Colin said:
If the Vaseline was not doing it's job and condensation was the result, you would get green pins. The folks I know that have experienced this are not noobs. Use dielectric grease.
Probably didn't use enough. Maybe they are not noobs now but they may have been then? Pet jelly is parafin, other wise known as wax. My granni uses it to seal up jars of jelly but sometimes she screwed up and didn;t seal it all the way, it then got moldy. Toilet seals are made of wax also. Wax is a good sealer if used correctly. If one cannot figure out how to seal up the pins with parafin then one will prbably screw up with dielectric grease also. Use what you want I just know that dielectric grease was a ***** to clean up.
The only probalem I see is not having H2O flowing over the pelt and yer friends probably did this and the heat from the pelt melted a bunch of the parafin away from the pins. They then figured ,"What the hey." Crank it up!
Since you are recommending dielectric grease so highly what do you recommend to clean it up with if he has to RMA his board or chip?
Acetone will eat away his mobo and components as also toluene. Alcohol will not dissolve it but it will dissolve parafin(pet jelly), I know I have had to clean it up from my chip and MOBO before. Works like a charm.