Eudimorphodon
Veteran Member
I washed my 4032's board today. I went with a hand wash in warm water with some soft-bristle toothbrush scrubbing, mainly because I actually don't have access to a dishwasher right now. (Kitchen is being rebuilt. Great timing!) I think I got all the sticky dust off, but ended up with only mixed results getting the rust off the IC pins. I also ended up hitting some areas with alcohol swabs... it's odd, but in particular areas that show signs of previous repair would end up with this cloudy, oxidized residue on them even after multiple rinses in distilled water.
Cleaning the board does give me some more idea what I'm up against. This machine has had a *hard* life. The 555 timer in the reset circuit appears to have been replaced by some sort of lower life form. I was going to say "an ape", but I think I'm looking at the soldering work of a creature that doesn't have a full compliment of fingers, let along an opposable thumb. (My soldering skills are pretty rotten but I managed to not turn the board brown anywhere I worked on it.) There are several more hackish chip replacements, and a number of spots where it appears traces have been repaired by running solder over cracks. (I wish I could get the hang of that.)
I'll let it dry for a few days and see what I get. I'm starting to wonder again about that ROM image that supposedly existed to use a Universal board in a 9" PET. After seeing all this damage... trying not to lose hope.
Cleaning the board does give me some more idea what I'm up against. This machine has had a *hard* life. The 555 timer in the reset circuit appears to have been replaced by some sort of lower life form. I was going to say "an ape", but I think I'm looking at the soldering work of a creature that doesn't have a full compliment of fingers, let along an opposable thumb. (My soldering skills are pretty rotten but I managed to not turn the board brown anywhere I worked on it.) There are several more hackish chip replacements, and a number of spots where it appears traces have been repaired by running solder over cracks. (I wish I could get the hang of that.)
I'll let it dry for a few days and see what I get. I'm starting to wonder again about that ROM image that supposedly existed to use a Universal board in a 9" PET. After seeing all this damage... trying not to lose hope.