GearTechWolf
Experienced Member
This is the board: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/unknown-cpu-3216sx
(funny thing, the latching switch was in the location for the Reset switch and the momentary was in the Turbo-switch spot, from the factory!)
I was checking the old stored computers from my younger days to see if any still had their CMOS batteries in them and this one did, it was even a Varta!
It had leaked, of course, but the damage was surprisingly minimal! Mild green surface-corrosion on a couple 74xx/74xxx-logic chips and a couple ISA slots.
Pulled the keyboard controller to clean it and its socket, even though it wasn't green, and everything cleaned up really nice with just some white vinegar!
Everything came back to clean enough to make good contact except for the socket at U55, holding some kind of PAL chip, which itself cleaned up with mild sanding.
I don't have the greatest setup for de-soldering multi-pin stuff like this DIP-20 socket and wasn't looking forward to futzing about with de-soldering braid.
Then I had an idea, I could cut it free and then pull one pin at a time! Using an old/dull/broken Stanley razor utility blade, I cut the pins between socket and board.
(bent/rusty pin I found in the shed works great to pull out the bad contacts in the socket!)
Worked great! I can even clean and repopulate this socket with new pins/receivers since it's intact and I have a bunch of used pins from sockets where the plastic melted when I salvaged them from junk boards. Sure, sockets don't cost much, but I'm currently working on a zero-cost budget until I get a job again. And it's fun!
If this 386 system works, partly determined by getting a power-supply for it working, I can test my piles of ISA cards!
More to come as I get around to it, and I'll post the hi/lo BIOS dumps when I get those read. (once I find where I put them...)
(funny thing, the latching switch was in the location for the Reset switch and the momentary was in the Turbo-switch spot, from the factory!)
I was checking the old stored computers from my younger days to see if any still had their CMOS batteries in them and this one did, it was even a Varta!
It had leaked, of course, but the damage was surprisingly minimal! Mild green surface-corrosion on a couple 74xx/74xxx-logic chips and a couple ISA slots.
Pulled the keyboard controller to clean it and its socket, even though it wasn't green, and everything cleaned up really nice with just some white vinegar!
Everything came back to clean enough to make good contact except for the socket at U55, holding some kind of PAL chip, which itself cleaned up with mild sanding.
I don't have the greatest setup for de-soldering multi-pin stuff like this DIP-20 socket and wasn't looking forward to futzing about with de-soldering braid.
Then I had an idea, I could cut it free and then pull one pin at a time! Using an old/dull/broken Stanley razor utility blade, I cut the pins between socket and board.
(bent/rusty pin I found in the shed works great to pull out the bad contacts in the socket!)
Worked great! I can even clean and repopulate this socket with new pins/receivers since it's intact and I have a bunch of used pins from sockets where the plastic melted when I salvaged them from junk boards. Sure, sockets don't cost much, but I'm currently working on a zero-cost budget until I get a job again. And it's fun!
If this 386 system works, partly determined by getting a power-supply for it working, I can test my piles of ISA cards!
More to come as I get around to it, and I'll post the hi/lo BIOS dumps when I get those read. (once I find where I put them...)
