Help with Leak

C

convexion

Gawd
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Messages
947
:mad: Okay, I'm pissed. I leak tested my rig for over 24 hours and there was no apparent problem. I guess one of the hoses loosened just enough when I moved the case into my other room.


Anyway, I woke up this morning to notice my t-line was about 6 inches lower than it was the day before. Immediately turned off the computer (which was running fine btw) and brought it out to look at it. The leak was coping from the damn tygon tubing on my storm block. I immediately removed all the tubing and replaced it with 7/16 ID tubing but then noticed just how much liquid leaked out... Argh.

Long story short, the liquid poured onto my northbridge heatsink (680i mobo) and INTO my PCI-X port. It's pretty gunked up in there now. I've been using 99% alcohol to clean it up along with a hair dryer which has worked well for everything except the PCI-X port. Any tips on how to go about cleaning it?
 
All i can say is to keep doing what your doing, i'm not an expert on watercooling, but that is all i can say.
 
No, I use the cool setting on the hairdryer. But really alcohol doesn't burn long enough to ever cause problems anyway unless it's in large amounts.

Anyway, one of the things I forgot to mention is that it pretty much already has evaporated out but left behind my coolant which is now a dried syrupy kind of substance. It's swiftech HydrX, the first time I've ever used it.
 
yikes

this is why i only use 7/16ths and the boiling water method... plus i switched to pc-ice

good luck
 
Yeah, I knew I shouldn't have used that damn tygon. It's so flimsy in 1/2 ID size. Glad I bought the 7/16 Masterkleer anyway. Just wish I would have used it in the first place.
 
Did it leak from under the barb or from under the hose? I had a similar problem with my apogee, and it was because of barbs that wouldn't go down all the way the first few times. Eventually I gave up, threaded it with a ton of teflon tape and it went in fine.

Also, pull out the cpu if you havent yet. It might have just been me because I ran the system on a bench so motherboard was flat, but water managed to pool in there and corrode away the cpu and motherboards pretty bad. cpu still works great though. Think the motherboard is toast
 
Nah, it was definitely the hose. I've been leak testing this new tubing since last night and not a drop has come out and that's after shaking the case and whacking it and what not to be sure. The real problem now is the clean up. Any ideas on removing the gunk from the PCIE port?
 
convexion said:
Nah, it was definitely the hose. I've been leak testing this new tubing since last night and not a drop has come out and that's after shaking the case and whacking it and what not to be sure. The real problem now is the clean up. Any ideas on removing the gunk from the PCIE port?
Click to expand...

Maybe you could fill it up with alcohol, tape the opening, shake it, turn it upside down, and remove tape. whatever alcohol that comes out should take a lot ofe the gunk with it, and whatever residual alcohol will evaporate within the minute
 
Thanks for the suggestion, but that won't work because the port slot is slightly open at the bottom which would send the fluid flying everywhere. I guess I'll just keep using the alcohol and hope that it gets it all. I was thinking maybe about using toothpicks but wouldn't want any wood to splinter in there. Q-tips are a bitch to work with on a port.

EDIT: Wait, have you ever tried that before? I know the port is slightly open but maybe it is recessed and would work. Thanks for the idea.
 
convexion said:
Thanks for the suggestion, but that won't work because the port slot is slightly open at the bottom which would send the fluid flying everywhere. I guess I'll just keep using the alcohol and hope that it gets it all. I was thinking maybe about using toothpicks but wouldn't want any wood to splinter in there. Q-tips are a bitch to work with on a port.

EDIT: Wait, have you ever tried that before? I know the port is slightly open but maybe it is recessed and would work. Thanks for the idea.
Click to expand...

No I haven't tried, it was just an idea. Maybe if you used tape around the bottom of the port, it'll keep most of the alcohol in. I'd imagine some leakage would be unavoidable but it's alcohol which evaporates easily. Maybe it would keep enough in to allow you to dislodge most of the stuff
 
Is the slot big enough to fir a Q-tip into? If so you could wet the tip of one with alcohol and swab it through the slot and wipe out the gunk. I've done it with AGP. PCI, and ISA slots, but I haven't had the pleasure of trying it with a PCIe slot (btw it's PCe or PCI-E, not PCI-X. PCI-X is a whole other thing :) ).
 
Yeah, thanks it's PCI-E. I get confused with all these new slots. Hell, I still remember ISA. Anyway, yeah what I've been doing is dipping the q-tip in alcohol and then twisting it down into a spear head shape. Then I swab under the slot and that worked pretty well for the junk that was under the slot.

