Vodka/water entered system how to save Help!

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dpoverlord

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 18, 2004
Messages
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I came home today and it looks like someone from my flatmates "get together " spilled a vodka soda into my beast of a system.

I need help fixing it as I can't afford buying a new setup (was waiting for skylake). Flatmate said he would pay for damages but system is worth over 6to10 grand I think... Doubt he'll Pay? (4 u3014 monitors / Xeon x5660 +gigabyte x58/ 12 lgbram / tri sli titans /2 Samsung pro 840 512gb, 3 wd red 3tb 1 Seagate 3tb, lots of fans, NZXT controller, blue ray, g2 1300 watt

I took photos but it looks like water went down the back into the psu / motherboard area. The bottom is very damp. I took everything apart except the cpu / mobo. What should I do right now? Blow fans onto everything? Put the hard drives in rice?

What should I do about the motherboard / cpu? I right now have the psu and gpu on RMA with EVGA. They were very understanding and said they would do a courtesy on the Titans/PSU.

The flatmate said he would pay for the damages, but if anyone of you are like me I was to livid to have a conversation. I am a bit upset so staying the facts.

The other issue is the APC works. But none of the 4 u3014 dell monitors will turn on. Is it possible the Liquid shorted the GPU which shorted the monitors?

Please help.

EDIT: I put all the hard drives into rice to be safe. Curious though how do I deal with getting all the rice clear and out so they don't stay lodged in?
System Before:
http://imgur.com/a/j4rt4

Now with damage + laptop (flatmate is letting me use his lenovo):
http://imgur.com/a/GOaoS

EDIT: Sidenote, I'm open to suggestions on a good replacement if I cant get all 4 working.

Over a year ago, I was the guinea pig on these, with NCX's help(he didnt want me to get these which had great reasons but his help was the best thing I ever had). For me the main selling was point was breaking 30". I started with 1 then 2 then 3 and finally 4. Everything he mentioned in terms of ghosting / side angles was true. But as you can see from above I really fell in love with the setup. A new Dell U3014 costs 4500-6 Grand.
If I were to change, I could settle for 3 but I like 4/5 since it works well for movies. Or if I could find one massive 50/60" (thats not happening ). Regardless I'd like something better. The ROG is nice but for portrait and angles + less than 28" I am not sure it would be the right choice also with the 144hz Gsync issues.

Come March I had planned to go Titan 2


EDIT3;

EDITING OCN Messed this up give me a few
Dp... what are you building?
Click to expand...

So this is what I bought so far since I couldnt wait any longer and my roommate needed to pay me back:

PSU: EVGA G2-1300
Mobo: Rampage Extreme X99
CPU: Intel 5930k
GPU: 1-3way EVGA Titan SLI (gonna try to sell old ones to get the new Titan)
Cooler: Purchased the Kraken but curious to see if my thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme will work. Also curious where I would put the fan for the Kraken (See case) I have a lot of 120mm fans
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 32GB(4x8gb) BLS4K8G4D240FSA 16-16-16-39 @1.2v 2400mhz seems timings are bad no?

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Hard Drive Main: 1 Samsung Pro 850 1TB or 2 Samsung Pro 840 512gb (Thoughts? If I use 2 840 pro 512 should I raid 0? Love your input)
Hard DriveB: x3 WD Red 4TB NAS drive
Hard DriveC Seagate Barracude 3TB ST3000DM001

Monitor Before: 4 way Dell U3014 30" Now: 2 30" but may return one and keep one and switch out to a Large format.... Thoughts? I really would like something better than the U3014 maybe the new OLED 65"
SOUND: Creative Omni + AKG 65 annies is this USB AIO solution better than the onboard???
Backup PowerAPC Backup-UPC 1500g

Q] CPU Cooling... if my xeon / 930 could o/c like mad (4.67ghz / 4.4ghz) should I really use this Kraken. If so look at my case below confused on where I would put it...

