need technology HALP!

[howlingwolfpaw]

So a fitting on our water system broke, flooding the basement where I have my gaming computer. I pulled the plug once we got the water off, it don't recall it being that wet, but it was spraying everywhere. we were in process of cleaning everything out and It seems the CPU was sitting in a small puddle on the table.

right now it is sitting in front of a dehumidifier, is there anything else I should do?
anything special once its dry enough to try turning on again?
do you think the hard drive would be alright to get my files back should it not turn on or work right?



for the pool enthusiast we have a 2" well pipe with a 3 hp pump. the line that broke was about 1". the plumber said he never saw such a large pipe for a residential well in 30 yrs of work. It was flowing like one of the jets used for water slides.

some other plumber thought it fitting to add a 16" section of pipe sticking up so that in the future another line could be added.... made of brittle PVC.

[Gendarme]

Metis inc.

[JakeyBoyTH]

I imagine both would be shot, but you can only dry them out in rice and try. I would open the hard drive (on a non-static surface) and dry it as much as possible. CPU's are pretty sealed. I think it would be worth a shot to try and use it again - perhaps get a tech shop or a friend to try it if they have a spare mobo.

[Panmaster]

You can wash most components in distilled water and they'll be fine. Don't let tap water dry out.
Hard drives are killed permanently by water unless they're sealed helium. Water damage is not cheap to get professional data recovery done.

[Metis]

Water per se doesn't hurt electronics. You can wash your motherboard in distilled water and it will work just fine once it is clean and completely dry. In fact, I worked with a HVAC tech once who would take AC units, with their circuit boards, and put them through the local car wash on a trailer to clean them, finishing them off with a distilled water rinse. As long as there was no power to the system when it got wet there should not be a problem once any residue is removed and it is completely dry.

As paymaster mentioned, hard water residue may cause arcing and should be cleaned off with an alcohol swab if you notice any water spots.

"Completely dry" is the keyword here. You should unseat the CPU, the RAM, all cards and unplug all connectors (both power and data) so as to expose any nooks and crannies that water may have entered to the air. Give the system several days to dry before turning it on. A can of compressed "air" will accelerate the removal of water droplets from tight areas such as the RAM and card slots, etc.

Remember to clean the CPU package top and heatsink bottom with alcohol and reapply new thermal compound when you reseat the heatsink.

Note that you may not have to do a complete disassembly, depending on the type of case you have and what actually got exposed to water. Once I accidentally dumped a whole pot of spaghetti and boiling water over a computer but it was in a pretty tight "silent" case and not a drop got inside. With my current case I wouldn't have been so lucky as its top is open mesh for cooling purposes.

[howlingwolfpaw]

thank you for the tips guys. I puled the cover today,,, it looked like an old crypt inside, full of dust and cob webs. no evidence it ever got wet inside like runs in the dust or water residue. I pulled the fan out and cleaned between the fins on this heat sync thing (maybe this will improve performance now) as the dust basically made a filter blocking the fan. and then used canned air to clean everything else.

I will try turning it on tomorrow.

[howlingwolfpaw]

thank you guys, computer is working great.

[noissance]

Another good thing to do if you are not afraid would be to buy a new fan/heat sink setup for your system, if it runs really hot. Electronics don't like running hot usually, so its better to keep the temperatures within a reasonable range (40-70C).