Picture of my water failure

[Dravinian]

I thought you all would enjoy this...always nice to see someone elses misery.

 

I was a bit worried about building my own PC, it had been many many years since I have done it...funny how it comes flooding back when you desparately trying to save components...

 

[Dravinian]

Despite how bad it was, and how much liquid went to the table, I think...

 

SSD and HDD can be saved didn't appear as if any liquid got near them.

NVMe, I am not sure about, it got very lightly touched - a couple of droplets.

GPUs got drenched, but I cleaned them and I am hoping that letting them dry out will be enough...time will tell.

MB I have to take it out, the back maybe different, but the front appears generally untouched.

CPU seems untouched, it wasn't wet and nor was the socket, so again, maybe it can be salvaged.

The PSU is a write-off got absolutely drenched.

RAM I didn't see or feel any liquid on so might be able to salvage that too - fortunately on this board they are off to the left and were mounted upright, so a thin profile.

 

Overall, given how much liquid went everywhere, I feel quite lucky....seems stupid saying that...but I had just moved the PC to a table right next to me, when it had been on the other side of the room in a hard to get to place...so I was able to react quickly, unplug, tilt it away from components and get them out before it got too bad in there.

 

Going to follow the advice I have recieved, let them dry out for a week, maybe even two...and then see what still works.

[Phrench]

The amount of pain I feel seeing this, I really hope you can recover most of your parts.

[NotSoEpicMods]

Wow do you know exactly what failed? There's always a risk water cooling you just have to try and minimize it as much as possible.

[Dravinian]

19 minutes ago, NotSoEpicMods said:

Wow do you know exactly what failed? There's always a risk water cooling you just have to try and minimize it as much as possible.

Yeah the pump, it had been noisy for awhile, then all of a sudden went deadly quiet.

 

On this particular PC there was a window that shows coolant level, it dropped, and it dropped fast, so I figured it must be going somewhere, then I saw the liquid pouring out of the bottom of the case.

 

Was a frightening experience, to be honest, but impressed at how well I handled it, didn't panic, did what I could do, and now I can just hope that some of it is salvagable.

[NotSoEpicMods]

Yea what kind of pump was it I think I see it in one of the pictures and it looks like a very non standard pump.

[bowrilla]

Chances are good that you did not kill anything actually. Quickly rinse everything with distilled water and then clean it all off with isopropyl alcohol. That should remove all residue that could lead to a) corrosion or b) a short. 

 

Components don't die that quickly because of a short circuit as long as there wasn't too much current involved. If it arcs it probably takes damage. If it doesn't chances aren't too bad that your components survived this.

 

P.S.: der8auer puts his GPUs and mainboards in the dishwasher to get rid of vaseline residue ...

 

 

[Dravinian]

It is this one, but discontinued now:

http://www.xs-pc.com/discontinued-eol/x2o-750-dual-bayrespump-black-v4

[Dravinian]

2 minutes ago, bowrilla said:

Chances are good that you did not kill anything actually. Quickly rinse everything with distilled water and then clean it all off with isopropyl alcohol. That should remove all residue that could lead to a) corrosion or b) a short. 

 

Components don't die that quickly because of a short circuit as long as there wasn't too much current involved. If it arcs it probably takes damage. If it doesn't chances aren't too bad that your components survived this.

 

P.S.: der8auer puts his GPUs and mainboards in the dishwasher to get rid of vaseline residue ...

 

 

I don't have either of those things...

 

Can I get them and do it on Friday?

[Mick Naughty]

I’ve had the whole pc drenched. Pump drained the res directly at the psu while gaming. Have had several cards covered above the block and below the backplate. Even water under the cpu pins. Took me several boots into Windows to can’t that one. Still haven’t lost one part. Just really lucky I guess.  

[bowrilla]

Oh and to add to the story: I once poured water over my laptop (yes, it happened once) - it hard froze in the mid of the video with weird noises. Did a hard shutdown, cleaned it, dried it thoroughly - booted up again. My mistake though was to use too much isopropyl alcohol on the semi (!) disassembled laptop which got into the keyboard and dissolved some of the plastics which led to some keys just falling off. Great ...

 

Bottom line: shut it down, clean it (!), let it dry - it will probably work.

[bowrilla]

2 minutes ago, Dravinian said:

I don't have either of those things...

 

Can I get them and do it on Friday?

Sure. Just don't run it! 

 

Pure water does not kill your hardware and is non conductive. Dirt, minerals and salts make water conductive and very much corrosive. You need to get rid of those because they might corrode contacts and kill your components over time. Cleaning it all with distilled water is fine - it rinses off all the dirt. Then you use isopropyl alcohol which evaporates VERY quickly without any residue. Get's rid of everything else. Once it's all dry (I'd give it at least a day or two in a warm, dry and well ventilated area) you can assemble everything again (this includes cooling blocks and stuff like that) and you'll probably be lucky and most if not all components will just work.

[Dravinian]

Cheers, ordered some distilled water....harder to come by than you might think at short notice.

 

And some alcohol, should arrive in a couple of days, at which point, I think it is just the GPUs that need a proper cleaning, they took the brunt, well them and the PSU but that is dead to me, too risky to plug that thing in again I think.

 

The rest, barring the MB that I have not been able to take out yet (letting the liquid drain from the case in an upright position) don't seem to have been touched.

 

Will do the work, not rush the re-build on it and wait and see.

[bowrilla]

3 minutes ago, Dravinian said:

Cheers, ordered some distilled water....harder to come by than you might think at short notice.

