Office Flooded 2 of 3 computers survived

C

Carv

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 5, 2005
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Alright, as the title says, the office that one of my relatives owns got flooded with about 6 inches of water a week ago. All the APC battery back-up's shorted (good thing). 3 computers were on the ground. 2 eMachines and 1 Dell. The Dell is the newest one (bought a little over a year ago). Out of the tree computers the two eMachines (one being very old in a small beige case) survived and turned back on.

The Dell on the other hand, wont turn on. When you open the case you can tell that water got in because two of the screws that hold the motherboard seem to have water damage/residue so it looks as if water maybe reached an inch and a half up the motherboard. When you plug it in, the motherboard light turns on, but no cigar. I'm just wondering, how if the same thing happened to the other two computers, but the Dell being the newest one dies.

The only thing that comes to mind is the harddrive, the dell has the hardrive placed vertically in it's case with the bottom part resting on the bottom of the case, while the eMachines have their hardrive elevated within the case. So naturally water can get insde the Dell's hardrive, screwing things even more, while the eMachine's hardrives are safe from the water due to their elevation within the case.

That's the only thing that comes to mind when analzying the situation, so where I'm going with this thread is if there are any other opinions you guys can give. :)
 
Completely pull apart the machine, clean the parts that were exposed to water with rubbing alcohol, and hope for the best. Was the power supply out of water?
Also, it's possible that the UPS shorting caused the PSU to go, potentially taking other parts with it.
 
Do you know if the UPS's failed before the computers were flooded?

Was it dry when you switched it on?

IF the hard drive was flooded its dead or very soon to be.
 
Vertigo Acid said:
Completely pull apart the machine, clean the parts that were exposed to water with rubbing alcohol, and hope for the best. Was the power supply out of water?
Also, it's possible that the UPS shorting caused the PSU to go, potentially taking other parts with it.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Alcohol bath + Run it naked. (No. you don't get to drink the alcohol, and that does NOT mean streaking :D )

first thing you should try changing after that if it fails, is the PSU... hell, id change the PSU anyways...
 
The PSU was'nt exposed to water, but the UPS was, so that definately shorted itself.

I should try changing the PSU before trying to change the hard drive? I know for a fact the harddrive was in water, but the PSU was'nt. It'll be safe to clean the bottom part of the motherboard with alchohol? It's about an inch of the bottom of the motherboard that looks like it was in water.
 
I would be most worried about retrieving the data off the hard drives at the moment...
then worry about the alchohol bath (Which by the way is your best bet in this situation).
 
To be honest, I could claim those machines under insurance... I would simply try those hard drives of the damaged machines in another working machine, get the data off, and call it a loss.

If it's business data, you shouldn't take the chance and get it to work, perhaps you can use those two working systems in the future, but make sure that you recovered the data off it all
 
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