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Puddles, how do I clean?

E

Ebernanut

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 15, 2010
Messages
1,926
So my coolit CPU cooler decided to give the rest of my PC a bath and I'm wondering how I should clean my GPU and PSU.

This was actually a warrantee replacement for another that leaked, last the they had me wash my mobo in distilled water and let it dry for several days. This time it drenched my GPU and I got at least a little in my PSU(evga gold 750. I can see one drop on a fanblade, it's wet along the edge of the fan opening for about an inch, and it had a puddle underneath it.

I'm hoping to not take as long this time, it would suck to be down for long and the only thing that's fairly new is the PSU. I'm not real comfortable poking around in my PSU but I was thinking about taking the cover off to see if it's just a little on the case, is this a bad idea if I'm not poking around at the innards?

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about trying to clean the GPU? I don't have any thermal compound and I'm not sure what I can find around here, any suggestions of what to look for? I'm assuming nonconductive would be best.

Sorry for asking instead of doing more searching, I'm on a tiny phone that sucks for web stuff(I already had one post eaten, or this is a partial double post, lol).

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
what I do, get 'em in the kitchen sink, hot soapy water, rinse really well and let them bake in the sun for a day, never had any problem
 
jojo69 said:
what I do, get 'em in the kitchen sink, hot soapy water, rinse really well and let them bake in the sun for a day, never had any problem
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I think I'm going to use the alcohol idea for cleaning.

I got in and took a closer look in both with a flashlight and it doesn't look as bad as I thought for the GPU. I think it just got on the back side under the cover, I think I might just take the backplate cover off. Though I am a little concerned that it might have leaked past the holes for the backplate(GPU bracket).

The PSU looks like it has a little on an evga label under the fan, this a little troubling because I think it's the cover for the coil thing that builds up a charge but I don't it even made it to the edge of the cover. I think I might contact evga before cracking the case open and voiding the warranty.

Sorry for any formatting issues, I hate posting from mobile.
 
jojo69 said:
what I do, get 'em in the kitchen sink, hot soapy water, rinse really well and let them bake in the sun for a day, never had any problem
Click to expand...

Isn't there some risk that the sun's UV rays could damage traces on printed circuit boards?
 
Wash everything in kitchen sink with hot soapy water, rinse, shake dry, rinse with alcohol (hopefully absorbing the water), shake dry and blow-dry with compressor, vacuum cleaner, hair dryer and leave in nice warm place with good airflow for a day or so to be sure everything is completely dry.

Sun drying is great. No UV damage unless left in sun for months at a time. ;D
 
I've had a couple of times like yours.

Just disconnect the PSU and let it sit for a couple of days to let the water dry.

Sometimes though even a drop in the wrong place is curtains, hopefully that's not the case for yours. one of mine died instantly after getting one freeking drop of wayet down through the fan port!!!

GPU, I'd remove the back plate and run a cool/cold hair dryer or a house fan over the circuit board for a day or two.
Rub any water stains out with alcohol. GPUs generally survive.
 
I find isoprophyl leaves a white residue and doesn't cut the stains as well as soap.

I wade into these threads frequently and get a lot of resistance to the soap and water method. I do understand that it seems counterintuitive. Where I come to it is actually marine equipment. Since the dawn of electronics the prescription to save expensive gear briefly submerged in salt water has been THOROUGH rinsing with fresh water and THOROUGH drying. Modern components are even safer in water than the iron core transformers and wax paper capacitors of yore.

I salvage and repurpose a lot of old computers, I have had many tens of boards in the sink and the only problem I have ever had was getting impatient and reassembling/applying power too soon. Now I force myself to let them dry a full 24 hours, in the sun in summer, on a heat vent or output of another computer in the winter. My favorite solvent for this work is the citrus based LA's totally awesome
 
Thanks again for the help I really do appreciate it, I have limited experience with this sort of thing but every situation is different and I was in a bit of a panic last night and not thinking straight. I threw together and old T-Bird Athlon system so at least I'm not on my phone now.

