New Here, regards to corrosion on PCB...

[AC.Widget.DC]

Hi all,

New here (and to Electronics).

I have a Graphics card which is starting to fail on me (artifacting). I believe this may be due to small areas of the PCB/Chips being affected by corrosion. Just wondering if it were possible to clean the corrosion off these area to try and make it operate better ?

I have provided a link to a few photos I have take (excuse the bluriness, something changed in the camera settings :S)

Electronics pictures by Widget1983 - Photobucket


Regards,

 

[ben7]

Are the tops of the capacitors on your vc flat?

I don't think a lot of corrosion would occur on a pcb, unless someone used acid core solder.

Maybe it is just residual flux.

-Ben

 

[AC.Widget.DC]

Hi, thanks for the reply ,

The capacitors seem ok (the lil silver things that look like rain water tanks?), just the small spots where it's possible something 'may' have 'sprayed' onto the bottom of the card and onto the tiny chips.

The capacitors (if this is what I think it is) are the newer 'Solid-Capacitor'. The video card I have would be a 2008/9 model HD4870.

Should I try some (rubbing) alcohol and a soft bristled tooth brush and carefully scrub the area ?


I'll take a couple more shots of the card (hopefully better ones then I linked) and update them on my photobucket link.


Thanks,

 

[AC.Widget.DC]

Hi all,

I've installed the Video Card into my PC and installed the latest drivers for it so it functions as it should. I'm not getting any sort of error and the picture is displaying correctly without artifacting (which was probably caused by overheating to begin with).

I'm running some Graphics benchmarking tools to stress it out, so far so good, so the corrosion bits on the PCB could be 'minor' and the chips/circuits should still be ok (for now) ?

That being said, can the corroded areas be cleaned up ?


Regards,

 

[AC.Widget.DC]

*Bump*....

 

[Cobalt60]

Hello. I repair consumer electronics professionally. The presence of corrosion is not to be taken lightly. Usually, you have to be afraid that you are not seeing all of the corrosion, and there may be much more out of sight. But if it is just a small amount of corrosion, and doesnt look like the board still has the substance which caused it, then yes, cleaning it is a great idea. At work, I use de-natured alcohol and Q-tips. Rubbing (Isopropyl) is probably fine too, just use the strongest solution you can find, preferably over 90%. Because any rubbing alcohol solution less than 100% contains the remainder as water, which, leads to corrosion.

Also, make sure it is dry, and using a brush (probably not a metal brush) is a good idea too, as you want to clean it up as much as possible.

 

[RCinFLA]

Something likely got spilled on it somewhere along the line.

90% Isopropyl is best readily available solvent. Most drug stores carry 70% and 90%.

If you can find some Trichloroethane (Carbon-Trichlor) it is the best.