Arctis Silver inside Mobo/CPU pins?!

[cdogg]

My actual problem is that I was distracted when putting the CPU back in, and I put it in UPSIDE DOWN!!!..So i got the silver nitrate(arctic silver), inside the pins on the mobo.(Socket 775)...
Anyone ever done this, know how to get this gunk out so the mobo will boot up now?

I can give the long story if anyone wants. But short story is.
My PC one day decided to start rebooting. I would turn it on, no beeps, it would start, monitor would NOT come on, and it would turn after after like 3seconds. Wait 1sec...then turn back on. Over and Over and Over until I pulled the power.
Checked PSU, same. Checked Vid card, same. Thought i checked ram. Thought it was the MOBO so i bought a new one...Did similiarly the same thing, but BEEPED at me this time.

I haven't actually completely resolved this, but I THINK it's the RAM now. Make sense?

 

[o1die]

You really need to use some canned air solvent which is available at many electronic stores. This would have solved your problem in the first place. It's the safest stuff to clean with, worth the $4-6 price tag.

 

[jsc]

If the canned air does not work, try using a soft bristled artist's brush with isopropyl alcohol and work very carefully.

 

[bilbat]

Will take a while - gotta go into the city to dentist this AM, & may be a while - but, later, will slop around some silver & try various solvents to verify what will work with the least possibility of damage...

 

[cdogg]

Cool thanks bilbat. I tried canned air o1die...it didn't blow it out =/ Although my only can was pretty low, and out now. Might try a full can. And jsc i tried a slightly damp toothbrush, but it didn't seem to work. I'm also afraid i might have pushed too hard w/it and bent a pin, it's hard to tell ..But my hope is that some solvent on some sort of brush will clear out the silver w/out damaging the board. I'm afraid I might have killed the board...

 

[bilbat]

Started with the alcohols: isopropyl (91%), isobutyl (90%), ethyl (70% [or 140 proof, however you want to look at it - hic! ]), methyl (99%) - best luck with methyl, which can be found in hardware stores as shellac thinner - 'denatured alcohol'; I think the problem with the others is due to their water content - seems to cause the Silver (which I think is a colloid) to, for lack of a better phrase, 'glop up' - separates into tiny balls, some comes off, some gets stickier... Tried methyl ethyl ketone, and acetone - both work about as well as the methyl acohol, but the mek 'crazed' the surface varnish on the board I used (an old $1000+ Allen-Bradley industrial comm piece), and the acetone evaporates so rapidly that it's hard to get it to 'move' the Silver anywhere once its's a solute; another thing I would worry about with either of these two is that it might be OK with a more current board 'varnish', but might attack the plastic of the socket itself... The last effort was an old standby, and I think probably the best practical solution - a can of spray LPS 'Electro140' contact cleaner, and here's why

There are only two ways to do this that I know of: one is to get a solvent that works OK, take a couple of artist's paintbrushes (both 'brights', about a #6-8 sable, and about a #10-12 bristle), wet with solvent, and 'scrub' gently and carefully with the bristle brush, then use the sable to 'pick up' the resultant mess - alternately scrub and pick up until it looks clean; ...or... use the spray solvent in sufficient quantity to simply flood the stuff off - it usually takes a few passes at differing angles, but it breaks up the colloid completely, dispersing it, so all you have to do is sort of 'chase it' with the angle you're holding the board at and direction you're 'blowing' the solvent in... Then, when the solvent is 'running clear' off the board, you finish up with a blast of canned air to blow off the majority of the solvent, and it will dry clean in a few minutes. I've done this often enough with industrial boards to always carry a can of the stuff with me (if I ran out, I think I used to pick up something at local h'ware stores called 'ElectroClean' - was in a medium to smallish red can), and joked once with an old boss that I was going to 'skin' a can of Raid, put the Raid label on the board cleaner can, and tell the locals I was 'debugging' the system - yuk - yuk - yuk... He said "for god's sake, don't do that - two weeks later they'll call because the maintenance man just sprayed their twenty thousand dollar controller full of bug spray, and he'll say 'well, the technician did it!'"