Re: Dirty Insides

[brian.hammack@rook.wa.com (Brian Hammack)]

 Jason chanted almost zenlike:

 XANA(| QUESTION:   What is the best method to use to clean the
      | motherboard, etc?

Vacuum the inside first, then use glass cleaner on a paper cloth (best
not to spray it on the components directly).  The board and its
connections will stand a little scrubbing, though with the state yours
is in you might want to be gentle.  :)  If you are so inclined, you
could pull all the socketed chips out and be a little more thorough,
making sure that you and the chips are properly antistaticed/grounded.
In any case, examine everything on the board after you've cleaned it to
make sure there are no bits of paper or crud between the legs of the
chips (especially the PCB mounted ones) so there are no shorts.  If you
can control where the liquid goes, gunk can be dissolved with a drop of
window cleaner and cleaned with a cotton swab... just sure that all
such spots are clean and DRY before powering up.

There is something to be said for a feather-duster for cards and
corners of the case, and for a fresh can of compressed air.

      | chips, etc. What about the heads in the disk drives? (I've got
      | four DISK II units connected to two cards) Can you still get 5
      | 1/4 inch cleaning disks??

Radio Shack / Tandy still carries the 5.25" cleaning disks.  You may
have to get more than one if the innards are really dirty, since you
really don't want to reuse a grubby one.  I'll let other people explain
using a cotton swab and alcohol on cleaning the heads since I'm too
squeamish to try THAT manoeuver myself.  :)

 XANA(| The GS was (and IS) still a great machine. I'd love to get this
      | one restored. I installed a TRANSWARP GS when I owned it and
      | the performance for simple tasks in appleworks, etc was very
      | very respectible, even by today's standards.

Hey, good luck, and glad to hear you are starting with a machine that
works despite its mess.  :)  All I ever have to do with my GS and //e's
is dust the insides once in awhile, and clean the keyboards (remove the
PCB from its housings to get the hair and crud out -- remove the key-
caps and use window cleaner and a paper towel on each).

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