On really dirty motherboards, I've used soap and water. The key is make sure they are rinsed thoroughly and completely dry before powering up. I use an air compressor to blow dry any electronics I clean with water just make sure there is no residue of anything left behind.

Other than that, I typically use IPA, anti-static brushes, paper towels and cotton swabs, all depending on how dirty things are and what specifically I'm trying to clean.

I've washed a board with plain old water and it cleaned up nicely. I've seen plenty of people do it with soap and water. I think you just need to be careful with it and make sure you thoroughly dry it. Would I recommend it? I'm not sure. I've seen some metals begin to oxidize quickly after being exposed to water (I had some screws begin to rust within a few hours after washing something and sitting it on a shelf to dry).

At the end of the day, we're all basically playing with junk. Hopefully you didn't pay too much for your junk so you can not feel too much regret if something unfavorable happens.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-09-30, 03:09:

On really dirty motherboards, I've used soap and water. The key is make sure they are rinsed thoroughly and completely dry before powering up. I use an air compressor to blow dry any electronics I clean with water just make sure there is no residue of anything left behind.

Yep, soap & water ..on production line we used a citric based cleaner to remove flux residue ; like you say, compressed air to dry ; we would also immerse in IPA to displace moisture, compressed air dry then into a low temp oven.

smtkr wrote on 2023-09-30, 03:12:

I've seen some metals begin to oxidize quickly after being exposed to water (I had some screws begin to rust within a few hours after washing something and sitting it on a shelf to dry).

This is why I use an air compressor for drying. You can get them almost entirely dry in a few minutes.

Plus it gets water out of any connectors, ICs, etc.

I agree with Shponglefan. It's the same technique I've seen used by trusted retro YouTubers like Adrian Black (Adrian's Digital Basement). He basically suds the board up with warm tap water and dish soap, scrubs with a soft brush, rinses clean, then blows compressed air to get water out from under the chips. Supplementing with 91%+ isopropyl alcohol will also help displace the water and speed up drying. A fan would also help. Just make sure it's bone dry before you power up and it should be totally fine. Water + old boards should be okay as long as there's no water left when the current starts to flow again.

I once saw a guy on youtube cleaning his motherboard on his pool, i thought he was crazy
i was wrong, you can just clean it with with tap water and Dawn.

If you dont have air compressor just put a big fan sending air to the MB for some hours.

Hello everyone, i was wondering how to clean old motherboards aswell ( including video cards, audio cards...etc ), this is what i found:

- isopropyl alcohol + soft brush
- distilled water + dish soap
- PCB / general electronic cleaner spray

I'm dubious about the dish soap method. Distilled water does not cause damage to the motherboard, even if you boot it when it is not yet perfectly dry, right?

_StIwY_ wrote on 2023-10-16, 08:47:

I'm dubious about the dish soap method. Distilled water does not cause damage to the motherboard, even if you boot it when it is not yet perfectly dry, right?

No, Distilled water will became conductive when contaminated, when distilled water meet the dust on the surface of the board, it will became conductive and if you tried to power up, something very fun will happen.

For cleaning, i will do in the following order:

- if the board is dusty, ESD safe brush to clean the dust.
- after dusting, if there are some stubborn stain, using IPA 99% with q-tip to clean.
- if i'm felling too lazy then the dishwasher method will be used, and the board will be hanged to dry for a day or two (depend on weather)

nhattu1986 wrote on 2023-10-18, 16:55:

No, Distilled water will became conductive when contaminated, when distilled water meet the dust on the surface of the board, it […]
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_StIwY_ wrote on 2023-10-16, 08:47:

I'm dubious about the dish soap method. Distilled water does not cause damage to the motherboard, even if you boot it when it is not yet perfectly dry, right?

No, Distilled water will became conductive when contaminated, when distilled water meet the dust on the surface of the board, it will became conductive and if you tried to power up, something very fun will happen.

