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Message: <blockquote data-quote="2cvbloke" data-source="post: 929868" data-attributes="member: 199791">If it's wet to the touch (rather than just looks wet), then something bad has happened on the board such as a capacitor leaking (which you do need to clean off as that can make a mess of solder joints and PCB tracks), but if it's hard, it's solder flux (perfectly normal), you can remove solder flux if you wish to as it can cause problems in later years, but most modern equipment dies long before flux paste ages enough to be a problem, it's not necessary to remove, just cosmetics really...The soldering iron part is if a capacitor has given up the ghost and requires a replacement, but cross that bridge if we come to it... <img src="https://www.satellites.co.uk/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/smile.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>