I have my power supply sitting out in the sun today and I'll do the same tomorrow but it was already looking completely dry by this morning, I don't really want to open it up so I think I'm just going to let it dry and cross my fingers.

I've been searching for info on how to remove the back cover on the GPU to clean under there without removing the whole heatsink but I'm not having much luck, the one guide I found used pictures that are no longer available. It looks like some of the screws go through to the shroud or heatsink, if anyone has any guidance on that please share. I found a local place that claims to have arctic mx-4 in stock so if I can't find any info I might just tear in and pick some mx-4 up tomorrow if I end up taking it all the way apart(assuming I can figure out the clips, lol).

I have no idea what happened when it started leaking, I went to go fix dinner and came back to the PC being off. I didn't smell any burnt electronics when I came back but the coolant smell might have overridden it.

@jojo69: I'm not completely opposed to using water and I'll probably do that for my capture card that was soaked the worst(it looked like I had dunked it in coolant) but I'd rather not take the GPU all the way apart or take the time for it to dry properly and soaking the PSU doesn't sound like a good idea.

Edit: I got the backplate off of the GPU and it looked worse than I thought so I just took it all apart and washed it and the capture card in distilled water because I had it on hand. I hit them real quickly with a blowdryer and I'm going to set them out in the sun tomorrow, hopefully that shop does have the mx-4 in stock.
Sidenote: I can't believe how much thermal paste they used on that GPU.
 
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My wife dropped her phoen in the bucket.. Yea I dried it out and all that but it has never worked correctly after that. After etchign they wash the circuit board to remove flakes and such but then they bake it which dries out anything still on it. Rather hard to get rid of moisture inbetween surface mounted chips. They get behind the solder joints and you need to heat them gently and keep it there for extended time to get rid of the moisture. Even high humidity causes problems so I am not sure what the logic of adding more moisture would be. No matter how much you blow dry and wipe it, some would remain. Thee smaller and more delicate the electronics, the harder to dry it off completely. It might still work but maybe not all functions. Just like a simple remote might work after cleaning it off the fruit juice but I have found they are not as good as before the juice got onto the keypad no matter how much I cleaned it..
 
@ AlienTech, Was your on on when it was dropped into the bucket?

Generally getting electronics wet when they have no power .. including any caps they may have being discharged .. and then drying them well do no damage.

Also, unless rinsed with distilled water or pure alcohol, any residue left may conduct current and cause problems.

Coolant generally has sedatives in it to keep it from absorbing metal from surfaces in the system as well thinks like anti-freeze and pump lubricant additives.

This is why it is advisable to wash components that coolant leaks into.
 
It doesn't sound good for either the OP or AlienTech. Both seem to have had their devices exposed to liquid while powered on. Best of luck to you too but that's a hard recovery in my experience.
 
I realise that there's a decent chance something got fried but I already drenched the MB in this system once about 4-5 years ago and it's been going strong after a rinse in distilled water and drying it out, most of that time I've had a 50% overclock on my CPU(24 hours prime95 stable). The first time it was on and started rebooting constantly and then stopped booting, it also took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on and pull the power.

The coolant itself isn't very conductive, once you get dust and other stuff mixed in it can become conductive though. It also acted like it did last time after the rebooting, the standby light on the MB was on but pushing the power button did absolutely nothing so I'm hoping whatever failsafe kicked in last time and saved it did this time too. I was about due for an upgrade anyway so if anything died it's not a huge deal but I'd like to at least try to save it.
 
I have major humidity problem. Water seems to condense on circuit boards if they are not on all the time. After a few years, they stop working, powered on or not. Well most battery operated devices dont have a on/off switch as such. Its all electronic on/off.. They dont just up and die. They sort of stop functioning properly.. Like my monitor remote wont let me move the arrows left/right but it does move it up/down. I rarely use it since its connected to the computer. Same thing happened to many other remotes. Thats the easiest to check for problems. Things like dvd players or phones, some functions dont work. Same with computer parts. The network card would work at 100MB but not in 1GB modes. My digital cam stopped zooming but the lens zoom still works.. Things like that. My friends experienced similar problems. Some stuff have not been used in years so being powered on helps keep it working as its the ones thats powered off that develop problems. Of course dropping it in the drink is preferable with the power off than on. Although I dont see how 3V can damage anything even with contact with water..
 