 

And some alcohol, should arrive in a couple of days, at which point, I think it is just the GPUs that need a proper cleaning, they took the brunt, well them and the PSU but that is dead to me, too risky to plug that thing in again I think.

 

The rest, barring the MB that I have not been able to take out yet (letting the liquid drain from the case in an upright position) don't seem to have been touched.

 

Will do the work, not rush the re-build on it and wait and see.

Well - the main issue with the PSU is that you'd need to disassemble it to do a thorough job and since some of the caps may still have a charge this could be a very dangerous thing to do if you don't know what you're doing. This could be lethal. 

 

If you get it cleaned and dried you can check it with a multimeter. Bridge the ATX pins and power it up, then you can measure every pin to ground and compare the reading with the specs.

 

If it's really broken it should just throw the breaker or the residual-current device. I'd use a switchable extension cord with an additional fuse for putting power on it. Don't touch the casing or any other metal parts of the PSU. 

 

Disclaimer: this is what I'd do. I can't recommend this if you don't know a thing or two about this stuff in order to protect yourself! If you do this you'll do it on your own risk. If your electrical system isn't to spec this stuff might catch fire and/or shock you.

[Dravinian]

@bowrilla I appreciate the thought, but it is the bin for the PSU.  Fully modular RM750 from years ago too, nice PSU.

 

Unforunately, I had to cut a few wires, too well cable managed and I didn't have time to mess about, so snip snip was the quickest way to get it done.

 

Also, I want to be fair to the pump, it went solid for 6 years, still think it is a massive design flaw for the system to dump liquid if the pump fails...so no, let's not be fair, it was a crap pump.

[Dravinian]

Took the motherboard out, after letting the case drain.

 

The top PCIE slow is deluged, but the back is clear, so I am hopeful that some distilled water and some alcohol will clear out the PCIE slot.

Then perhaps a week of drying and I can mount it and see what happens.

 

Interestingly, even though a budget'ish board, it has post codes, I will check the manual see if it has a code for "Your machine blew up fool".

[Dravinian]

Ok, so today, I took apart the Cosmos SE ready for the bin men.  Never liked that case, airflow was terrible.

 

Put the motherboard and the graphics cards through the 'wash cycle' heavy distilled water use, then some high proof isopropyl alcohol and a can of electric cleaning fluid which I felt would get into the parts that pouring alcohol simply couldn't reach (it was also higher pressure so used it to push some water out).

 

Now they start to dry...24th April, I figure 14 days, 8th May appears to be the time that I will find out.

 

By then, my new case and power supply should have arrived and I will be able to do a build and see if they actually work.

[bowrilla]

1 hour ago, Dravinian said:

Put the motherboard and the graphics cards through the 'wash cycle' heavy distilled water use, then some high proof isopropyl alcohol and a can of electric cleaning fluid which I felt would get into the parts that pouring alcohol simply couldn't reach (it was also higher pressure so used it to push some water out).

 

Now they start to dry...24th April, I figure 14 days, 8th May appears to be the time that I will find out.

Sounds good. Should be enough to get rid of all dirt and residue.

 

I'd say you should be fine in 1-3 days, you can use a hairdryer to speed things up. Probably 1 day with hairdryer (that's what der8auer does) and maybe 3-ish days with just a bit of ambient airflow. By the time you get your new components it should all be fine. But sure, it won't hurt to wait longer.

 

P.S.: Don't forget to repaste your GPU after the thorough cleaning cycle if you haven't disassembled it in the first place. You will have washed away some if not all of the TIM with the isopropyl alcohol.

[Dravinian]

Yep I got some Cryonaught paste and will re-paste.  I was pretty impressed with whatever paste was on that CPU, 6 years of heavy use on an overclocked CPU and it was still sticky to the touch.

 

To be honest, I wrote that and then this afternoon, like a few hours later, I was looking at the parts thinking, wow they look pretty dry already, the alcohol really does evaporate fast.

 

Don't own a hair dryer so will just give it time I think.

 

My new case doesn't arrive for 3 more days, once it arrives and I have the time I think I might inspect the parts and see where I am.  Got to find the time to do it outside of work so may be a week in any event.

[Dravinian]

It posted.

 

It posted!!!!!!!!

 

I need to get a wired mouse and keyboard now though, as it won't recognise my keyboard (usb) so won't get into setup....

[Dravinian]

Well oddly, it recognises my mouse and keyboard, through USB, but won't allow F1 to work....so not sure what that is about.

[Dravinian]

Tried a different USB keyboard, that worked, booted into Windows.

 

I am utterly shocked, and impressed with the hardware...I filmed a lot of it, might put it together as a video at some point.

[bowrilla]

On 4/29/2020 at 7:57 PM, Dravinian said:

I am utterly shocked, and impressed with the hardware...I filmed a lot of it, might put it together as a video at some point.

Told you. That stuff is more robust than people think. Most people assume some water on their stuff is more dangerous than static discharges. It's the other way around.

[Dravinian]

4 hours ago, bowrilla said:

Told you. That stuff is more robust than people think. Most people assume some water on their stuff is more dangerous than static discharges. It's the other way around.

I neglected to mention the mouse and keyboard worked fine, but it was a dongle for a different mouse and keyboard i had plugged in....

 

I did film the washing and putting back together, but the thread was locked as forum prefers a written account than video, but honestly, not much more to say. I washed them, how do you describe that in any more detail, I poured water on it, well obviously, that is how you wash something lol