Here's a Dirty Story (PC Cleaning)

[WoodenMarker]

My friend recently got into a car accident where he hydroplaned in the rain, crashed through a fence, and rolled over in a ditch being flipped upside down and half submerged in water. During which, his main rig went ballistic into the windshield and many of his belongings got covered in mud for a day or two before being recovered.

Luckily, he got out without a scratch. That being said, the computers that were in the car with him weren't as lucky.

 

Here's some of the carnage.

Spoiler

 

Cleaning..

Spoiler

 

 

I spent the next 2-3 days taking apart, scrubbing/overall cleaning, and testing the parts with him. The cases (Lian Li PC-TU300/Bitfenix Prodigy) were disassembled, hosed down, and left to dry.

The motherboard from his Thinkpad died. The power supplies in his personal and work system (Corsair AX760 and CX430) were never tested and left alone for safety reasons.

His primary OS drive (Samsung Evo 500GB) flew away and was never recovered.

That being said, we were surprised to find that the rest of the components from the two systems still work. 

 

The cpu (6700k/G3258) protected the pins and the socket protected the cpu so they worked just fine and the same goes for the ram. The motherboards (Asus Z170 Deluxe and AsRock H81M-ITX) was scrubbed down with several passes with a toothbrush and the heatsink (Noctua NH-D14) was bent back into place and performs just as well as new. We tested the heatink with a single NF-P14 on a 6700k at stock settings with OCCT and temps peaked at 45c. The stock intel heatsink on the G3258 has a very subtle scratching sound but is about as quiet as it was new.

 

The graphics card (EVGA 980 Ti) worked fine with several runs of Unigine Valley but the fans have dirt in them and sound rumbly under load. We contacted EVGA for replacement fans but they're apparently out of stock. My friend is in the process of deciding what to do from here whether it be aftermarket NF-A9x14's or an MK-26 with 120mm fans.

Graphics card update:

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/703261-heres-a-dirty-story/?do=findComment&comment=9072762

 

The noctua fans were washed under a faucet and spun themselves dry. All the drives including two 250GB Samsung Evo's, a 2TB Seagate Barracuda, and a 120GB Kingston SSDNow V300 were in perfect health according to CrystalDiskInfo. A single Hitachi 1TB had a slight whirring sound and was replaced with a WD Red 3TB I had lying around.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Here are the photos of his system reassembled with a new Antec NeoEco 620C psu.

The other system was put back together as well but that was less exciting and isn't too interesting to look at.

Lesson of the day: Computer components are pretty durable.

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Guest]

Quick tips: put spoiler so users don't have to scroll thorough all of it

[EunSoo]

nice case

[vanished]

Well the CPU surviving was no surprise but the fact you saved as much as you did is impressive  

 

Although, that video card definitely looks like it's seen better days  

[Guest]

I just love how the USB flash drive, the VGA cable and the Ethernet cable are all blue and the finger is bit too fat

[ARikozuM]

NOW, THAT'S THERMAL PASTE!

Looks like he went a bit heavy on the paste.

I'm glad your friend was unharmed while his wallet took a beating... for science?

[MrMcMuffinJr]

Looks like a lucky person is going to get a free SSD

[Velvet Revolver]

I hope he had insurance because that is a cha-ching moment

Not only for the computers but any passengers in the car as well

BC has ICBC which is provincial coverage along with SK, Alberta has private insurance. But the scums put caps on damages.

I see you are in California, which if I am not mistaken used to be wide open but now they cracked down. Used to be a running joke about California and car accidents. Many misunderstandings and corporate greed tied into the political scene.

[Fungal]

Wow I'm sure most people would just give up on most of the pc but you managed to get it working and cleaned it 

[MrMcMuffinJr]

2 minutes ago, Velvet Revolver said:

I hope he had insurance because that is a cha-ching moment

I wonder if warranties cover surprise window smash and mud bath.

[Velvet Revolver]

2 minutes ago, MrMcMuffinJr said:

I wonder if warranties cover surprise window smash and mud bath.

Vehicle insurance would cover content if its in your policy.

 

 

Quote

Wow I'm sure most people would just give up on most of the pc but you managed to get it working and cleaned it 

I am sure the CPU is still good depending on if it was submerged. The case would be good if it wasnt dented.

[WkdPaul]

Wow! Glad to hear your friend got out without a scratch!

 

Also glad to see you could salvage so much!

[hartantovictor]

Thinkpad......'rugged' they said..........

[WoodenMarker]

1 hour ago, hartantovictor said:

Thinkpad......'rugged' they said..........

To be fair, my friend tried to turn it on without fully disassembling, cleaning out, and drying it unlike the other components. That might have killed it there.

4 hours ago, SCGazelle said:

nice case

3 hours ago, Velvet Revolver said:

I am sure the CPU is still good depending on if it was submerged. The case would be good if it wasnt dented.

Yep, the cases were fine asides from some scratches. Even the dust filters were perfectly fine!

4 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Well the CPU surviving was no surprise but the fact you saved as much as you did is impressive  

3 hours ago, Fungal said:

Wow I'm sure most people would just give up on most of the pc but you managed to get it working and cleaned it 

2 hours ago, wkdpaul said:

Wow! Glad to hear your friend got out without a scratch!

Also glad to see you could salvage so much!

Same here--not sure which was more surprising.

I still wonder if the psus would have worked if they were cleaned out. 

3 hours ago, MrMcMuffinJr said:

I wonder if warranties cover surprise window smash and mud bath.

EVGA for sure doesn't. 

 

 

[cesrai]

Wouldn't the toothbrush scratch the mother surface ?

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, cesrai said:

Wouldn't the toothbrush scratch the mother surface ?

There are (usually) many layers of fiberglass or lacquer over the substrate.

[Bouzoo]

Remind me of the time when I worked in a repair show and we received 2 PCs that were in a flood. They were completely green inside.

Also, what happened to spoilers? 

[ARikozuM]

22 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

Also, what happened to spoilers? 

Honda took them all for no reason...

[hartantovictor]

58 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

To be fair, my friend tried to turn it on without fully disassembling, cleaning out, and drying it unlike the other components. That might have killed it there.

 why would he do that...................................................

[WoodenMarker]

Just now, hartantovictor said:

 why would he do that...................................................

Apparently, it seemed pretty clean. 

[asand1]

I would strip the video card down and clean it. Were it my computers(s), I would have hosed the motherboards off and ran them through the dishwasher and then allowed them to dry for two days.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Yeesh, glad he was okay...

[WoodenMarker]

5 minutes ago, asand1 said:

I would strip the video card down and clean it. Were it my computers(s), I would have hosed the motherboards off and ran them through the dishwasher and then allowed them to dry for two days.

The video card was cleaned up before being put back into the system. The photos with the card giving display were from earlier to see if it even worked in the first place.

[TheCryoknight]

If there was no power running to it at the time if you wash it with distilled water and let dry for 2 to 3 weeks there is no reason most if not all of it should still work

[WoodenMarker]

1 minute ago, TheCryoknight said:

If there was no power running to it at the time if you wash it with distilled water and let dry for 2 to 3 weeks there is no reason most if not all of it should still work

My friend needed a system up and running in about a week for his project on VR so getting it done in a few days was a plus.

There was also a lot of caked dirt and mud so scrubbing was an eventuality.