For cleaning, i will do in the following order:

- if the board is dusty, ESD safe brush to clean the dust.
- after dusting, if there are some stubborn stain, using IPA 99% with q-tip to clean.
- if i'm felling too lazy then the dishwasher method will be used, and the board will be hanged to dry for a day or two (depend on weather)

Oh, thanks. What about spraying the motherboard with UPA 99% + distilled water + brush to clean all together ?

For me, IPA never works very well. You‘ll always end up with smeary looking PCB‘s.
The very first card I gave a wash was a Soundblaster Live! with the black/gold PCB. It was just dripping with nicotine and a ton of dust on top of it.
Washed it with warm tap water and soap and dried it with my compressed air duster. The card is still looking mint and also still working today!

_StIwY_ wrote on 2023-10-18, 17:52:

Oh, thanks. What about spraying the motherboard with UPA 99% + distilled water + brush to clean all together ?

You can just use the IPA 99% alone and it should be enough. IPA 99% evaporate fast and leave no residue.
If the board so filthy, you can use a large enough basin and use a lot IPA to completely submerged the board in IPA and brush it (after complete, save the IPA for the next board)

Depends how bad it is. Anything from a paint brush all the way to soap and water in the kitchen sink with a bristle brush then blowing out with compressed air and drying with hair dryer have been used.

Avoid brushing the stickers when they are wet.

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-10-19, 18:38:

Depends how bad it is. Anything from a paint brush all the way to soap and water in the kitchen sink with a bristle brush then blowing out with compressed air and drying with hair dryer have been used.

that's the key - much as i'd be more confident with water having seen it so many times now - i'd still tend to not clean much if it doesn't seem needed, i.e. not cleaning for appearance only for function

which brings the next consideration, if an unclean motherboard boots up and appears to work fine over a few hours of testing then does it need cleaning at all?

i just use a lot of whater with a soft brush the whait some day before power-up,I've been doing this for 10 years

i took a shower with my dell xps 730x.
i like to tell everyone it was due to all the dirt and it's large size but, let's face it. the 730x is one sexy beast. 8-P

AlessandroB wrote on 2023-10-19, 19:10:

i just use a lot of whater with a soft brush the whait some day before power-up,I've been doing this for 10 years

Tap water ? Technically tap water might rust some components sooner or later....

I had a really good setup at a rental place I was in years ago. One of those baths with a shower head on a hose, and it was a basement bathroom so the bottom of the bath was about a foot off the floor level because of plumbing clearance. Also there was a large heating vent nearby. So I'd hit boards, disassembled keyboards, PSUs even with the Mr Clean, then shower them all off real good (and the bath being high made reaching no trouble) then stick things inside the heat vent (in heating season) for a couple of days until they were bone dry. Annoyingly my bath and shower are separate now and the faucet design in the bath doesn't let me use one of the push on ones, and the bath is too low for my comfort. Also none of my vents are anywhere near as convenient as that one was, so gotta just prop them near the hot water tank or furnace or in sunshine. I have a heatgun, hair drier etc, but I don't care to waste energy that way unless it's urgent for some reason.

In California the air was dry so I wasn't worried about rusting, but in Florida it's more of a concern.
I use a fan for a while, then I put the board on an adjustable hot plate. It's an old thing from the 80s I bought at a Goodwill store, meant for plates of food, it's big enough for most motherboards. I check the temperature after a while to make sure it's reasonable.
I'm worried that a fan won't get into every crevice, but heat will get everywhere.

I have noticed the cloudy residue from commonly available 70% or 91% alcohol. I have some 99.9% which does not leave any residue, which I prefer to use when spot cleaning flux. Due to cost and availability, I'm hesitant to use it so liberally as to wash an entire board with it.

By the way, and this only works for isopropyl, not other common alcohols... you can get the water out of it by mixing a lot of salt into it... the salt dissolves into the water, and the alcohol can't be in solution with the salt and the water, so floats on top, salty water at the bottom. You have to let it stand a good while, then decant the alcohol off the top carefully. I dunno if you'd want to bother unless 70% is the only one you can get, or 99% is $10 and 70% is a dollar, because you'll probably want to only keep the top half for technical uses and not run it too near the salty zone.