HELP! Spilled water on my Desktop Tower

[Marriah]

Company: Acer Aspire Model: Aspire X3990 2011 Windows 7 home premium running on latest windows 10 versionI have a 2011 Acer windows 7 home desktop with monitor.(MODEL: ASPIRE X3990) The monitor sits up on a desk and the desktop on the floor. There was a cup of water right beside the edge that was beside the desktop (yah i know stupid but I've had it there before, its like this is some karma). i bumped it somehow, it spilt right through the top vent and around. it had to be within a minute that between the spilling and me screaming 'NO!' multiple times that it shut down by itself. I unplugged everything within 5-10 minutes and turned it upside down and made my fan face it for about two hours. Called acer support and talked to two people, both say wait a day, one says to put it in direct sunlight tomorrow for the whole day and it should work again and one says to make sure its dry and bring it to a technician. Everyone on the internet has agreed that taking components within the computer and placing them in rice is the best option but I don't even know if it opens up, and i don't know how to take apart the components, i will probably mess something up. ADVICE AND WHAT ARE MY BEST OPTIONS ARE WELCOME THANKK YOUUU

(UPDATE: its been drying on its side for about 6 days now, had a fan faced towards it for 2 days, took it to a local repair shop yesterday and waiting for a call tomorrow about whether it turned on, if it needs repair and cost.)

What are my chances? Remember, I haven't turned it on since.

[m0k]

everything will be fine

the fact that you shut it down before anything went wrong is good

you should be able to turn it back on now with no issues

 

ive spilled hot coffee on a computer, soaking everything, waited two weeks with no power and it was perfectly fine

[johnukguy]

The rice thing is a complete myth and can also introduce particles that you don't want in your components. The chances are that you may need a new PSU but it may well be fine. I hope you can trust the techs you took the system to.

[emosun]

5 minutes ago, Marriah said:

UPDATE: its been drying on its side for about 6 days now

are you copy pasting your problem from some other source? You posted 3 minutes ago yet have a 6 day update.

6 minutes ago, Marriah said:

took it to a local repair shop yesterday and waiting for a call tomorrow about whether it turned on, if it needs repair and cost

If you already took it to a repair shop and have no access to it and someone is already fixing it then why are you posting here?

[johnukguy]

2 minutes ago, emosun said:

If you already took it to a repair shop and have no access to it and someone is already fixing it then why are you posting here?

Because she's worried. Which is entirely understandable, and wants a little reassurance. Nothing wrong with that.

[Aelita Sophie]

If you want to be entirely sure no particles or dirt or grime went into your system from your drink, spray it down it break-cleaner. The liquid is non-conductive, non-corrosive and evaporates quite fast. I use it all the time to clean out my parts every once a while. Even had a GTX 1070 where my one of my cats.. well peed over while I was on vacation. Pulled it right out the system and sprayed it down with an entire can of break-cleaner. Looks as new!

[emosun]

Just now, johnukguy said:

Because she's worried. Which is entirely understandable, and wants a little reassurance. Nothing wrong with that.

Essentially none of us have control over what the repair shop she sent it to will say. That repair shop could say pretty much anything they want.

the only thing I can say for sure is that the machine is 100% fixable no matter what. there's basically zero chance the hdd was affected so worse case scenario is you'd have to buy the exact same motherboard or whole machine and simply swap the drive into it. 

 

So if they say it's not fixable at least you'll know it's bs

[johnukguy]

2 minutes ago, emosun said:

Essentially none of us have control over what the repair shop she sent it to will say. That repair shop could say pretty much anything they want.

the only thing I can say for sure is that the machine is 100% fixable no matter what. there's basically zero chance the hdd was affected so worse case scenario is you'd have to buy the exact same motherboard or whole machine and simply swap the drive into it. 

 

So if they say it's not fixable at least you'll know it's bs

Agreed, but it will be interesting to find out if the repair place are bullshitters or not.

[emosun]

1 minute ago, johnukguy said:

Agreed, but it will be interesting to find out if the repair place are bullshitters or not.

That's what I'm thinking , basically we'll find out how much advantage this shop wants to take of the situation.

[NinJake]

Whether a shop says it's fixable or not will most likely come down to... "how much time and effort is it going to cost ME/COMPANY to fix this", if it's cost-effective then they will provide a price to fix it. If it's going to be numerous hours of troubleshooting and an obvious large cost to the customer, they are probably better off using that money to buy a new system anyways.

 

Also remember in the OP, they said the water spilled and the PC turned off by itself, they didn't turn it off right away. Hopefully nothing shorted out.

[Ryujin2003]

3 hours ago, Marriah said:

 

(UPDATE: its been drying on its side for about 6 days now, had a fan faced towards it for 2 days, took it to a local repair shop yesterday and waiting for a call tomorrow about whether it turned on, if it needs repair and cost.)

What are my chances? Remember, I haven't turned it on since.

Um.... Having worked in a "repair shop", I am not optimistic are all. All except for one case, the PC died. Everything has corroded within hours. Rice doesn't do anything. Best thing is to use a hair dryer immediately to hope to evaporate the water faster than it'll corrode the electrical lanes on the board. No recovery from that.

