Acid damage on a mpu is it worth saving

mohawk640

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I have a mpu board with acid damage pretty bad. I seen a kit to replace the parts on eBay I was wondering if it worth trying
 
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oh gross. toss it. buy a new one. that's simple. money is money.

don't save that junk, cuz it can't be saved. set it on fire asap.
 
Looks repairable if you have the skills, time, and patience.
 
Keep in mind that it is going to take a lot more than just replacing parts. You will have to rebuild several traces (and/or run some jumper wires). You'll find many broken connections after you strip all the crusty crud off.
 
I wouldn't waste my time with that. The only boards with that much corrosion that are worth saving are the unobtanium ones. I'm currently working on a Sys9 board for a Sorcerer and am hating it but finding a straight Sys11 board to use in its place is almost as bad. Don't want to pay through the nose either so suck it up and fix it.

For something like that there's a low-cost alternative out there:

http://nvram.weebly.com/new-pcbs.html

And given the design of his board it is easier to run custom ROMs than if you used the original.

Practice on that board, maybe you'll save it, maybe you won't. If you do great. If not, buy Andrew's board put it in the machine and play.

viperrwk
 
I wouldn't waste my time with that. The only boards with that much corrosion that are worth saving are the unobtanium ones. I'm currently working on a Sys9 board for a Sorcerer and am hating it but finding a straight Sys11 board to use in its place is almost as bad. Don't want to pay through the nose either so suck it up and fix it.

For something like that there's a low-cost alternative out there:

http://nvram.weebly.com/new-pcbs.html

And given the design of his board it is easier to run custom ROMs than if you used the original.

Practice on that board, maybe you'll save it, maybe you won't. If you do great. If not, buy Andrew's board put it in the machine and play.

viperrwk

I showed him that and he wasn't interested. I got the bare PCB for $30, and the seller even burnt the proper ROMs for Stern Dracula for me, for a nominal fee.
 
I showed him that and he wasn't interested. I got the bare PCB for $30, and the seller even burnt the proper ROMs for Stern Dracula for me, for a nominal fee.
Where would I go let all the parts
 
Where would I go let all the parts

I'm going to post this to help other people.

Read the thread on pinside. I sent you the link. He has a BOM.

Try google.com

Mouser.com has a search engine.

You're going to have to do some research and work in this hobby. I gave you advice of an easy way to build a Stern MPU-100 board on the cheap and you seem to not want to do the work or even look up where to get the parts. I even took pics of my bare PCB to send to you and your response was "wow that's crazy"
 
That's absolutely repairable, and I've repaired much, much worse. I'm currently working my way through several boxes of system 9, system 11, DE, and Stern/Bally MPU boards - many of which have worse damage than that.

Is it worth the hassle/effort for many folks? Nope. I happen to enjoy bringing basket case boards back from the dead. I will say that cleaning up somebody else's mess (ripped traces/via's, etc) does suck.

In this case, given you've had "soldering" experience but no board repair experience, you're better off neutralizing the existing damage with a vinegar bath/rinse, and then purchasing a good/used replacement. Leave that board for somebody else to repair - some folks will give you a few bucks credit via a board swap.
 
Here's a new method of cleaning battery corrosion with ZEP Acidic Toilet Bowl Cleaner:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stripping-battery-corrosion-with-a-strong-acid#post-3386971

I can tell you for a fact it works! I've done several severely corroded mpu boards and not only did they come out looking nice again, but I saved considerable time in cleaning the board up. The three boards I did with this "new" method worked perfectly again.

Thanks for the link Ken - I am *so* going to try this on some basket case Bally/Stern boards, as well as the other boards in my stack! This appears to be a huge time saver, with excellent results.
 
Fantastic thread. Thanks to everyone posting additional resources on this acid damage topic.
 
Thanks for the link Ken - I am *so* going to try this on some basket case Bally/Stern boards, as well as the other boards in my stack! This appears to be a huge time saver, with excellent results.

It works the best if you can cut out all of the corroded parts in the "corrosion zone" first. After all, those parts are bad anyway. Makes it easier to scrub the board with the toilet bowl cleaner and a brass bristled "detail" brush from Harbor Freight.

A lot of times the corrosion gets under the 5101 ram chip socket and even travels up the legs of the chip!
 
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