Stabilant 22 (stolen from windoze magazine)

[Sdbigelow@aol.com]

How To
 Publication Date: February 1, 1996 (Page 291)
 Copyright (C) WINDOWS MAGAZINE 1996
 Keep in Contact -- Here are some ways to put the spark back in your system.
 By Karen Kenworthy
Electrical contacts occur when signal-carrying metal meets another piece of
metal. In computers, these contacts include places where the edge of a SIMM
meets the prongs of a SIMM socket, and where the pins of a chip meet the
metal receptacles inside a chip socket. Other contacts occur where cords
carrying electrical power plug into hard drives and other internal
components; where cables connect to your drives and adapter cards; and where
the edges of adapter cards meet those 8-, 16- and 32-bit card sockets along
the back of your PC.
Normally, electrical signals jump from one metal surface to another without a
hitch. But if a surface is dirty or corroded, the signal may become degraded.
This can cause a number of problems, from intermittent data errors to the
apparent failure of a drive, adapter card or chip. If you suspect you're
experiencing such a failure to communicate, there are ways to put the spark
back in your system. First, clean the metal surfaces that meet at the
corrupted contact point. The metal fingers on the edges of adapter cards and
some hard drives are easy to clean. Just take a
rubber eraser and gently "erase" the contact surface. The white synthetic
erasers sold in art supply stores are best--they don't leave as many crumbs.
Avoid very abrasive erasers, and be careful not to rub too hard or for too
long. You want to remove the dirt and corrosion, not the metal underneath.
You can also clean many contacts with alcohol. Pure isopropyl alcohol is best
because it doesn't leave a residue when it dries, but it's hard to find.
Ordinary rubbing alcohol, the kind you find in any drugstore, will do in a
pinch. If the contact surface is hard to reach or attached to your
motherboard or a card, wet a cotton or foam swab and gently wipe the
contact's surface. Repeat the procedure, using a new swab for each treatment,
until the swab comes out clean. If you're cleaning cables or other contacts
that you can remove from the computer, you may be able to rinse the contact
with alcohol to remove large amounts of debris. It's not always possible or
prudent to clean a contact. For instance, the contacts inside adapter card
sockets are hard to reach. And the risk of damaging chips by removing them
from their
sockets often outweighs the benefits of cleaning their contacts. But even
when a contact bath is out of the question, there's still something you can
do to improve a connection.
A small company named D.W. Electrochemicals (905-508-7500, fax 905-508-7502)
has developed a remarkable liquid called Stabilant 22 that allows even dirty
contacts to perform properly. Stabilant is an organic compound that allows
electricity to flow where it should, but not where it shouldn't. For
instance, within your computer, Stabilant enables signals to travel from one
contact surface to another, but not between adjacent pins on a chip.
Stabilant is a great conductor 
How does Stabilant pull off this trick? The explanation's a bit technical,
but for the hard-core techies and terminally curious, here goes:
Normally, Stabilant is an insulator. But in the presence of a large electric
field gradient, it becomes an excellent conductor. An electric field gradient
is the "slope" of an electric field. It indicates to what degree voltage
levels change over distance (voltage difference between two surfaces, divided
by the distance between the surfaces). Within your computer, the distance
between a pin and a socket is so small that the gradient is very large (on
the order of thousands of volts per inch),
causing the liquid to become a conductor. But the distance between adjacent
pins is great enough to keep the gradient low (on the order of tens of volts
per inch)--well below the level Stabilant needs to make the transition from
insulator to conductor.
The diluted form of Stabilant 22, called Stabilant 22a, is best for most
computer uses. Apply a drop to the pins of a chip while the chip is still in
its socket, and the liquid will penetrate the contacts. Or use an eyedropper
or swab to apply Stabilant to contacts inside adapter card sockets, cables,
and drive power and cable connectors. You need only a single drop--just
enough to cover the contact surfaces to a depth of 1 or 2 millimeters (about
4 to 8 hundredths of an inch)

I found the stuff locally at a high end stereo shop, $27CDN.

FWIW,

Steve Bigelow