In my (seemingly never ending) project to clean all my junk out of the living room, I was about to put two SE/30s in the attic. I decided I should pull the batteries, if any, first. When I opened up the first one, I found a battery with an August 1989 date code. Thankfully it had not leaked.
However, upon examining the board, I found little beads of liquid on the vias (holes through the board) near the surface mount electrolytic capacitors. Apparently the stuff was leaking out and flowing along the capacitor traces until stopped by a via where it accumulated. This is the first time I've seen actualy beads of the stuff. Usually it's just a discoloration on the board surrounding the caps.
So I interrupted my neatening mission long enough to get the soldering pencils and pull all the caps and clean the boards. I'll be storing the boards with no capacitors installed.
I suggest that if you're storing a vintage Mac, even if you don't have time to replace the caps, it's a good idea to remove the old surface mount electrolytics and clean the board before storing it. Removing the battery should go without saying. Over time the stuff from the caps can corrode a lot of valuable connections on the board. If you don't take this precaution, there may not be any point in storing the machine at all. Of course, my perception is colored by my first IIci, which all the way back in the mid '90s had leaking capacitors and damage so severe it couldn't power on until I bypassed the corroded traces with wires. Of course, some machines will survive long storage even after the caps leak. It's just so disappointing to see a circuit board with corroded pins and solder and traces caused by leaking caps.
The second SE/30 had no battery and the caps didn't seem to be leaking, but they looked like they were from the same batch as the first board, so I pulled them and cleaned it too.
I didn't lift any pads, but it was tempting. It took a while to get the caps loose with a pair of 15 watt pencils. A little higher wattage might be better, like 25 or so.
Still, the key to getting the caps off without lifting the pads (asuming the pads aren't rotted by capacitor goo) is lots and lots of patience and plenty of solder flux.
However, upon examining the board, I found little beads of liquid on the vias (holes through the board) near the surface mount electrolytic capacitors. Apparently the stuff was leaking out and flowing along the capacitor traces until stopped by a via where it accumulated. This is the first time I've seen actualy beads of the stuff. Usually it's just a discoloration on the board surrounding the caps.
So I interrupted my neatening mission long enough to get the soldering pencils and pull all the caps and clean the boards. I'll be storing the boards with no capacitors installed.
I suggest that if you're storing a vintage Mac, even if you don't have time to replace the caps, it's a good idea to remove the old surface mount electrolytics and clean the board before storing it. Removing the battery should go without saying. Over time the stuff from the caps can corrode a lot of valuable connections on the board. If you don't take this precaution, there may not be any point in storing the machine at all. Of course, my perception is colored by my first IIci, which all the way back in the mid '90s had leaking capacitors and damage so severe it couldn't power on until I bypassed the corroded traces with wires. Of course, some machines will survive long storage even after the caps leak. It's just so disappointing to see a circuit board with corroded pins and solder and traces caused by leaking caps.
The second SE/30 had no battery and the caps didn't seem to be leaking, but they looked like they were from the same batch as the first board, so I pulled them and cleaned it too.
I didn't lift any pads, but it was tempting. It took a while to get the caps loose with a pair of 15 watt pencils. A little higher wattage might be better, like 25 or so.
Still, the key to getting the caps off without lifting the pads (asuming the pads aren't rotted by capacitor goo) is lots and lots of patience and plenty of solder flux.