Case Photo links:
http://imgur.com/a/j4rt4

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Final Case layout on old mobo Look at bottom right Photo.
I could put the Kraken 120mm on top or maybe where blu-ray drive is and move that down or where the old floppy port is
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Peripherals: Razer Deathadder / Logitech Z523 / Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 / Logitech C920 webcam

Q2] Since '99 I have resorted to ergo keyboards due to my wrist anyone use anything better than the 4000 above? Curious with gaming / etc with any other keyboard my wrists kill me
So thats the system, I am really keen on returning either this ram if I can find a better deal for ram thats not $429. Microcenter had Corsair but that ram was 4 dimms @ 4GB which makes no sense... Who wants 8 dimms to make 32GB!? Their dominator was $499 for 16gb. I am open to G skill too as they always did me right
 
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Good gawd, good luck over all, hope it comes through.

In the past when I had to put phones and such in rice due to liquid abuses, I always put them inside of stockings (Women's hose) first. That would keep the parts clean from the rice particulates, while still allowing the drying effect to happen from the rice. Worked pretty good.

EDIT - Cheese cloth or any very small hole porous type cloth should work well here too, to separate the electronics form the rice particles.
 
I doubt the gpu took the monitors, but if it caused a short on the electrical and they were all plugged into the same power strip/breaker...maybe.

I'm really surprised they're RMA'ing that much $ in "user" damage. Pretty awesome (I will definitely get more evga stuff now).
CPU's are pretty durable, I think they will most likely be fine. And since at that point you're only out a mobo, have your roommate buy one of those (he owes you something out of the deal right? ;) )

Of course, no guarantees on the cpu's, but I think it's worth trying without buying new ones first.
 
Do you have insurance of some sorts? It might be covered under damages.

Something to look at...

If you want to clean the stuff, and you have a blow dryer, you should be able to clean everything off with warm water, and blow drying it later, then sticking it in rice for a few days.
 
Get a bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol and a brush. Work the alcohol into the PCBs with the brush and used compressed air to push the liquid off the boards. Dried sugar on PCBs is no good but can get removed with a brush and isopropyl alcohol.
 
CaribouNuggets said:
Get a bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol and a brush. Work the alcohol into the PCBs with the brush and used compressed air to push the liquid off the boards. Dried sugar on PCBs is no good but can get removed with a brush and isopropyl alcohol.
Click to expand...

^^ Do this for sure. I used this when someone accidentally spilled soda onto a board. Clean it good with this and it should still work. Good luck. Try to salvage as much as possible and hit your guy up for whatever is toast.
 
Hey guys feel like a girl but want to say I appreciate the support.

Thanks, we'll see about his 'word' (what would you guys charge though?). The irony, I've been holding back on upgrading. I was waiting for Skylake guess that's down the tubes.

I have the WD Red and SSD's enclosed with rice and Sealed. Realized though, how in the world am I'm going to get the rice out of the small crevices.

Motherboard is out of the case with cpu attached any ideas?
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i had a cpu water cooler fitted which split and my computer popped and shut down.only thing which was damaged was the mother board and the split cooler.even though the coolent was everywhere.just dried the gpu, cpu, and ram on the radiater,purchased a new board and i was ready to go.
Click to expand...

it's just nuts Btw seems it was vodka tonic which is worse since to tonic is sugary based. What are your thoughts on the photos I'm going to home Depot and buy everything I need.
 
Good luck, man. Exactly how much of the drink was spilled? Affect (as you describe it) seems possibly extensive, damages (after warranty) might be minimal, though.

Also, those pictures are too small to see. Can you post full res someplace?
 
I wouldn't have stuck them in rice before the sugary mixture was rinsed off with alcohol.

I'm not sure how the monitors would have shorted out. I would try plugging them directly into the wall.

Was the machine on when the spill happened? If not, then most everything should be ok unless you tired to power it on after the spill.
 
cyclone3d said:
I wouldn't have stuck them in rice before the sugary mixture was rinsed off with alcohol.

I'm not sure how the monitors would have shorted out. I would try plugging them directly into the wall.

Was the machine on when the spill happened? If not, then most everything should be ok unless you tired to power it on after the spill.
Click to expand...


