Gameboy corrosion

[OndaLH]

I’ve recently found my old gameboy at my grandparents house. But it doesn’t turn on and the insides look corroded. Is there any way to fix/clean it?

[W-L]

5 minutes ago, OndaLH said:

I’ve recently found my old gameboy at my grandparents house. But it doesn’t turn on and the insides look corroded. Is there any way to fix/clean it?

That's pretty bad, given that the copper layer hasn't been eaten through and is still making the proper contact to all the locations you are going to need to desolder those battery terminals to properly scrub the board clean on both sides with isopropyl. 

[Derkoli]

8 minutes ago, OndaLH said:

I’ve recently found my old gameboy at my grandparents house. But it doesn’t turn on and the insides look corroded. Is there any way to fix/clean it?

Pull everything out, and with a steady hand de solder wires, then clean with isopropyl alcohol, then leave to dry in a well ventilated area, then put everything back together and re-solder the wires.

[Wh0_Am_1]

You are going to need flux, solder, a solder wick, isopropyl alcohol and a ton of patience.

[Unimportant]

Use an acid, like vinegar, first to neutralise the base alkaline. Once it stops fizzling clean the vinegar off with IPA. Otherwise the corrosion will continue.

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

resolder everything! / or trash it

the huge copper place seems to do nothing?

I hope I have something like this to practice with.

[mariushm]

You need to neutralize the crap that came out of the alkaline batteries first. Isopropyl alcohol will not do the job.  You will need some weak acids, like for example vinegar or lemon juice.

Easiest would be to mix a bit of vinegar and lemon juice (cheap citric acid in those bottles would work, but would be better to just squeeze a bunch of proper lemons) with water and use a toothbrush to brush EVERYTHING with that solution to neutralize the alkaline stuff.

 

Ideally, you'd carefully desolder that copper foil which is mostly there to protect the chips and parts underneath from interference. Alkaline crap may have leaked under that copper foil and without cleaning it will continue to attack the board.  Remember where that foil is soldered and which wires seem to be soldered to the foil because you'll have to solder them back. 

Ideally, you should get a new copper foil and cut it to the same shape, then use kapton tape or some insulating sheet on the side facing the circuit board so the copper won't short circuit stuff on circuit board... use liquid flux if needed, to solder

 

Once you scrub everything really well for a few minutes, wash the boards with isopropyl alcohol or if you have a hard time finding isopropyl alcohol, use distilled water.

 

The unit may work without the copper sheet but in some cases it could reset or glitch (like if you play close to a switching power supply or a microwave oven or an old TV, or some fluorescent tubes), because the circuit board may pick "noise" from the environment... like i said, the copper foil is a sort of shielding, to protect the chips from everything outside.

Oh, and once you're done with that, you should carefully resolder anything that looks dubious ... there's some areas that look like cracked solder joints or weak joints ... i've circled some I would inspect and rework ... i'd probably do the whole connector at the bottom and the stuff on the side by the volume knob

If needed, use a solder wick and some liquid flux to remove the solder and apply new solder (use lead solder if possible)