Help! : CPS2 B board emergency cleaning.

[Evilmaxwar]

Ok to make a long story short, I bought a Gigawing CPS2 B board on ebay ( Tested ) and when it got there it gave me the blue screen.
I took the lid off to check the battery voltage only to find the thing ruptured. It broke off the board and spilled acid everywhere.
Quite a mess, the battery was wedged between the board and the case so I did not hear it rattle inside.

Of course this board will need to be phoenixed but more importantly the acid needs to be cleaned of.

The problem? There are tiny specks of it everywhere, the battery probably bumped around everywhere during transport. The corrosive is still in liquid form and it does not look like it had time to eat through the board and chips already but this thing needs emergency cleaning.

How should I go about it ? I am tempted to just throw it in the dish washer but maybe I should manually brush it in the bath tub?

Here are some pictures I took of that '' disaster ''. .. The pictures do not show it but there are small specs of the acid all around the board.

[system11]

Isopropanol. Lots of it. Remove the PCB and tip some over it in the affected areas, then use cotton swabs dipped in it to clean away any remaining acid.

And leave it to dry for a while.

[Ed Oscuro]

Edit: Bad idea, turns out water can react with the electrolyte of at least some lithium batteries.

[system11]

Can cause insta-corrosion though if any of the nickel plating is badly pitted, seen it a few times.

[Ed Oscuro]

d'oh, I looked it up, and you're right, the electrolyte of batteries that have lithium, sodium and chlorine react with water.

[system11]

d'oh, I looked it up, and you're right, the electrolyte of batteries that have lithium, sodium and chlorine react with water.

The big problem (I've seen it a few times now) is chips with presumably with a high steel content and damaged plating, they do exactly what car disc brakes do as soon as it rains, come back an hour later and you have brown discs. I've only ever seen this on SMT quads, which makes it fairly alarming. This is why I never ever wash my PCBs unless they're covered with mold or mud or plaster (true story) - dirt just stays there.

[kebrank]

Do you have picture of any SMT quads damaged by washing them with water?. I have washed a few pcbs with water in the past and never noticed this issue. I would like to see how they look.

[system11]

Do you have picture of any SMT quads damaged by washing them with water?. I have washed a few pcbs with water in the past and never noticed this issue. I would like to see how they look.

Nope, just imagine all the legs turning light brown just like car brakes - takes minutes to appear. I clean it straight off with a fibreglass pen, people shouldn't be washing PCBs to begin with unless there's a drastic reason, so I never thought a photo was needed.

Just get isopropanol, many chemists stock it. It's amazingly useful for many things. That or proper PCB cleaning spray, again cheap and easily available.

[kebrank]

Well, I don't wash PCBs just because they are a little bit dusty, but if they are nasty I prefer to put them under running water and use a toothbrush to clean them well. Isopropanol works great for a small area but if you have to scrub a whole board it's not very practical. Keep also in mind that a lot people live in places where +70% humidity is common. I don't see how a 10 minutes wash can be worst that having a PCB at 70% humidity for months, but I totally agree that ideally we should not wash PCBs with water or anything else. It just sucks when you get a nice board that is full of crap .

[Evilmaxwar]

Thanks for the advice, only board I ever washed in the dishwasher is a NES motherboard that was utterly filthy. The console works great still. Normally I just clean with compressed air or locally with a swap and alcohol.

I imagine a good reason to completely clean a PCB is when it actually does not work and you want to repair it and you want to see what the hell you are doing. I have some quite dirty jamma boards that still work so Im not messing with them if I do not need to.

I will follow System11's advice and use alcohol. I have a good supply of 99% IPA here. I will spray it around and use toothbrush.

[BONKERS]

as pure of Isopropyl you can get is what you want to use if ever bathing PCBs of any kind to clean them.