So the machine was on. I already put all the hard drives in rice. There did not look wet since it's a tower
Ok I made an imgur link as well for easy viewing of progress

http://imgur.com/a/GOaoS

Looking for stain deposits and can't seem to find any yet. I have them airing out and I have a smaller fan blowing on them.
 
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links no worky. well, if you're lucky, the motherboard took nothing out with it (probably the PSU as well).

I'd start with testing the PSU after making sure it's all dry(Short green + black to power on)

Then test mobo + cpu with a cheap videocard.

then 1 titan at a time

then after all is said and done, the HDS.
 
I would go piece-by-piece. Wash one component with alcohol disassembling as much as possible (down to removing heatsinks and unplugging everything) and inspecting everything.

Test each component in another known-good system.

You can even disassemble your monitors and clean them. I'm sure you could find tear-down guides.
 
Ugh not cool. The reality is that you're probably screwed as far as preventing damage goes. If the system was off - then you get all contaminants (sugar) cleaned and then the question is making sure it's absolutely dry. The dielectric material in the circuit board itself can short between traces if it's still wet and then whatever board that happened to is toast. But since it was on - anything like that has probably already happened. So +1 on what others have said. Tear it all apart, clean it up with alcohol, make it as dry as possible, and then test the components one at a time. Not sure what else can be done... Good luck :(
 
+1 for tear it all apart and clean EVERYTHING with isopropyl alcohol. I highly recommend investing in a decent microfiber cleaning cloth for this job because you want something that won't leave lint. You want to closely inspect all parts and clean all surfaces with the alcohol (whether it looks like it is dirty or not, better safe than sorry). Allow to dry for at least 24 hours, don't really need a fan blowing on it, but it is important that nothing is plugged in. Disassembling means you are removing video cards from motherboard, cpu, the whole shebang.

If you have spare parts you can try testing things piece meal.

Do the monitors power on if the only cable connected to them is power, and the power cable is plugged directly into the wall?
 
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Erasmus354 said:
+1 for tear it all apart and clean EVERYTHING with isopropyl alcohol. I highly recommend investing in a decent microfiber cleaning cloth for this job because you want something that won't leave lint. You want to closely inspect all parts and clean all surfaces with the alcohol (whether it looks like it is dirty or not, better safe than sorry). Allow to dry for at least 24 hours, don't really need a fan blowing on it, but it is important that nothing is plugged in. Disassembling means you are removing video cards from motherboard, cpu, the whole shebang.

If you have spare parts you can try testing things piece meal.

Do the monitors power on if the only cable connected to them is power, and the power cable is plugged directly into the wall?
Click to expand...


Thanks for the input, I will get a microfiber cloth like I have for my glasses. I will head to Home depot and check for Isopropl Alcy. I dont want to wash it I will just dab the areas that look like they need dabbing. Should I take the CPU off??? I have a light fan as seen in the imgur photos blowing on it
http://imgur.com/a/GOaoS

All Hard drives are dunked in Rice, laptop is in a Fedex back with Rice. Case is near my heater with everything out of it drying.

P.S. He did say he would pay for everything. So far I have WD sending me 3 4 TB to replace the 3 Red 3TB
Seagate is sending me a brand new drive to replace under warranty (seems people are being nice to me today)
EVGA is sending a new PSU / Titan
 
dpoverlord said:
Thanks for the input, I will get a microfiber cloth like I have for my glasses. I will head to Home depot and check for Isopropl Alcy. I dont want to wash it I will just dab the areas that look like they need dabbing. Should I take the CPU off??? I have a light fan as seen in the imgur photos blowing on it
http://imgur.com/a/GOaoS

All Hard drives are dunked in Rice, laptop is in a Fedex back with Rice. Case is near my heater with everything out of it drying.

P.S. He did say he would pay for everything. So far I have WD sending me 3 4 TB to replace the 3 Red 3TB
Seagate is sending me a brand new drive to replace under warranty (seems people are being nice to me today)
EVGA is sending a new PSU / Titan
Click to expand...


Isopropyl alcohol is typically sold in any pharmacy (CVS, Walgreens, etc..). Not sure where you would find it in Home Depot. You want to get the 90/91% instead of the 75%. I would highly recommend cleaning everything with it instead of only what looks like needs it.

