Fwd: Factory Rodent Urine, was Re: Sun SPARCstation LX boot from CDROM?

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Tom Hunter <ccth6600 at gmail.com> Date: Tue, Sep 1, 2020 at 2:17 PM Subject: Re: Factory Rodent Urine, was Re: Sun SPARCstation LX boot from CDROM? To: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> Thanks Chuck, Unfortunately it is well past cleaning. The lead/tin alloy has corroded into a hard oxide with very high melting temperature. Lead oxide melts at 800+ degrees C and tin oxide at 1300+ degrees C. This is well past the 300 degrees C a soldering iron produces. Most importantly the copper pads below and some of the tracks are gone completely. About 70% of the board is pristine. Only the section which has been exposed to the liquid is corroded. I can't say for sure that it is rodent urine, but when I tried to reflow the corroded solder joints it faintly smelled like my firewood where rats nested one winter. Of course there is no chance for a rat or even the tiniest mouse to get into a fully assembled Sun/Sony CDROM with the affected PCB side facing down and somehow urinate upwards towards the PCB. As the drive was never before disassembled it could only have happened during manufacturing. 20 years ago when I put the drive and other SPARX LX gear into my display cabinet I could have easily found a replacement. Now it won't be easy. The sad thing about it is that everything was pristine when I put it in my cabinet. Cheers Tom Hunter On Tue, Sep 1, 2020 at 1:41 PM Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: