Possibel smoke damage -- considerations for electronics?

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venm11

2[H]4U
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Oct 6, 2004
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Hi--
we had a fire last week which filled up the house with dense grey smoke. It left a powdery residue all over everything. My particular concern is with computers and electronics -- what should I be worried about here?

Besides blowing out with air, what else can I do?

Edit: PossiBLe
 
If it can be disassembled and cleaned, do so. Vacuum the rest as good as you can.
 
I know a guy who cleans this kind of stuff for a living (along with crime scenes :eek:). He uses Simple Green to clean, rinse with distilled water, and allow to dry THOROUGHLY.
 
I use a dehumidifier in a small closed room to dry electronics.
Works wonderfully if you circulate the air around anything that got wet.
 
omfg do not vaccumm yoru electronics.......

Blow with aircan only. You will hear people say alot oh I do it all the time. Damaging componets doesn't mean they will die instantly in a puff of smoke. you could damage them
then 6 months later your sound gets flaky are your oc suddenly randomly reboots etc...

Some people go on as far as to say hey i do it all the time. Which IMOP probably works
becasue there vaccum itself may not build static electricty like others but as a genral rule
do not do it your vacuum may kill it..

I Had a freind who had a fire that melted the front of his case and it worked fine just smelt liek a dead decaying cigarette for about 2 months.
take it apart and wipe everthing metal down with mean green like the other guy said let it dry then the actual componets blow off with an air compressor are a blow can.
then wait...
 
Thanks for your feedback, folks.

What is this simple green/mean green stuff? I swear I've seen it in bike shops as a degreaser??
 
Was the computer on during the fire, sucking smoke inside the computer via the cooling fans?

If the computer wasn't on during the fire I'd be surprised if you really have to do much cleaning on the inside.
 
Thats the stuff smells kinda like licorice are something in that vicinty dark green. Well anyway i use it to clean off toner and scuff marks from plastic rubbing plastic on copy machines.
 
GotNoRice said:
Was the computer on during the fire, sucking smoke inside the computer via the cooling fans?

If the computer wasn't on during the fire I'd be surprised if you really have to do much cleaning on the inside.
Click to expand...

The side panels were off on 2 PCs, and I think my PS3 was running (which can't easily be opened). Some genius put a whole bunch of fans on, too, to "clear" the smoke.
 
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