Can you wash a graphics card?

[the21robot]

Think of it as metal when it does not have any power.

[hehehehhehehehe]

Yes you can

Distilled water and make sure you let it dry COMPLETELY.

[digitalnav]

I thought water cooling meant putting the card in water while running....  :lol:

[the21robot]

I thought water cooling meant putting the card in water while running....  :lol:

It does. 

[Jumper118]

just stick in in the dishwasher 

[sperkowsky]

Compressed air to start then some alcohal to give it a shine

[JordanMac]

Technically yes you could wash it, as long as it is perfectly dry before you turn it back on then there would be no shorts. However why risk it? just use a can of air.

[Mentalguy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTGar7aoLDs#t=328

[sotiris.bos]

Soak it in 99% isopropyl alcohol, should do the job.

 

That amount of alcohol will probably cost more than the GPU though.

 

Disclaimer: I am not repsonsible for what happens to it but you being eager to give it a bath I don't think you really care.

[Chevaishr]

i said it before and i will say it again ... the electrical components do not insta die on contact with water ... a short must occur and something must burn. that said there is a risk but once powered off  and all capacitors have been de-energized you can wash away as much as you want once done dry it as best as you can and let it air dry for a few days. the card should still function normally. ( have cleaned old pentium II motherboard like this already ).

 

NOW with that said why dont you take off the heatsink and fans again and wash that in the sink (dont worry bout the fans they will survive electrically ... even if they were on and underwater ( done it multiple times) however they must be serviced once they have gotten wet weather it be machine oil or some good spray lubricant (NOT WD 40 that stuff will gunk up your bearings).

also i will not advise the washing of the actual board just use a brush and clean it.

 

In the cases where i washed the motherboards, it was because of a suspicion that some particle that may be conductive was shorting something and causing weird behaviour with the board ... after the washing the board worked normally.       

[Norwegiantweaker]

Yes, wash, with water!?

 

Now i realise this might seem like a strange question, water and electronics tend not to go well together. But i just purchased a GTX260 216 Core from eBay to be used in the Q6600 PC i use when at home from Uni over Christmas holidays etc.

 

As soon as took it out the box, i was shocked at how dirty it was! Like full of dust, really black thick fluffy dust! It also has a really strong smell, not sure what of, but it sort of reminds me of a Christmas scent wall plug thing my mother has, but not pleasant!

 

You could shake it and this horrible fluff comes out the fan opening. I should have taken pictures. I removed the cooler, and removed the bulk of the dust and fluff, but there's still a lot stuck in the heatsink and fan fins. Still stinks.

 

I reapplied thermal paste and put everything back together, tested it in my PC, and it runs fine.

 

Now here come the question, if i were to wash it with water to clear the heatsink and fan out, leave it to dry for over a month, would it be safe to use? And if so, what precautions do i need to take?

that sounds like nicotine dust. aply watr to that and you will have pretty much glue. compresed air is the only way to go and pliers

[Chevaishr]

It is possible to soak your computer in water (yes) its like watercooling 2.0 (this isn't the exact video) but its close.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eub39NaC4rc

Honestly it looks pretty dang cool but I wouldn't do it to a $1500 machine in less I tried it out first with a $100 - $200 machine. 

Edit : I will have to find the original video to share later. It may take a while to find >_<

 

Edit 2 : Well that was fast here it is here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZWdaOV731I) 

soak all the components in corrosionx (everything ) and it would run under salt water ( except a hard drive )  

[DAGEEK]

horrible idea

[Queek]

just for the sake of clearing this up because it's somewhat related to the ops question, to my memory water itself isn't really conductive but the things it is contaminated with is, you could buy pure distilled water and it isn't really conductive, then again i don't think you will find 100% pure h20.

Water by itself is non-conductive, but it is a fantastic solvent for ions.  If you put something (such as a motherboard) in de-ionized water, the ions on that board (trust me, there will be some) WILL dissociate and make the water conductive.  De-ionized water will not remain de-ionized for long.  

Also, distilled water is NOT the same thing as de-ionized water.  DW is better than regular water for ion content, but it will still contain ions.  

Also, water is great at corroding metal, so if you do wash it, only have it in the water for as brief a time as possible, and get it as dry as possible as quickly as possible.  

 

Bottom line: don't ever rely on water to be non-conductive.  

