Did my heat pipe leak or did someone in my house?

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xjmtx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
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Case open, on side on top of desk. Litecoin mining for days, temps much below 70. Bought an aftermarket cooler for my 5870 when it came out. Check my mining logs to see if everything is running, find out one machine isn't. Go to it. It's making a hissing noise at me. Unplug. No hiss. Replug the cord to the PSU. Hissing. Unplug. No hissing. discover that there are components that look fried somehow right in front of the 24pin connector. OK...dead mobo, no big deal. but why does the top of the gpu cooler look like someone spilled something on the fins? why was there something like a soapy bubble when I disconnected the 8pin/6pin power connectors in the molex holes? lift the chassis off the table, why is there soapy shit on the table and nowhere else?

Did the aftermarket GPU cooler get (burst*) a hole and leak? or did someone in my home decide to be a bastard and not fess up yet?
 
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Considering the heatsink is melded with high temp solder I would find it incredibly unlikely that it'd develop a leak with wear.
 
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Several years old at this point, hitting sometimes temps of 60+ for hours...days on end?
 
I'd imagine extreme temperatures making it burst, not prolonged usage. Might not be the best advice (or even safe) but what does the stuff smell/taste like? What color is it and what does it look like?
Was your GPU upright? Are there any busted/bulging capacitors?\

Pictures would definitely help.
 
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GPU was standing upright, smells like old soapy water. Mostly clear. Tastes like old soapy water. I imagine if a pipe burst, the shit would have sprayed like no tomorrow rather than leaving a soapy puddle under the case. there is no spray-like residue or evidence. It looks as though something got some how dumped on top of it. and dumped is an extreme word to use. lightly poured would be more accurate. as if "oh shit, i spilled something, fuck fuck fuck better get outta here before anyone knows it was me" like accumulation of liquid.

http://i.imgur.com/RPQc0qA.png
http://i.imgur.com/74WtFxJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/IX34qVC.png
http://i.imgur.com/fAYqAW3.png
 
Looks nothing like ethanol, soldering flux, or whatever it is that leaks from bad capacitors(dialectric?). Given the location it seems like it could be any of those things anyways.

Would it make sense for someone to have spilled soapy water on computer? Near the kitchen, basement, etc#?
 
Basement. There is a shampooer near the desk. The tube is sometimes unwieldy to the unexperienced. This is my guess. And considering this happened before I got home and this is now almost 3 hours later and the liquid is still there....I would wager water not dialectric acid nor ethanol (should would have evaporated nearly instantly) and I have tins and tins of flux. This ain't flux. Well, here's to hoping that GPU is still good. And maybe hopefully the CPU. and maybe hopefully the drives and PSU...fuckall the mobo and case.

Thanks for the replies there stud.
 
xjmtx said:
Basement. There is a shampooer near the desk. The tube is sometimes unwieldy to the unexperienced. This is my guess. And considering this happened before I got home and this is now almost 3 hours later and the liquid is still there....I would wager water not dialectric acid nor ethanol (should would have evaporated nearly instantly) and I have tins and tins of flux. This ain't flux. Well, here's to hoping that GPU is still good. And maybe hopefully the CPU. and maybe hopefully the drives and PSU...fuckall the mobo and case.

Thanks for the replies there stud.
Click to expand...

Glad to have helped you work through it yourself. Best of luck on ensuring that nothing else went with the motherboard.
 
Well. This is now a classic case of "Not Me" did it. If I ever catch this "Not Me" character...I swear, I swear, I swear.
 
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