Water Damage Tower

Spacedeck

Spacedeck

Spacedeck

Soldato
Joined
14 Sep 2007
Posts
3,700
Location
West Yorkshire, England
Hey, so partner accidentally knocked her full cup of tea and it went all over and seems to have dropped in through the vent at the top of the tower. Probably went in the USB's at the top of the tower and the connections at the back seemed to be hit.

After it happened, the monitor connection cut out, so potentially damaged GPU?

I turned it all off, dried up all the parts I could see that had any liquid on or near it. I took out the GPU and checked that, no liquid seemed to be trickling out, just some around the outside of it. Once I'd dried up what I could see, I plugged back in and had a go turning on and now seem to be getting D0 error, which I think relates to the CPU and not getting enough power.

I've currently turned it all off again and I'm in the process of taking everything out and hopefully after a day or two, put it back together and try again.

What's the likelihood of things being damaged and which components are more likely to have been damaged?

Any tips? Other than the obvious no drinks around electronics :cry:.
 
Pretty good on modern hardware but unfortunately you may have messed it up by turning it on when its not fully dry if you didn't leave it all to air out properly.

Clean it, dry it really well, leave it to air and then try turning it on is the general rule.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Pretty good on modern hardware but unfortunately you may have messed it up by turning it on when its not fully dry if you didn't leave it all to air out properly.

Clean it, dry it really well, leave it to air and then try turning it on is the general rule.
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Would that really have mattered much though if the PC was already turned on when the liquid entered?
 
Spacedeck said:
Would that really have mattered much though if the PC was already turned on when the liquid entered?
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Yes, absolutely.

See this video from a famous Youtuber with a water-cooled server rack that leaked gallons of water through 7 or 8 rigs and a UPS. Spoiler, most of it survived.

 
I learnt this lesson a long time ago, don't get cases with holes in the roof, and don't put cups/bowls of liquid on top of your pc either, I had a celing leak dump water into my pc like this, everything survived! though my psu was untouched by the water
good luck!!
 
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It's frustrating, I didn't build this pc, bought from my brother at start of year, then upgraded CPU 4 months ago to a 5800X3D. Those who did build this used a lot of them cables ties for the the wires, which is annoying as they cut them down really short and made them really tight. Luckily I didn't get around to upgrading the GPU, so the system isn't like it's brand new and up to date parts.

If I need to replace anything like MB, the case is definitely going!
 
Spacedeck said:
Hey, so partner accidentally knocked her full cup of tea and it went all over and seems to have dropped in through the vent at the top of the tower.
Click to expand...

This is not good, but probably mostly recoverable. You should take everything out of your PC and clean almost everything. Firstly with water (yes! ) and then with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) - lots of it. The water will remove the tea and the IPA will displace the water. It's best if you have an IPA bath. 5 litres of IPA will cost you under £20, trivial compared with the cost of your PC. You'll likely need to disassemble your GPU before cleaning and repaste it afterwards. After cleaning with IPA look for any corrosion and remove it with a toothbrush and more IPA.

Don't dunk fans in IPA: you'll dissolve the oil.

The one exception is the PSU. If that got wet inside just replace it. Don't mess with PSUs.
 
Quartz said:
This is not good, but probably mostly recoverable. You should take everything out of your PC and clean almost everything. Firstly with water (yes! ) and then with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) - lots of it. The water will remove the tea and the IPA will displace the water. It's best if you have an IPA bath. 5 litres of IPA will cost you under £20, trivial compared with the cost of your PC. You'll likely need to disassemble your GPU before cleaning and repaste it afterwards. After cleaning with IPA look for any corrosion and remove it with a toothbrush and more IPA.

Don't dunk fans in IPA: you'll dissolve the oil.

The one exception is the PSU. If that got wet inside just replace it. Don't mess with PSUs.
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Would that just be the 99.99% stuff you can buy on Amazon?
 
Quartz said:
Maybe not. The motherboard is displaying an error code, after all, and not just dead.
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there's obviously always a chance, but i'd bet money something will be fried unfortunately. getting lucky and not frying anything in the initial spill is one thing, turning it on again when there's still going to be moisture/conductive residue still present....i'd be highly surprised if ones luck held out a second time.

edit: to the op - i'd be trading the gf in at this point! :p good luck and i hope i'm wrong or if i'm right the damage is minimal.
 
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