Wash the contacts with a baking soda solution if carbon batteries were used.
I have seen them use Coke to clean contacts if alkaline batteries were used
(theres got be something better without all that sugar). Regardless, flush
with distilled water and make sure it is 100% dry before reinserting the
batteries. Any ionic contamination with a applied power source will lead to
growth of blue crude. Let me repeat: make sure it is 100% dry before
reapplying power. Letting it sit in the sun for several days will help

In most cases, you will also loose any plating on the battery contacts.
Usually the base metal is steel with a nickel over plating. Most likey you
will have to take a piece of emory cloth to the battery contacts to polish
up the steel. Most likey, you will also have to repeat the the emory cloth
every time you replace the batteries (steel/iron likes to corrode/rust)

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
. net...
In article , "betsyb"
wrote:
And to think I waited 6 years for this info! I tossed a $500 scanner for
the
same reason. No one would take on the job of fixing my screwup!

Well, it's worked for me several times. First time I ever tried it was
after
accidentally dumping a marine aquarium onto my Texas Instruments SR-50
calculator, if that tells you how far back in the mists of time it
happened.
Calculator was about a year out of warranty, so I figured I had nothing to
lose by trying to clean it myself. Let's see... hmmm.... distilled water
will
get rid of the salt and other nasty stuff. What will get rid of the water?
Hmmmmm.... alcohol should do fine. And it did.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.