Yes you should definitely remove the CPU. The reason you are taking everything out is there is a chance that liquid has gotten into connectors. It will not evaporate while stuff is plugged in because there is very little airflow or surface area for it to evaporate. So you are removing everything to open it all up and give you a chance to clean things.
 
dpoverlord said:
I came home today and it looks like someone from my flatmates "get together " spilled a vodka soda into my beast of a system.

I need help fixing it as I can't afford buying a new setup (was waiting for skylake). Flatmate said he would pay for damages but system is worth over 6to10 grand I think... Doubt he'll Pay? (4 u3014 monitors / Xeon x5660 +gigabyte x58/ 12 lgbram / tri sli titans /2 Samsung pro 840 512gb, 3 wd red 3tb 1 Seagate 3tb, lots of fans, NZXT controller, blue ray, g2 1300 watt

I took photos but it looks like water went down the back into the psu / motherboard area. The bottom is very damp. I took everything apart except the cpu / mobo. What should I do right now? Blow fans onto everything? Put the hard drives in rice?

What should I do about the motherboard / cpu? I right now have the psu and gpu on RMA with EVGA. They were very understanding and said they would do a courtesy on the Titans/PSU.

The flatmate said he would pay for the damages, but if anyone of you are like me I was to livid to have a conversation. I am a bit upset so staying the facts.

The other issue is the APC works. But none of the 4 u3014 dell monitors will turn on. Is it possible the Liquid shorted the GPU which shorted the monitors?

Please help.

EDIT: I put all the hard drives into rice to be safe. Curious though how do I deal with getting all the rice clear and out so they don't stay lodged in?
Click to expand...

While this is tragic, unless this was a massive amount of liquid, I think you are going overboard with what needs to be replaced.

From the sounds of it, the vodka/tonic spilled down the back. Anything in the front (disc drives, hard drives, etc) will most likely be fine. You are definitely most likely out a motherboard and PSU.

I can see (nor do I know of) no situation in which the monitors wouldn't work, unless the vodka/tonic got on a power strip, and a surge took them out. Otherwise, they should be completely fine, and you asking your roommate to pay for those is definitely a bit much.

I'm definitely surprised that the various companies are sending you RMA's, especially WD and Seagate.
 
Kelvarr said:
While this is tragic, unless this was a massive amount of liquid, I think you are going overboard with what needs to be replaced.

From the sounds of it, the vodka/tonic spilled down the back. Anything in the front (disc drives, hard drives, etc) will most likely be fine. You are definitely most likely out a motherboard and PSU.

I can see (nor do I know of) no situation in which the monitors wouldn't work, unless the vodka/tonic got on a power strip, and a surge took them out. Otherwise, they should be completely fine, and you asking your roommate to pay for those is definitely a bit much.

I'm definitely surprised that the various companies are sending you RMA's, especially WD and Seagate.
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Hey I appreciate the response & you taking the time. I wrote up, about the rest, but figure this, if you had a Dream Machine you only dreamed about. You finally saved your money, bought the monitors, Tri SLI titans,with everything else costing you over ten grand. Then you had a stellar NYE, came back to finding your dream machine decimated. As I said, I am trying to fix everything keeping costs minimal. If I was a dick I would just blanket say pay everything what I paid for and leave it at that.
System Before:
http://imgur.com/a/j4rt4

Now with damage + laptop (flatmate is letting me use his lenovo):
http://imgur.com/a/GOaoS

To the warranty, I was up front with all the vendors and I also have been using them for years so maybe them seeing me in the system & past purchases helped. Either way I am really happy they are so understanding.

Alcohol wise, I agree I think the Hard drives will be fine with water damage, but what about the electrical short that had to of occurred when it was fried? Should I be worried? Also what are your thoughts on the fans. Guess I wont know until the new PSU comes in.
Erasmus354 said:
Isopropyl alcohol is typically sold in any pharmacy (CVS, Walgreens, etc..). Not sure where you would find it in Home Depot. You want to get the 90/91% instead of the 75%. I would highly recommend cleaning everything with it instead of only what looks like needs it.

