Interesting.  I have a few here that haven't died despite bad dead leaky
batteries, mostly 286/386en;  I just cleaned them with Isopropyl Alcohol
& replaced the NiCad battery, & all was well (though uglier than the
original PCB!)  I haven't had a machine die here, due to that - it could
be a brand specific thing, (or more of a problem with later boards like
486en that John's seen more than I of?)

Certainly, if the board dies, it's toast;  if it works & isn't flaky or
doing "possessed" behavior, why destroy a working board?  (OTOH, if you
WANT an excuse to upgrade, you do have it <G>)  It's not like 486
momboards cost more than $5 if you look in the right places (I have a
box of 20 that I paid $3 apiece for, in the computer room, backups.)

  Mark

John De Villiers wrote:
>
> Throw it away
> The chances that you have tracks eaten away on the inner layers are pretty
> good. I've seen this happen on plenty machines before.
>
> The first thing you notice is the keyboard stops working. Ivariably the
> keyboard decoder/buffer chip is right next to that leaky battery. One that
> happens it not long before it dies.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> > [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Luis Loeff
> > Sent: 01 November 1995 01:08
> > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > Subject: Re: clean up the mess
> >
> >
> > Hi fellow piclisters,
> > My PC board got corroded by a leaky nickel-cadmium battery. The PC is
> > still working but some tracks and through holes nearby the battery
> > look awful. Lots of blue-green stains. My first impulse would be to
> > clean it with soup and water and a brush.
> >
> > Somebody has a better suggestion?
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Luis Loeff
> >
> >
> > ___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
> >

--
I do small package shipping for small businesses, world-wide.