My Intel 12th gen board was fried (most likely due to a coffee spill) and I now have a new AMD AI 300 series board. (I also bought new RAM and WiFi card for compatibility.) Before I install it, I’m wondering what precautions I should take to avoid potentially damaging the new board?
Background
In November I spilled coffee onto my keyboard. I immediately powered down, opened up the framework, and cleaned out all the coffee I could see (which wasn’t much) using paper towels, and let it dry out. I then reassembled the laptop, powered on, and it seemed to be working fine for another month. Then on December 30, as I was using the laptop in my normal workflow, it suddenly shut down. I once again opened it up, but this time I completely removed the mainboard and did in fact find trace amounts of coffee residue on the underside of the board that I did not notice a month ago. My best guess is this is what killed my board.
Despite my best efforts (including contacting support) I could not get so much as a blinking LED on the mainboard. So we concluded it was dead, and I bought a new one.
What I’m afraid of
I’m concerned that there may still be trace amounts of coffee on other components (for example the battery or the fingerprint scanner) that will, when I connect them to the new mainboard, actually cause damage to the new mainboard.
So I’m seeking advice about how big that risk actually is and how to mitigate that risk.
Might sound weird, but do you know the name of those packets you can find in Jerky that say ‘do not eat‘? They’re called silica gel packets. I recommend putting the board into a box and filling the box with the packets and leaving it for at least a day. I’d go with 3 days just to be safe. I would then remove everything sensitive from the case and leave those in the box with the motherboard. After that, all of the leftover moisture should be gone hopefully. I was able to save some smaller electronics that way, but I have no idea if it would work 100% for a whole motherboard, but I think doing anything and everything to try to revive it is the best thing to do.
Sorry to hear your 12th Gen board met such a dark fate. (Kidding)
As far as your other components it is safe to take everything apart and if you see any coffee residue, it can be cleaned up with some isopropyl alcohol and some Q-Tips (cotton swabs). The alcohol will evaporate very quickly and should not damage anything in these quantities. The only connector to be hesitant to clean is the battery connection going to the battery itself. Just be mindful that the swab is damp not soaking so there is no unexpected spark and potential flare up!
If removing everything from the bottom of the case pouring some alcohol in the bottom to “rinse” any coffee residue should be just fine. Do this in a somewhat open area with air flow as the vapors may be strong if doing this in a more confined space.
Coffee itself is acidic and not great for long term exposure to electronics. This certainly is not the first time a Framework has been “blessed” in the brown liquid; nor will it be the last!
The advice i would give is use distilled water and not alcohol. The coffee was disolved in water, so the best thing to remove it is water.
Distilled water does not conduct electricity so is safe to use.
Distilled water + coffee will conduct.
It will take longer to dry out than say alcohol, but is safer to use than alcohol.
Alcohol can be useful for specific purposes. I.e. cleaning the top of a cpu before applying paste, but for general cleaning of whole circuit board, not so much.
Whole board untrasonic cleaners don’t use alcohol, they use distilled water and sometimes other cleaning additives.
(Kidding)