 

If OP was a chemist, I'd recommend his favorite non-conductive solvent, but he probably isn't, and doesn't have access to those types of solvents, so I don't recommend it.  

 

Go with air cleaning and put a baking soda packet in your case: problem solved.

[Tr3vor]

I've washed many PCBs with a wet Q-tip, just gotta make sure it dries before you stick it back in the computer and power it on, also make sure there isn't Q-tip crap on the solder points

 

A guy on youtube called "uxwbill" puts his electronics into the dish washer, and I'd probably do that too if my dad wouldn't get mad at me doing it

 

Its perfectly safe to get an unpowered PCB wet.

[Mukessh]

Who has pure water? I sure don't have and "pure" water....

Distilled water . 

[Umeshwarnath]

washing the heatsink and fan shouldnt do anythng bad to them......just dry it for 2-3 hrs in the sun.....

PS :i have done it and i idnt have any issues! also i bought a blower and made a nozzle for cleaning ,a few months later!

[Bentheguy]

Everyone is saying no but the reality is that you CAN wash the card with no adverse after effects. Just don't have it running, ground the card to the case just in case, and wash it. Do not use soap or anything else, just plain water. When you're done washing just chuck it in a bag of rice for a day and you're good to go. And if anyone says you can't, they're wrong because I've done it a few times myself. It's not the best idea but when you have components that really do need a good washing it isn't that bad of an idea.

Did you try and wash your HD 7770?

Maybe thats why it doesn't work propely.

[Hammerhead]

This guy did it. Its where i got the idea. And yeah if im not doing it ill wait till im home from christmas, we have a big comressor, ill use that.

I would not use a compressor unless it has a moisture trap and a particle filter even then i wouldn't  use it.  canned air is dry, clean and neutral (not statically charged)

[Standardstyle65]

you can get a can of compressed air at like walmart or any electronics store for a few bucks, and those things pump out some serious airflow, you'd be surprised what they can do.

[AlwaysFSX]

Did you try and wash your HD 7770?

Maybe thats why it doesn't work propely.

Man I wish I did, it'll probably work better

[Tr3vor]

if you do wash it in water, you will probably have to re apply thermal paste, you probably don't want water in that.

[MrsDickinsson]

On 11/9/2013 at 10:39 PM, Tmh85 said:

This sounds extremely troll like

Never put water on any computer componet, its majorly conductive and if you actually washed the whole card with water you would ruin it..

Yeah umm... Tech YES City would disagree. He washes whole motherboard, and it works after letting it dry. Note: He does it in the sink, and he of course removes the cmos battery.

[Falkentyne]

On 11/9/2013 at 1:36 PM, garyjpaterson said:

Yes, wash, with water!?

 

Now i realise this might seem like a strange question, water and electronics tend not to go well together. But i just purchased a GTX260 216 Core from eBay to be used in the Q6600 PC i use when at home from Uni over Christmas holidays etc.

 

As soon as took it out the box, i was shocked at how dirty it was! Like full of dust, really black thick fluffy dust! It also has a really strong smell, not sure what of, but it sort of reminds me of a Christmas scent wall plug thing my mother has, but not pleasant!

 

You could shake it and this horrible fluff comes out the fan opening. I should have taken pictures. I removed the cooler, and removed the bulk of the dust and fluff, but there's still a lot stuck in the heatsink and fan fins. Still stinks.

 

I reapplied thermal paste and put everything back together, tested it in my PC, and it runs fine.

 

Now here come the question, if i were to wash it with water to clear the heatsink and fan out, leave it to dry for over a month, would it be safe to use? And if so, what precautions do i need to take?

While distilled water may work, just buy some 99% alcohol and douse the entire card in there.

That way, it can dry fully and no risk of shorting.

 

The problem with water is, water can get into little tiny parts where it can take ages to dry, and even if it's distilled, it can become non distilled and conductive with time.  It can also corrode parts as well.

Just use alcohol.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L6MMV7F

 

Jay2cents used alcohol in his deep cleaning video.  Card got cleaned and worked fine.

 

If you need more liquid, you can dilute it with water a bit, e.g. turning it from 99% into 80 to 91%.  Just use distilled water if you're going to dilute it and be careful about the drying.

[Glenwing]

8 hours ago, MrsDickinsson said:

Yeah umm... Tech YES City would disagree. He washes whole motherboard, and it works after letting it dry. Note: He does it in the sink, and he of course removes the cmos battery.

Please don't revive 7 year old threads.