I’ll be straight with it. I’m a smoker, I smoke inside, I have a PC that is also inside. I want to clean my PC thoroughly to buy it a few more years. I know about the q tip method, and the compressed air, and general methods of cleaning out gunk and junk from PC parts. But this boy is way too gunked up for a regular cleaning. So, I reckon, the easiest way to clean it is to dunk the dirtiest parts in a bath of isopropyl alcohol. I was considering acetone at first, but it’s way too strong of a solvent, and alcohol should be better at dissolving organic residues. Is this a good idea?
I hereby submit this query to the council, and await judgement.
Ive done it with dozens of boards (not pc boards tho, but basically the same: processors, memories, capacitors and transistors… just less expandable and much more expensive), but I’ve used an ultrasonic cleaner, I’m not sure just letting it soak is going to do the trick. It could even make it worse, the ipa can dissolve the liquid-ish part of the gunk (oils) and leave the solid residue once dried. If you don’t have such a machine, they’re not that pricy but you’d need a fairly big one so not cheap either, my advise would be to use a toothbrush.
Some precautions: use 99.9% IPA, not any other alcohols and definitely not acetone. Take the whole thing apart. Take out any batteries off the boards. Most glues will be dissolved, which hasn’t been a problem for me ever but if some of your parts aren’t soldered, screwed, or fastened any other way they’ll fall off. Let it dry very well, even help it a bit putting it in some warm place or using a hairdryer. As other have said thermal paste and pads will have to be replaced most likely. About the fans, I’m not sure, I’ve never done it. I’ve cleaned bigger motors, but those fans are cheaper to just replace than to service them unless it’s a quick blowin’ and dustin’.