 

Take it apart, look at it. If you see crumbly get stuff it discolored copper, your done. You'll have to replace at least the components today are affected by the water damage.

 

Not to be negative Nancy, but if it shut off by itself, it was probably dead before you put your fan on it.

 

Advice? Look out over before turning it on. Taking it to a repair shop and hoping they dry it and "owe" you anything is dumb, so please don't try it. For the future... No food or drink near the PC, or have the PC in such a way that you cannot possibly spill anything onto it.

[Marriah]

4 hours ago, mok said:

everything will be fine

the fact that you shut it down before anything went wrong is good

you should be able to turn it back on now with no issues

 

ive spilled hot coffee on a computer, soaking everything, waited two weeks with no power and it was perfectly fine

ahhh.. problem... it powered down itself before I could pull the plug..sorry bud you misread me

[Marriah]

Update

SO THE REPAIR SHOP CALLED

apparently, they use this 'metered machine' or whatnot to sense damage in the computer without even having to turn it on. The machine sensed that the PSU (can't really quote him as I don't remember exactly) is damaged/needs repair. To replace or repair needs somewhere between 92$ - 120$

I may be wrong but I really want to call bull. Not all that much water dripped in through the top vent, it had to hit the inner fan and maybe around it , but all the way to the PSU?

Anyways, it isn't even going to be my decision, I don't know if you guys have noticed but Im like 15 years old  

And lets just quote my mom's exact words to me after she got the call from the shop :

"I don't have 100$!' (were saving for a family member to come over in the summer so amounts like 100$, especially when its my mom paying and not my dad who doesn't even know i freaking broke, it is big.)

Do you guys think I should trust my instincts and just ask to bring it home and try turning it on and see if the PSU is actually fried (if it doesn't turn on that means they're saying the truth and I can always go back and give it to them again)

or.... 

yah thats my only thought unless my mom acctually says yes to paying

[Marriah]

2 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Take it apart, look at it. If you see crumbly get stuff it discolored copper, your done. You'll have to replace at least the components today are affected by the water damage.

 

Crumbly what now?

it was water. not some kind of liquid that leaves a sticky residue or has sugar in it. Water that went on top of the tower and all around, and some went in to the top vent, yes enough to turn it off but not all that much, y'know?

[Marriah]

6 hours ago, Aelita Sophie said:

If you want to be entirely sure no particles or dirt or grime went into your system from your drink, spray it down it break-cleaner. The liquid is non-conductive, non-corrosive and evaporates quite fast. I use it all the time to clean out my parts every once a while. Even had a GTX 1070 where my one of my cats.. well peed over while I was on vacation. Pulled it right out the system and sprayed it down with an entire can of break-cleaner. Looks as new!

If she peed over it during vacation..Im guessing the computer wasn't running at the time right?

It was water anyways, so it wouldnt leave anything.

[Marriah]

6 hours ago, johnukguy said:

The rice thing is a complete myth and can also introduce particles that you don't want in your components. The chances are that you may need a new PSU but it may well be fine. I hope you can trust the techs you took the system to.

Said their machine detected damage or something of the PSU.

Remember, this is all without them even turning the PC on itself yet.

[Marriah]

6 hours ago, mok said:

everything will be fine

the fact that you shut it down before anything went wrong is good

you should be able to turn it back on now with no issues

 

ive spilled hot coffee on a computer, soaking everything, waited two weeks with no power and it was perfectly fine

Was the computer running at the time?

[johnukguy]

2 hours ago, Marriah said:

Do you guys think I should trust my instincts and just ask to bring it home and try turning it on and see if the PSU is actually fried (if it doesn't turn on that means they're saying the truth and I can always go back and give it to them again)

or.... 

yah thats my only thought unless my mom acctually says yes to paying

You can pick up a decentish PSU for about $40, more if you want better, but there's no reason to pay $100. PSU's are easy to replace and install. Just tell your mom that you'll replace it yourself if she pays for a new PSU. That way your system gets repaired and she saves money over the shop repair.

[Ryujin2003]

9 hours ago, Marriah said:

Crumbly what now?

it was water. not some kind of liquid that leaves a sticky residue or has sugar in it. Water that went on top of the tower and all around, and some went in to the top vent, yes enough to turn it off but not all that much, y'know?

Some contacts I've seen corrode with a bluish greenish prefer like substance coming from the metal contact. I'm assuming the color is from copper, not sure why it gets like chalk powder.

 

Yes, I get it's just water, but PC components aren't weather proofed. They corrode when exposed to water.

 

9 hours ago, Marriah said:

Said their machine detected damage or something of the PSU.

Remember, this is all without them even turning the PC on itself yet.

There is a PSU tester that can be plugged in with the PSU. It reads the voltage coming through and will tell you if everything measures correctly or not. That could very well be it. But it won't mean anything for any other components not yet checked.

 

Bringing the PC home saves you the labor chargers of the repair shop, unless you have some sort of package deal with them that covers those types of things. But at my last shop, it was a 40 dollar charge for basic hardware (RAM, drives, PSU) and 60 for more time consuming installs like CPU, MB. That's in addition to the hardware price.

 

If you know how to do it yourself, is take it home and do it yourself. They have the benefit of being able to swap out components to ensure the replacement actually resolved the issue.