PC vs Glass of water

EdGey

EdGey

EdGey

Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2008
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England
So, today I had a bit of a nightmare. Browsing as usual and I nocked over a full glass of water. A whole load of it went straight into my keyboard (there was a puddle under the keys), and the rest of it went over the edge of my desk, and into the top vent of my PC. Outragously bad luck.

Anyway, as soon as this happend, some fans started spinning up (think it was the graphics card). I turned the PC off as soon as I could.

Upon further inspection, I saw that the sound card was soaked, and the graphics card which was just below it, was also quite wet. There were also many droplets of water all over the motherboard and the whole inside of the case. I assume this is from the water hitting the top fan and being sprayed all over the place.

To make matters worse, the water first went through a dirty dust filter, so all of my nice white fans and new hardware are now covered in dirty water. Great. :(

I have taken some components out and dried everything best I could. How long would you suggest I leave it before attempting to test things? I am thinking 2 full days should be alright, but I'm not sure.

Has anyone ever had a disaster like this before? what are the chances of things still working?

Thanks!
 
If the PC stayed on long enough for you shut it down then there's a fair chance you'll get away with it.

At least water isn’t going to leave a sticky residue like beer, wine, coke, etc. does.

Two days somewhere warm should be more than enough, but make there’s no water hanging about in the motherboard expansion slots.
 
Hmm, an interesting way of watercooling... :p I've spilt a glass of wine on my keyboard once, they kayboard worked again after it dried out....

Was it your usual tap water or were you drinking RO filtered water? If it's the latter then you may be lucky as this is far less electrically conductive, but even then covering your computer with it still isn't a good idea... Tap water is pretty conductive however.

What I would do it dismantle is as much as possible, the PSU is the only potentially dangerous thing so get that removed and drying first, take the cover off if you can. Then with the rest try and dry out the excess with tissue and let it dry for at least 24 hours, as things like PCI-e slots can hold water for quite a while.
 
Done this myself! Strip the components out and dry everything as best you can.
Strip the cooler of the graphics card and dry as best you can. Then place all of the components in a warm room like an airing cupboard and leave for a few days to ensure there all dry and no water remains.
Rebuild the PC and hope for the best.
 
Blast the PCIe slots with a hairdryer (if you own one...) a man's hairdryer (towel) won't work here lol

This is why I keep my PC on the desk! :) You need some serious bad luck to tip a glass of water up and into the case ;)
 
I've experienced something similar with a basement under water and a pc standing in 10cm water. We had the PC'en opened and let it dry for 48hrs. It worked fine afterwards with no problems. Still running today :)
 
Depending on the severity of water, take out all expansion cards, memory including the CMOS battery.. any where water can be trapped. Then use a hair drier is this will blow out any trapped water.. then as suggested, leave for a few days before reassembling.
 
I've had water leak from the CPU block all over the motherboard/ northbridge/ graphics card for several minutes without me noticing in the past
As long as it doesn't get into the PSU the worst that can happen is random restarting.

It'll be fine to turn back on in an hour if you soak it up and use a fan. Theres no need to wait days for it to dry.

The keyboard, however, will likely be ruined. I've never successfully washed a keyboard.
 
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If it was me I'd take the PC outside, obviously on a blazing sunny day, and let it air off.

I'd avoid using it for a day or two to be absolutely sure.

I would also go to church on the next sunday and pray for my components.
 
I did this aswell, had (and still have a antec 300) big 140mm fan on the top of the PC, unfortunately for me, my motherboard and my Limited Edition Zotac Batman GTX 285 perished in the incident.

Like the others have said, hopefully you have done no damage, i personally would clean all fans, and remove all items of hardware, just incase water has got into the sides of the slots etc, let the motherboard be aired etc. Then as moomoo has said "go to church and pray"
 
I have seen this a couple of times and all i have done for people is used a hair drier, Including my mums laptop that was soaked ! the battery did not survive but i took it all appart died it with a hair drier and then put it back together again. has always worked for me :) good luck
 
Well I once spilt a whole can of Sprite over the keyboard of my laptop and it was working again within half an hour after some hair drying. If I was sensible I probably would have taken apart and left it for a while but it all worked fine afterwards anyway. It's broken now but I don't think they are related. It was like a year ago
 
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