For dust removal, I would first use compressed air to clean as much of it off as possible. (You can get a can of it, or buy a specially made electrical air duster that is ESD safe https://www.metrovacworld.com/DataVac_E ... D/overview)

Then I would get a plastic container large enough to encompass the entire PCB unit, fill it with Isopropyl to the level it covers the PCB. Then you can use something like a toothbrush, or cotton swaps to scrape on the PCB to try and break free what you want. When done, remove and get rid of any remaining material on the PCB (The isopropyl should be dirty by now). Let the PCB air dry.

Of course you don't have to do it this way. I think it's just fun.

[system11]

Remove all socketed chips by the way before you do this, and know that most chip labels/serial stickers will be destroyed.

[Evilmaxwar]

Here is what I did.

I put the PCB in the sink at a 45 degree angle.

I have a quality spray bottle that I keep filled with 99% isopropyl alcohol.



I Generously sprayed the board starting at the top so the alcohol would run down and I brushed with an old tooth brush to dislodge the crap.
I kept spraying and brushing until I felt it was clean enough.

I did not remove the socketed chips before I did it however, but after the board had drained I used an air can to blast the remaining ipa from under the chips.
It looks like this technique worked well and did not damage the rom labels, although I agree that I should probably have removed the socketed chips first.

The board seems fully dry now and it does look very good! I do not see any more dust or acid specs. It does not look physically damaged either. The battery acid was still fresh.


This brings me to the next step. Before I attempt to get this board Phoenixed, It struck me that it might be a good idea to test it with other phoenixed roms. I have several CPS2 boards some of which were already phoenixed when I purchased them. I could use the roms from one of those and test if the B board works? If I just switch all the socketed chips from a working phoenixed board to this one it should work or there is something i am missing?

[parodius]

Some jumpers need to be changed.

[Evilmaxwar]

I put my 2 faulty CPS2 boards in storage for now as I decided I would purchase an EPROM programmer, I have learned you can write a Test rom for CPS2 which will tell you if it is suicided or not.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

You're also going to need a U/V eprom eraser. That test rom is going to be useless for you. You already know it's suicided.

[Evilmaxwar]

You're also going to need a U/V eprom eraser. That test rom is going to be useless for you. You already know it's suicided.

I have an eraser already, got it at the flea market for 2$ this summer :p

As for the test rom, I guess it could still be useful to see if the board seems ok or not ( beside being suicided that is ).
Not sure what the test rom will give as result but if it works as intended then presumably the board is good and should be phoenixed.
Considering I am not the original owner and received this board non functional and with acid runouts, I consider the possibility that it might have some other hidden form of damage.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Phoenixing it and running an actual game is going to test the board way more thoroughly than that test rom.

[Evilmaxwar]

Phoenixing it and running an actual game is going to test the board way more thoroughly than that test rom.

Granted, I may still try that test rom if only for ''educational'' purpose. I also realized I forgot to mention it here but I recently acquired a second dead board.
This time it is a dungeon and dragon ToD.

It had a sticker stating the battery was replaced on Jan 2008. Too late I guess as it gave me the blue screen.
I tested the battery with a multimeter 1 h later and I had 3.6v...
Maybe some remaining capacitor charge explains this or something. I will have to test the battery again before I try to phoenix it.

[Ed Oscuro]

It had a sticker stating the battery was replaced on Jan 2008. Too late I guess as it gave me the blue screen.

That was probably fine - but the battery probably should have been replaced since then.

[Evilmaxwar]

I finally got my Gigawing phoenixed! Thank you to all you guys who helped me out.

I got sort of lucky in that I found a local dude selling some arcade hardware and I bought a pretty expensive board from him. Turns out he was able to program me some phoenix roms as part of the deal.
That board is back in service!

[undamned]

I got sort of lucky in that I found a local dude selling some arcade hardware and I bought a pretty expensive board from him. Turns out he was able to program me some phoenix roms as part of the deal.

FYI, nobody is authorized to program/distribute Phoenix ROMs outside of Razoola (guy who developed them). Lots of clowns out there making money off of his hard work.
-ud