• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Super glue stuck in small SIMM socket, oozed all over

Jackson

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2015
Messages
349
Location
North Carolina
In my wacky, immature installation shenanigans, I got Gorilla all over a RAM socket and did not realize it an hour until drying. It's everywhere; under the socket, in the pins, and over the board where the problem spot is. With a couple of rubbing alcohol, deionized water plus dish soap sessions, paperclips, toothpicks, and a couple of acetone dabs from cotton swabs (over 50), I managed to get a critical amount off, but there is still more that is still stuck. Particularly in the pins. There is still some under the plastic, too. None of it will come loose no matter how much acetone I use. What's my next bet? I doubt Goo Gone would do better.
 
Uh...what were you doing with the Gorilla glue? :cautious: Reminds me of that girl that put gorilla glue in her hair because she was out of hairspray and had to get it removed by a surgeon.

I was going to suggest freezing it but I see it's rated for -40 F. You might have to just replace the socket.
 
Where plastic is involved, nitromethane can soften CA glue so it can be scraped off, but that's about all I'm aware of that works. Freezing is out of the question, since CA is good to -40C. Acetone may work, but it may also damage the plastic.
Bad move!
 
In my wacky, immature installation shenanigans, I got Gorilla all over a RAM socket and did not realize it an hour until drying.
Uh...what were you doing with the Gorilla glue?
• Just monkeying around ?
• Trying to fix the motherboard's glue logic ?
• Reattaching the motherboard's APE chip (Advanced Processing Engine) ?
 
Where plastic is involved, nitromethane can soften CA glue so it can be scraped off, but that's about all I'm aware of that works. Freezing is out of the question, since CA is good to -40C. Acetone may work, but it may also damage the plastic.
Bad move!
Acetone did not damage any of the plastics here... these sockets are very good for what they are! (Hint hint: big blue...)
But yes, I'll have to probably eventually desolder and use a blade for this!
 
After multiple sessions of Goo Gone, it looks like the scum is fully neutered to the point where I can post with a full 6016 KB again. Time to insert my Reference Disk and make further investigations...
 
Heh heh, memtest86 passed over 115% with no errors. There looks to be a slightly borked trace near one tiny IC, but that looks to have been there before the mishap. I mistook it for being a glue spot and tried to scratch it off, although only a few times fortunately, with a paperclip and toothpick instead of a blade. Nothing really broke, and as they always say: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Some goop looks to still be leftover under the slots, but the acetone, along with the other solutions I tried, got there nevertheless, so I nulled out any chance of the glue's interference with the electronics-- if any, to begin with.

Literally. I doused this board in multiple mayhems of rubbing alcohol, body shampoo, dish detergent, dish soap, multiple solutions (not even just Goo Gone but also some experimental jank from the local depot) and of course, carefully repeated dabs of nail polish remover. I intensively used the hair dryer to the point where some chips got really hot. I let suds get over everywhere, and I'm not sure if the water I was using was even deionized. Heavy meddling was involved to the brink of possible error.

A check with the reference disk reveals that everything still works. This also means that the factory wire fix on the top right of the board also managed to stay put. Stickers and all are fine. This is the only time where being reckless gets me off free. Do not be inspired by posts like these. I might have possibly reduced the shelf life of the planar along the way, but what matters is that it's not broke.

When it does break, however, I'm going to send it to a repairman who deserves it more than I do, and swap it out for a 486 planar that has been sitting with a colleague of mine.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top