Urgent help needed

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maj0r_pawnage
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Urgent help needed

Post by maj0r_pawnage »

Long story short, my computer was shutdown and the power cable was still in, but the power supply was not turned off, and i was away last night, and i came home to find half my motherboard and video card covered in rainwater(but the cpu/hard drive/power supply/ram were dry), is there any hope of saving my computer? and if so what is the best method in trying to dry it out?
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by vbironchef »

I would use a blow dryer with no heat. Use that for a hour or two. Then let the computer air dry for at least 24 hours. Then try to start it up. You might also use canned air while you are using the blow dryer. Take out video card and do the same.

Are you sure it was rainwater and not a soda or beer?
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by maj0r_pawnage »

yes im sure it was rainwater because the window was open and its been raining like crazy and its not sticky :P, i cleaned up most of the surface water with a napkin, but i think there is water inside the heat sink/fan, the part where the power cable goes into the mobo wasnt wet at all, the only part that was wet was near the 1st pci-e port , the vid card, sound card and the exposed mobo around there
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by vbironchef »

That's a very good thing. You should be fine following my advice. Let me know how it goes. Good Luck! Take out the sound card as well. Leave the sides of the computer off for at least 24 hours to get air to dry it all out. If you have a portable fan point it in the case and let run overnight.
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by smack323 »

i would say 24 hrs at the very least. i would take the whole thing apart and let each piece sit for a few days.. along with the hair drier with no heat. and use some compressed air to get in all the cracks and what not. any bit of moisture could ruin your day if you power up and its causing a short or something.
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by Apoptosis »

Once you think it is dry let it sit even longer as if water got in the video card heat sink it will take a bit to dry out.
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by maj0r_pawnage »

thanks for all the quick replys :), i just took off the vcards hsf and the card itself is dry(took this opportunity to apply arctic silver :D) only a narrow band of the mobo was actually soaked though, i can take a picture for you guys to see, it actually looks pretty dry, but ill use the hair dryer + waiting idea and ill try it tomorrow, but I've confirmed that the comp was off with the power shutdown from the psu before it got soaked
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by martini161 »

i once had that happen to me and what worked was i bought a boat load of rubbing alcohol, poured it in my tub and let it sit in that. if your gonna wash you should use rubbing alcohol as it leaves no residue. i would not recomend used air as blowing all those molecules around tends to creat alot of static which could kill your components
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by vbironchef »

As much as I respect your opinion martini161 I don't think that air is going to hurt. All we are trying to do is to dry the computer out. If it was soda or beer I would say yes. But just water. If the computer was soaked with water, maybe rubbing alcohol would do the trick. I think that smack323 and Apoptosis are saying that take your time and all will be good. I did mention canned air by the way. I would not worry about static since the computer is off. Most important thing is just to have all parts dry.
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by dicecca112 »

vbironchef wrote:As much as I respect your opinion martini161 I don't think that air is going to hurt. All we are trying to do is to dry the computer out. If it was soda or beer I would say yes. But just water. If the computer was soaked with water, maybe rubbing alcohol would do the trick. I think that smack323 and Apoptosis are saying that take your time and all will be good. I did mention canned air by the way. I would not worry about static since the computer is off. Most important thing is just to have all parts dry.

He's,a hair dryer would create a ton of static, on the order of 5-10X that of a strong static shock, that could easily free electronics.
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by vbironchef »

The computer is off. How would it create static. The computer is already grounded. Once you put the video card and sound card back in you already grounded the computer and released any static. I see no problem. Please explain. The computer has fans running all the time. If what you say is true, then the computer would have static bulid up all the time. What I said was to use the hair dryer for a couple of hours with canned air. Put a portable fan on the computer overnight. How can you say static would stay that long?
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by martini161 »

think about it this way, when you rub your feet on the carpet, it creats static because your rubbing molecules together. air has molecules, and when you push air really fast against the components, its molecules rubbing on molecules, which creats static, and as much as respect your opinion, me and my dad combined have about 60 years experience working in the electronics feild with him being a senior electrical engineer at a the largest military defense contractor in the world, and we both agree on this so i think our opinion carries a little more weight not trying to come across as a jerk or anything but im just letting you know :axe:
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by maj0r_pawnage »

so um, i used the drier for like 15min but on both the vid card for like 3-4min and blowing it over never focused on the mobo for like 10min ( not all at one time either @ intervals), so whats the risk? (i was holding it about 2-3feet away from the mobo so it was blowing warm air on the low setting over the whole mobo instead of being focused on one point is what i was trying to communicate)
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by martini161 »

well it really depends on how fast it was going,15 minutes straight could create a lot of static, im not saying its gaurenteed that its fried but theres a chance
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by vbironchef »

pwnage! you got me there! I just think once you touch the computer any static would be released before you power up the computer.
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by martini161 »

well once you touch the computer if there is a significant amount of static built up on you or the computer it will arc from either from you into the components (possibly frying them) or vice versa (still possibly frying them) so yes, the static is gone but it still did the damage
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by vbironchef »

Lets try and if it frys then I will pay half and you will pay the other half :) I'm putting my money where my mouth is. How about you. :) I think as long as the parts are very dry there is no problem.
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by maj0r_pawnage »

lol well hopefully it will work tomorrow :P, it seems pretty like it really dry, btw i also set the heater in my room to the max so my room is really warm and the comp seems very dry ... ill take some pictures

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Last edited by maj0r_pawnage on Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
E6300 @ 3.51GHz 1.392v
Asus Maximus Formula
Antec 550Watt Psu
Mushkin DDR-1206@ 5-5-5-15 / 2.28v
Zalman CPU Cooler CNPS7700
6408800GTS(OC 691MHz Core/2.132GHz Mem)
2x80mm case fans +2x120mm case fans
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by vbironchef »

you will be fine.
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Re: Urgent help needed

Post by maj0r_pawnage »

you can see in the second picture how one spot is clean and one is dusty lol, around where the F from Formula is was where the worst of the water hit
E6300 @ 3.51GHz 1.392v
Asus Maximus Formula
Antec 550Watt Psu
Mushkin DDR-1206@ 5-5-5-15 / 2.28v
Zalman CPU Cooler CNPS7700
6408800GTS(OC 691MHz Core/2.132GHz Mem)
2x80mm case fans +2x120mm case fans
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