3 volt, 1 volt, even 1millivolt when shorting out damages. We are talking about microscopic circuits in modern electronics .. that operated on microscopic amounts of electricity. :D
 
I'm not sure if anyone is interested but I thought I'd post a quick update. I got everything put back together last night(minus the capture card and a few drives) and it seems to be working just fine.

The GPU is running cooler than it ever has which makes me wish I had replaced the paste when I first got it instead of towards the end of its useful lifespan. Now I need to figure out if I want to replace the CPU cooler or just continue to run the stock cooler and plan on doing a full upgrade soon.
 
Good news!
Getting a new cooler now and moving it to new system shouldn't be a problem. Just needs to fit whatever case and motherboard you plan to get when you upgrade.
 
doyll said:
Good news!
Getting a new cooler now and moving it to new system shouldn't be a problem. Just needs to fit whatever case and motherboard you plan to get when you upgrade.
Click to expand...

Thanks, yeah I could move a cooler over to a new system if I get one but I'm limited to a 120x120 rad in my current case and I'm not sure if that's what I'll want.

I just noticed you have almost the same motherboard as I have listed in one pc in your sig(GA UD4P) and the same CPU as me in the other(920) so I'm sure you'll understand when I say these old x58 systems are still great but I've had an itch to do a total system upgrade for a while now.
 
Why are you wanting H2O (AIO) when air is so much better in so many ways? At similar cooling levels air is cheaper, quieter, never leaks and lasts forever .. maybe replace the fan after 5-7 years. Even the best CLCs' are only marginally better cooling than top air but make much more noise doing it. In the future CLCs' will probably beat out air. Their noise levels are starting to come down. But I'm still skeptical of most of their pumps .. and until the patents run out Asetek has little incentive to do more.

Yeah, the X58 are still quite good. Biggest drawback is power consumption .. as well as early sata controllers, some lack USB3, and similar. But processor wise they are definitely still running well up in the pack .. like in the top 40 or 50 best. I would love a new system, but huge cost for what little it would gain keep putting me off too
 
doyll said:
Why are you wanting H2O (AIO) when air is so much better in so many ways? At similar cooling levels air is cheaper, quieter, never leaks and lasts forever .. maybe replace the fan after 5-7 years. Even the best CLCs' are only marginally better cooling than top air but make much more noise doing it. In the future CLCs' will probably beat out air. Their noise levels are starting to come down. But I'm still skeptical of most of their pumps .. and until the patents run out Asetek has little incentive to do more.

Yeah, the X58 are still quite good. Biggest drawback is power consumption .. as well as early sata controllers, some lack USB3, and similar. But processor wise they are definitely still running well up in the pack .. like in the top 40 or 50 best. I would love a new system, but huge cost for what little it would gain keep putting me off too
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply, I saw your post yesterday but then got busy with other stuff.

The main reason I like the AIO setups is that they take up less room in a case, it's much easier to work around a couple hoses than a big tower with sharp fins. I also don't like the stress that heavy tower coolers can put on a motherboard and last time I was in the market the AIOs worked better than all but a couple heavy or bulky air coolers(true 120 copper, cooler master v8), this was several years ago so I'll at least take a look at what's going on with air coolers before I buy something.

It might seem odd that I want another premade loop after having two leak on me but the system still works so the only cost was a little effort and a few days downtime.

Millerboy3 said:
Which particular cooler did you have?
Click to expand...

It was a Coolit Eco ALC that was a warranty replacement for a Coolit Domino that started leaking from the waterblock after about a year. To be fair this one lasted 4-5 years which is about all I would expect from an AIO, I just wish it had failed without leaking.
 
I can understand that .. kinda. :D

But the only cases of motherboard damage are when system is dropped or similar abuse.

If you want a good AIO the Swiftech H220-X and H240-X are well built with quality parts. And if you want to add additional components .. or replace them you can.
 
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