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Saliva came into contact with my CPU. I cleaned the majority off with 99% isopropyl alcohol, but shelved it for later.

Now I am once again in the process of cleaning it, as the motherboard I bought to replace it is partially faulty. From what I can tell, a lot of the contacts are blackened, including some pins of the monitor display connector, and areas around that section. I have tried cleaning again with isopropyl alcohol, but in some places the corrosion doesn't budge.

What can I safely use to clean the pins of various parts of the motherboard with corrosion?

Dave M
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Alexandria
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  • Have you found which component(s) emitted the black smoke? They might not be in the same are as the liquid damage. You could need a microscope to examine some of the smaller parts. – Andrew Morton Aug 28 '20 at 18:30

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There is no reason to clean the pins or traces, unless you believe one is broken. The only issue that *might have caused "black smoke" would have been if there were conductive fluids between the traces, and I doubt a bit (or even a mjor drool) of saliva caused black smoke.

That said, plain (distilled) water or 50% - 91% isoprapanol (isopropyl alcohol) are good cleaners, removing any remaining salts and organic glop, but unlikely to harm non-mechanical components. Keep it away from a HDD or speaker! Be sure the board is completely dry, including areas underneath components, inside switched and the keyboard. Do not attempt to take the keyboard or any switches apart, just let everything dry for a week on a source of gentle heat, such as an electric heating pad or atop a water heater.

And, as mentioned in a comment, see what actually caused the smoke. Perhaps some hair got into a fan?

DrMoishe Pippik
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  • Thanks! It's been a while and at the time I couldn't figure out what was causing the smoke. The motherboard <-> display pins are actually black in some places and don't give a multimeter reading in the blackened sections in the socket (I'm measuring between the pin in the socket and the pin connected to the mobo, and all the other pins give off readings), hence the reason for needing to clean them. – Alexandria Aug 28 '20 at 23:40