I give up...

Steve W

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I removed the battery off the board and saw some corrosion/residue underneath. I tried to gently brush the residue with a half water/half white vinegar solution and a soft toothbrush and that resulted in the blue chipping you now see in the picture. That seemed to make the situation worse. I am now officially giving up and leaving it as is as I can only make it worse it appears.

cliff_battery_now.jpg
 
Looks like that whole trace has corrsion. As you clean, the green is just chipping off revealing more of the corrosion on the trace. Battery is better than cat pee erosion.. Battery smells better :)

Kevin
 
get some fine sandpaper and just scrub all that corrosion off. You can always repair any bad traces afterwards....
 
What is the estimated time of death of my ticking time bomb if the corrosion you now see is not cleaned off in a timely manner? The battery I stripped off was definitely the original one from '83.
 
You can actually see where the bubbling is under the green. You need to clean all of that. That spot is actually not bad as it looks in the pic. Assuming the outside trace is ground and the + for the batter is not damaged, that is a real eassy fix :)

Kevin
 
I use a dremel with a little wire-wheel. Scrub that puppy right down until that gunk is all gone and you see nice shiny copper. You're not going to harm anything.
 
You can actually see where the bubbling is under the green. You need to clean all of that. That spot is actually not bad as it looks in the pic. Assuming the outside trace is ground and the + for the batter is not damaged, that is a real eassy fix :)

Kevin

I am new at this and have no idea mostly about this stuff and only go by what I read as I have never worked on games before though I am very interested in learning. Would it be possible for someone to circle in the picture what I need to sandpaper down? I want to make sure I don't harm anything as I wouldn't know how to fix it at all quite honestly but obviously want to preserve this board. I don't even know what a trace is.

Thanks.
 
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You might have more to go, the point it to remove the corroded trace and then repair it.
 

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And just so you know...removing the green layer isn't bad... that's just sort of an insulator for the "real" important stuff below... the traces.

That board looks like the corrosion would be an easy fix.

Just do it.
 
Thanks all. Just to clarify. I do not know how to fix any traces (or anything for that matter), so I should still essentially take some fine sandpaper and sand down the brown rusty part in the pic? What about that grey part to the right of the blue? I don't want to sand too far down and break anything and then have to send the board out for repair as I have no clue what I'm doing.
 
Your going to sand down the green and the metal until you get a clean metal trace. If the trace (metal) disapears then you have to jump it. you can but trace repair tape (copper tape) or solder a wire to jumper the trace.
 
Go to an auto parts store and get a set of detailing brushes. There are usually 3 brushes in a set, a plastic brush, a brass brush and a steel brush. Using a vinegar solution (I usually use a 50:50 solution) and the brass brush, just gently scrub the spot until all of the corrosion (the bluish green crumbly stuff) is removed.

You have done one of the most important things already. You already have a closeup picture of the spot where the corrosion is the worst. This will help in case you rub any of the traces off. It doesn't look like any of them are in danger, just the ground plane. That's the good news. When you are done scrubbing, you can go to a hobby store and get some copper leaf and solder it over the worst of the corrosion and it will be as good as new. If you scrubbed any traces off, just get some very fine wire wrap wire and solder small pieces across any gaps.

Welcome to the Arcade Board DIY club. The more of these things you do, the more confidence you will get that you CAN do it yourself.

ken
 
I removed the battery off the board and saw some corrosion/residue underneath. I tried to gently brush the residue with a half water/half white vinegar solution and a soft toothbrush and that resulted in the blue chipping you now see in the picture. That seemed to make the situation worse. I am now officially giving up and leaving it as is as I can only make it worse it appears.

The chipping is an improvement... the soft toothbrush isn't enough... get a wire brush or some sandpaper, and keep working until you're down to bare copper there. then rinse with the vinegar.

If you don't get all the corrosion off, it'll continue to spread.
 
The chipping is an improvement... the soft toothbrush isn't enough... get a wire brush or some sandpaper, and keep working until you're down to bare copper there. then rinse with the vinegar.

If you don't get all the corrosion off, it'll continue to spread.

Thanks. Do you think it is safe for me to do this myself? Bear in mind I have never picked up a soldering iron in my life and still am not sure how far I am supposed to grind this thing down, etc. This PCB is not very readily available so am I better off just getting someone who knows what they are doing to help me clean this thing? To be honest, I didn't even know how to get into the card cage until a few days ago. But I'm trying, seriously. It's a lot to learn by fire in a short time. Christ there's a lot of aspects to these things.
 
Fun isn't it? ;)

Just sand a small section at a time..basically you want to see brass and not green/grey corrosion. Before doing any soldering you should get a scrap PCB of some kind to practice on. Also, look for other collectors in your area..they may be willing to give you a hand inlearning how to work on your machines.
 
From the picture you posted, it doesn't look like you'll need to do any soldering (it's just on the large ground trace). Just clean it up. You can leave it bare copper.
 
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