My problem is that I still have some of that stuck in the pin holes for lack of a better word. Here is a picture to show what I'm talking about.

nvgunk.jpg


This is a picture from before I started cleaning but you can see where the Hydrx is trapped in those small holes on either side of the top of the slot. Tried a toothpick without much luck.
 
Probably going to get a bit messy with this one, but just throwing out ideas to help you. Maybe compressed air and alcohol. Like if you did pour alcohol in there and get it everywhere, but then used a can of compressed air to see if you could blow the shit around and hopefully out.
 
Maybe a WaterPik loaded with alcohol would work? I don't think one would have so much force to dislodge any SMD's but ought to be enough to rinse out the pin holes.
 
Someone over at madshrimps (I think) had a similar spill with MCT-5 that he managed to clean up pretty well. I cant remember what he did to clean out the vid card slot though, sorry :(

So did anything die in the spill?
 
I'd suggest alcohol and a soft toothbrush.

I've done it before with coolant (propylene glycol), UV dye & distilled water in a PCI slot when I had a leak.
 
First off let em say i've been there and feel your pain... leaks suck :mad:
I cannot believe nobody has suggested the old toothbrush yet. It is my best friend when trying to de-gunk a mobo that has gotten a coolant bath. The cheapest ones seem to work the best and i get the stiffest bristles i can find. you can pick up a bunch at walgreens or whatever for quite cheap. dip it in some alcohol and brush the broblem away. it gets down in slots nicely.
guess i need to type faster... jerry beat me.
 
That is none too good I must say. The first time I installed my water cooling the tube on my cpu block popped off spilling my Primochill Ice all over my board, into ram and pci-e ports.
Long story short, the motherboard was ruined, even though it was non-conductive fluid. Icould never get all of the coolant out, thus the ram and video card could not make good contact.

The solution (no pun intended): are you using coolant or distilled water.
Here are the listed steps for removing primochill ice coolant:

Items you need for clean up

1. 2-3 clean and dry hand towels
2. Canned air or air compressor access
3. 6-10 Q-tip's
4. Few ounces of 99.995% Isopropyl Alcohol, NOT
rubbing alcohol

Lets start the clean up.

* Turn System Off immediately and unplug PSU from outlet
* Inspect entire system for additional leaks or spills, if there is one there might be more
* Find the source(s) and wrap with towel for time being.
* Dry blotch the area where the leak or spill occurred, if it leaked on a PCI card, remove the card at this time.
* After drying the area were the leak happened, let it air dry of 20 minutes or help it along the way with some canned air or air compressor.
* Inspect the area for white calcium build up or any discoloration.
This area may need to be cleaned a little more aggressively.
* Now lets get a couple Q-tips and dip them in Isopropyl Alcohol and
apply to area that needs to be cleaned. Be careful around solider
connections that you do not push to hard.
* The Isopropyl Alcohol will dry very fast. So once it has dried set
it aside for ten minutes.
* Start the cleanup in the system where the leaks are. Found out the reason for leak and repair before installing parts or turning
system back on.
* Once system is inspected and repair reinstall cards or part.
* Your should be in the clear now. Please keep an eye on the loop/system for a couple days after and continue to do weekly."

Good Luck my fellow leaker.
 
Man this is really actually giving me an idea for a homemade case, where most of the cooling stuff sits on the bottom, and the motherboard is situatied upside down at the top. Maybe even add hydraulics so it can swing open to do stuff.
 
Thanks but actually the tooth brush with some alcohol and the hair dryer is working well! Thanks again for that tip guys. You have to take your time doing it and really inspect it but it's none too difficult. A little more cleaning around the area and it will be ready to go.
 
Ziddey, that sounds like a really good idea. I think I might just do the same. I'm thinking maybe of a small square shaped box to hold the motherboard and drives with the motherboard mounted upside down with some room on the bottom just in case there is a leak and use another box for the cooling equipment. Man, now you've got me wanting to draw up some plans.
 
Just something else to add...

If your coolant was UV reactive, power up the blacklights without powering up your system and inspect your slots and between the chip pins to ensure that all residue is gone. If you see some glowing between chip pins and in the slots, continue with the cleaning. This is the beauty with UV reactive coolant, easy to spot leaks with. ;)

If your coolant is not UV reactive, be thorough with your cleaning. Regardless if your coolant is UV reactive or not, do not power on the machine until you are 100% sure you have cleaned all of it off.

