- Joined
- Jul 14, 2009
- Posts
- 431
I see a lot of questions and discussion on how to clean MVS carts, dirty motherboards, edge connectors and other restoration related maintenance. I thought it might be nice to have a thread for everyone to pitch in their cleaning procedures, what to do, what to avoid at all costs.
Since it's kind of up to us, as collectors, to preserve this stuff it would be nice to have some reference for new members to on how to not destroy their Neo Geo stuff by trying to clean it.
I'll start with my experience.
========Cart PCBs========
Yes, you can wash them. Electronics aren't ruined by water, they are ruined by water shorting things when the board is powered. As long as the board is COMPLETELY dry when before you use it again, it will be fine.
I have personally opened a cart, taken the boards out, scrubbed them with a toothbrush and 409, rinsed them thoroughly and stuck them in front of a fan for hours. They were fine.
other suggestions I've seen are sticking them in the dishwasher, but if your dishwasher has a drying cycle you should skip that as it gets extremely hot. Some brands of Dishwasher, such as Bosch get extremely hot, upwards of 300 F, so you might want to check what temperature your dishwasher gets to before washing your carts.
More timid people can use q-tips and rubbing alcohol, or toothbrush and rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol evaporates really quickly so the dangers of lingering water are negated.
After washing a cart let it dry. Before drying carts its a good idea to get the water out fron under the IC's. A can of compressed air works great for this. A lot of water can stay trapped under snugly mounted ICs and it may not be dry even when the rest of the board appears to be totally dry. Best ways to dry a cart is to sit it in front of the fan, place it near a heater or if your oven is gas and has a pilot light it will stay warm and dry at all times which is a great place to dry carts. Letting the boards sit in the sun works well too.
========MVS Motherboards========
You should not clean a motherboard with anything but maybe a Q-tip and some alcohol if the backup battery is still installed. Running power through a wet board could short something, and as long as the battery is installed there is a danger of something getting shorted.
That said, if your doing a battery replacement mod anyways go ahead and clean it just like you would a cart, although I'd anything that could make it excessively hot. I've cleaned a 1C with a toothbrush and 409 after the battery was removed and it was fine.
[If someone could clarify that capacitors won't hold enough charge once the board is powered off to pose a threat when washing a board, I would greatly appreciate it]
NOTE: the large surface mount chips on most Neo Geo motherboards can trap an awful lot of water underneath them. If your clean a motherboard I highly suggest you use a can of compressed air to blow out any water hiding under the chips and dry it for a very long time. Better safe than sorry
========Cart edge connectors========
Anytime I get a new cart I always run a Q-tip with rubbing alcohol along the connectors to get off any excess dust and grime and stop it from getting gunk in the slot on my motherboard.
If your having problems with graphical glitches, sound or anything else I suggest using a pen eraser. These are the two tone gray and white erasers easily found in any office supply store or art store. The dark gray side has abrasive grit that will clean contacts amazingly well. It may be hard to get the eraser where you need it without taking apart the cartridge and taking the boards out, or trimming the eraser.
========MVS cases========
A simple damp rag will remove most dust from the outside of a case and is safe to wipe over the label if done gingerly and the rag is merely damp, and not wet. Paper labels should be wiped very gingerly, holo labels are much more robust.
To clean dust out of the vents a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol works well. If your case is really filthy, and a lot of the dust is inside things get trickier if it's more than can be cleaned with the Q-tip alcohol method.
I have opened a cart and scrubbed the inside with a toothbrush and kitchen cleaner and rinsed it carefully in a way that didn't get water or cleaner on the label. It was a holo label so it was rather water resistant anyways, but it was not easy and it would have been easy to make mistakes.
========Mini Marquees========
A good wipe with a damp rag works best but if there is any sticky residue the best way to clean it off without scratching the plastic is to use Citrus De-greaser. This can be bought at any bike ship where it's used for cleaning bike chains. It's non toxic, biodegradable and safe to use indoors and it won't hurt the marquees. It also smells like oranges....kind of. Just dab some on a paper towel or rag and scrub the sticky residue and it should come off easily enough.
