• Small bottle of DexoxIT red (née Cramomlin Red). Get it from Caig Labs.
• Small bottle of Stabilant. Get from Stabilant.com.
• small bottle 99% pure isopropanol. Do not use impure rubbing alcohol. It may have oils that will gum the contacts. Get it from your local pharmacy.
• foam tip swabs. Get them from your local electronics supply store.

I swab a few drops of Stabilant 22A contact enhancer into the contacts of all female electrical connectors. I clean all male connectors with Caig Laboratories DeoxIT (née Cramolin Red R100L) contact cleaner and preservative, rinse with 99% isopropanol and swab on Stabilant to finish.

You can get foam tib swabs at any electrical supply store. There are much better than cotton swabs since they don’t leave any whispy residue which can interfere with the contact.

If you can’t get Stabilant and DeoxIT, try for Tweak, which is watered down Stabliant, and R55 which is watered down DeoxIT. Caig makes a similar product to DeoxIT called PreserveIT (née Cramolin Blue) that does not clean, just preserves contacts. That will do if you are working with brand new equipment. Normally though you want DeoxIT, especially when novices have been getting greasy thumbprints on the contacts.

This treatment keeps your contacts from tarnishing and forgives any poor mechanical contacts. For contacts that will be repeatedly disconnected and reconnected, I leave off the Stabilant because it is sticky and attracts dust. I treat every metal to metal electrical contact in a computer, even the AC power prongs. This voodoo seems to make computers ultra reliable. People tell me cramistabed computers I built for them over 25 years ago are still running without a hiccup.

The treatment also works great on batteries, phone jacks, computer component connectors, battery terminals, AC sockets, light bulbs, Christmas tree lights, stereo connections, keyboard connectors… basically any place electricity flows from metal to metal.

In the old days, people used to clean contacts with a Pink Pearl eraser. That is no longer recommended. Today’s gold plating is so thin and delicate you will easily wear it off.

DeoxIT works by forming a one-molecule thick film on the contacts that gets out the way when they are pressed together. Otherwise it protects the air from getting at the bare metal and corroding it. You need only the tiniest whiff for it to work. It tends to spread around by casual contact, like a beneficial virus, improving contacts everywhere.

Stabilant works because it is a liquid semiconductor that normally insulates, but becomes conductive in the presence of an electric field. This enables it to bridge the gaps between mechanically imperfectly fitting connectors, or connectors that pry loose slightly under thermal expansion and contraction stresses. You need to be more generous with it than DeoxIT, because it has to fill in any gaps, between the contacts.

I have been a Cramolin/Stabilant fan and cheerleader since the early 80s, having learned of them from Byte’s Jerry Pournelle and friends on BIX. Stabilant’s inventor came to visit me. He was a colourful character who reminded me a bit of the late Dr. John Lilly.

This contract treating regimen is especially useful in stopping thermally intermittent problems, e.g. problems that occur only when the computer is cold or only when it is running hot. You be amazed at how the most cranky temperamental computer turns into a rock solid workhorse after you methodically clean and treat every contact in it. Dirty electrical contacts and worn fan bearings are the two most common causes of computer failure.

Dust

Any time you remove cards from a computer, follow static precautions.