32MB RAM
Satellite 220CS: Pentium 133, SVGA DSTN, Sound Blaster Pro, 64MB RAM
Contura 420CX: 486DX4 75, VGA TFT, Roland Serial MIDI, 16MB RAM