De-Rusting and Painting computer PCBs

[jasper21]

Found some corrosion on my mobo and was thinking of spraying WD40 on it.. would it be safe and would it work?

Will also be try to laminate - coat - paint the pcb... what spray? laquer? paint should I use?

[saladcrack]

Ok but how do you have rust on your motherboard...?

[jasper21]

I live by the sea, its a tropical country and sometimes there are high range of humidity, but this is the first that it has happened.

 

So is it safe?

[corrado33]

I wouldn't recommend it. I have no experience with it, but I do know that PCBs designed to be used in harsh environments are conformally coated. It's "basically" paint that's designed to make PCBs water resistant and to prevent corrosion.

 

That's what I'd use.

 

You can find it for $10 on amazon. 

 

"conformal coating" I'd recommend some in a spray bottle as it'll be easy to apply but you HAVE to make sure you tape off ALL of the connections. Power connections, CPU, PCI/PCIe slots, memory slots.

 

Etc.

 

If you don't, you WILL break your motherboard. Conformal coating is non conductive, for good reason. 

[jasper21]

so how about removing the corroded part first? I saw some using erasers? would that work?

some elbow grease, 90%isopropyl alcohol and eraser?

 

[SLAYR]

2 hours ago, jasper21 said:

so how about removing the corroded part first? I saw some using erasers? would that work?

some elbow grease, 90%isopropyl alcohol and eraser?

 

You could try.

 

Make sure the board works first, corrosion  is a really bad sign, and most corrosion will stop a board from functioning.

 

As for a coating the only thing you could do to coat it would be liquid electrical tape.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gardner-Bender-LTB-400-Liquid-Electrical/dp/B000FPAN2K

 

Any sort of paint or wd40 could damage the pcb either by shorting out the board, or eating away at the pcb until it stops working.