Your other option is purchasing a coolant that is non-conductive, but you'd have to pretty much sterilize your tubes, blocks, fittings, etc as impurities will make non-conductive products conductive (resistance and capacitive conductivity).

Good luck with the cleaning. :)

Convexion & Ziddey, As far as your plan on moving the cooling stuff elsewhere, just remember that you still have fitting on the waterblocks, but if you run your tubes in a fashion which coolant will run down them like a drip line, and have a drip loop in a safe location (back into the resivor) you might be onto something interesting. You could probably also mold or shap a drip pan below your waterblocks and any other area where a fitting is in close proximity of a board. This will allow any drips to drip into the drip pan and run safely to the bottom of the case.

Another option is spraying down all potential problem spots on your board with silicone conformal coating.
 
Yeah, sealant wouldn't be a bad idea either but it seems to be really secure using 7/16 ID tubing. I shook the hell out of the case and rotated it all around without any issues. In the future I'm only going to be using 7/16, that's for sure.

Well I've been cleaning it on and off overnight but still have the slightest bit of residual gunk but nothing that would interfere with the port I hope. It's hard to see every little part but what I can see looks good.

Anyway what I did was use the toothbrush with alcohol and then use one of those syringes you can buy at walgreens for medication (not a needle syringe). The syringe is made for babies and has a smoothed, rounded point of entry. Also comes with a siphoning cap that you can use to attach to a bottle of alcohol and suck out the fluid. Worked pretty well for getting into the spaces I couldn't easily reach with the brush.

Once I got the coolant to flow out of the port or anywhere else that wasn't accessible (like capacitors) I mopped it up using a q-tip. Then after waiting for about 30 minutes I used a hairdryer (on high/cool setting) to make sure it was dry.

It's not perfect but it worked a lot better than what I was doing. Hate to think of where I'd be if I just kept using the q-tips alone. Thanks for the tips everyone.
 
convexion said:
Ziddey, that sounds like a really good idea. I think I might just do the same. I'm thinking maybe of a small square shaped box to hold the motherboard and drives with the motherboard mounted upside down with some room on the bottom just in case there is a leak and use another box for the cooling equipment. Man, now you've got me wanting to draw up some plans.
Click to expand...

Haha yeah I've always wanted to make a custom case, where access to everything would be extremely easy. With my current case, everything fits in "just right", but to get to most things requries near complete dissembly of everything else. Kind of like working on a poorly engineered car
 
Just a quick update. I managed to get the rest of the crap out using some small, thin paint brushes dipped in alcohol and a vacuum to suck out the fluid in the port. Worked perfectly and I'm now typing this from my previously drenched and corroded system!
 
ouch man, that totally sucks.

first thing you need to do: just how much electrical resistance does this stuff offer? find out everything about its electrical properties. tap water has an aproxmiate resistance of 2.5e5Ω/m. That, believe it or not, is often enough to provide more resistance then the regular path (ie the mobo circuitry) of the electrons. Using this theory, in worst case scenario, the stuff is highly conductive, if you dilute it with pure clean water, then let it dry, you should up the resistance by enough to let it function normally.

anywho, if you boot, seems to me theres no real reason for SPP to ping the slots like that, furthermore from the pics it doesnt look like the stuff is gonna alow any current to jump pins. I just suggest avoiding that socket, the lower 16X slot is the same as the top one, you might just wanna use that one.

umm, to the extreme, you might try forcefully removing the plastic mechanical socket (ie YANK), and cleaning it. im not exactly sure on how the contacts are threaded through it but, it might not be so bad... and then having a few hours at saudering it back on.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
ouch man, that totally sucks.

first thing you need to do: just how much electrical resistance does this stuff offer? find out everything about its electrical properties. tap water has an aproxmiate resistance of 2.5e5Ω/m. That, believe it or not, is often enough to provide more resistance then the regular path (ie the mobo circuitry) of the electrons. Using this theory, in worst case scenario, the stuff is highly conductive, if you dilute it with pure clean water, then let it dry, you should up the resistance by enough to let it function normally.

anywho, if you boot, seems to me theres no real reason for SPP to ping the slots like that, furthermore from the pics it doesnt look like the stuff is gonna alow any current to jump pins. I just suggest avoiding that socket, the lower 16X slot is the same as the top one, you might just wanna use that one.

umm, to the extreme, you might try forcefully removing the plastic mechanical socket (ie YANK), and cleaning it. im not exactly sure on how the contacts are threaded through it but, it might not be so bad... and then having a few hours at saudering it back on.
Click to expand...

hehe read the post above yours
 
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