Please add your own experiences and techniques
An additional interesting link, although not particularly useful to Neo Geo collectors, is Retrobright. This is a gel substance formulated to restore yellowed plastic electronics does an amazing job of returning old plastic items back to the original color. I might work on Mini marquees, but I have my doubts. Works wonders on old game systems though.
http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/
Since it's kind of up to us, as collectors, to preserve this stuff it would be nice to have some reference for new members to on how to not destroy their Neo Geo stuff by trying to clean it.
I'll start with my experience.
========Cart PCBs========
Yes, you can wash them. Electronics aren't ruined by water, they are ruined by water shorting things when the board is powered. As long as the board is COMPLETELY dry when before you use it again, it will be fine.
I have personally opened a cart, taken the boards out, scrubbed them with a toothbrush and 409, rinsed them thoroughly and stuck them in front of a fan for hours. They were fine.
other suggestions I've seen are sticking them in the dishwasher, but if your dishwasher has a drying cycle you should skip that as it gets extremely hot. Some brands of Dishwasher, such as Bosch get extremely hot, upwards of 300 F, so you might want to check what temperature your dishwasher gets to before washing your carts.
More timid people can use q-tips and rubbing alcohol, or toothbrush and rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol evaporates really quickly so the dangers of lingering water are negated.
After washing a cart let it dry. Before drying carts its a good idea to get the water out fron under the IC's. A can of compressed air works great for this. A lot of water can stay trapped under snugly mounted ICs and it may not be dry even when the rest of the board appears to be totally dry. Best ways to dry a cart is to sit it in front of the fan, place it near a heater or if your oven is gas and has a pilot light it will stay warm and dry at all times which is a great place to dry carts. Letting the boards sit in the sun works well too.
========MVS Motherboards========
You should not clean a motherboard with anything but maybe a Q-tip and some alcohol if the backup battery is still installed. Running power through a wet board could short something, and as long as the battery is installed there is a danger of something getting shorted.
That said, if your doing a battery replacement mod anyways go ahead and clean it just like you would a cart, although I'd anything that could make it excessively hot. I've cleaned a 1C with a toothbrush and 409 after the battery was removed and it was fine.
[If someone could clarify that capacitors won't hold enough charge once the board is powered off to pose a threat when washing a board, I would greatly appreciate it]
NOTE: the large surface mount chips on most Neo Geo motherboards can trap an awful lot of water underneath them. If your clean a motherboard I highly suggest you use a can of compressed air to blow out any water hiding under the chips and dry it for a very long time. Better safe than sorry
========Cart edge connectors========
Anytime I get a new cart I always run a Q-tip with rubbing alcohol along the connectors to get off any excess dust and grime and stop it from getting gunk in the slot on my motherboard.
If your having problems with graphical glitches, sound or anything else I suggest using a pen eraser. These are the two tone gray and white erasers easily found in any office supply store or art store. The dark gray side has abrasive grit that will clean contacts amazingly well. It may be hard to get the eraser where you need it without taking apart the cartridge and taking the boards out, or trimming the eraser.
========MVS cases========
A simple damp rag will remove most dust from the outside of a case and is safe to wipe over the label if done gingerly and the rag is merely damp, and not wet. Paper labels should be wiped very gingerly, holo labels are much more robust.
To clean dust out of the vents a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol works well. If your case is really filthy, and a lot of the dust is inside things get trickier if it's more than can be cleaned with the Q-tip alcohol method.
I have opened a cart and scrubbed the inside with a toothbrush and kitchen cleaner and rinsed it carefully in a way that didn't get water or cleaner on the label. It was a holo label so it was rather water resistant anyways, but it was not easy and it would have been easy to make mistakes.
========Mini Marquees========
A good wipe with a damp rag works best but if there is any sticky residue the best way to clean it off without scratching the plastic is to use Citrus De-greaser. This can be bought at any bike ship where it's used for cleaning bike chains. It's non toxic, biodegradable and safe to use indoors and it won't hurt the marquees. It also smells like oranges....kind of. Just dab some on a paper towel or rag and scrub the sticky residue and it should come off easily enough.
Please add your own experiences and techniques
An additional interesting link, although not particularly useful to Neo Geo collectors, is Retrobright. This is a gel substance formulated to restore yellowed plastic electronics does an amazing job of returning old plastic items back to the original color. I might work on Mini marquees, but I have my doubts. Works wonders on old game systems though.
http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/