Yes you should definitely remove the CPU. The reason you are taking everything out is there is a chance that liquid has gotten into connectors. It will not evaporate while stuff is plugged in because there is very little airflow or surface area for it to evaporate. So you are removing everything to open it all up and give you a chance to clean things.
Click to expand...
Heading to buy this now, I assume that the alcohol being alcohol will dry quickly. But its not a problem to put that much on it?
 
dpoverlord said:
Hey I appreciate the response & you taking the time. I wrote up, about the rest, but figure this, if you had a Dream Machine you only dreamed about. You finally saved your money, bought the monitors, Tri SLI titans,with everything else costing you over ten grand. Then you had a stellar NYE, came back to finding your dream machine decimated. As I said, I am trying to fix everything keeping costs minimal. If I was a dick I would just blanket say pay everything what I paid for and leave it at that.
System Before:
http://imgur.com/a/j4rt4

Now with damage + laptop (flatmate is letting me use his lenovo):
http://imgur.com/a/GOaoS

To the warranty, I was up front with all the vendors and I also have been using them for years so maybe them seeing me in the system & past purchases helped. Either way I am really happy they are so understanding.

Alcohol wise, I agree I think the Hard drives will be fine with water damage, but what about the electrical short that had to of occurred when it was fried? Should I be worried? Also what are your thoughts on the fans. Guess I wont know until the new PSU comes in.

Heading to buy this now, I assume that the alcohol being alcohol will dry quickly. But its not a problem to put that much on it?
Click to expand...


Oh, I get it. I guess I am failing to see any damage on/to the monitors. Have you tried each of them separately hooked up to a different machine? Hook each up with the VGA and power cables. If that works, then migrate on to the USB hub thing. I will admit though, I don't even understand how they are hooked up in the first place.

Hard drives, same thing. Assuming you didn't have them set up in a RAID or anything that requires all of them to be together, hook them up individually to another machine and test each one out.

The alcohol should evaporate and not leave anything behind, so AFAIK, you shouldn't have a problem slathering it on. Just make sure to give plenty of time for it to evaporate...overnight or a day or two.

Also, I am having problems depicting where the spill occurred. Can you elaborate on that a bit?
 
Kelvarr said:
Oh, I get it. I guess I am failing to see any damage on/to the monitors. Have you tried each of them separately hooked up to a different machine? Hook each up with the VGA and power cables. If that works, then migrate on to the USB hub thing. I will admit though, I don't even understand how they are hooked up in the first place.

Hard drives, same thing. Assuming you didn't have them set up in a RAID or anything that requires all of them to be together, hook them up individually to another machine and test each one out.

The alcohol should evaporate and not leave anything behind, so AFAIK, you shouldn't have a problem slathering it on. Just make sure to give plenty of time for it to evaporate...overnight or a day or two.

Also, I am having problems depicting where the spill occurred. Can you elaborate on that a bit?
Click to expand...

Saw the flatmate and he was frazzled since he said he didnt see anyone near there... meanwhile it didnt happen on its own, I just want to get the bills and settle this out smooth and fast, so I dont have issues with payment.

From what I saw, there were 3-4 melted round ice cubes around the case. The side panel facing the Mobo had water which traveled down to the bottom of the case. The I/O portion of the rear of the case was also slick with liquid. The side panel with my window had a lot of water on the bottom of the case cover which soaked into my sticky placemat seen in this photo:
See this photo:


Monitor wise they were not damp but there was some liquid on the table. The APC unit so far seems fine.
 
Kelvarr said:
While this is tragic, unless this was a massive amount of liquid, I think you are going overboard with what needs to be replaced.

From the sounds of it, the vodka/tonic spilled down the back. Anything in the front (disc drives, hard drives, etc) will most likely be fine. You are definitely most likely out a motherboard and PSU.

I can see (nor do I know of) no situation in which the monitors wouldn't work, unless the vodka/tonic got on a power strip, and a surge took them out. Otherwise, they should be completely fine, and you asking your roommate to pay for those is definitely a bit much.

I'm definitely surprised that the various companies are sending you RMA's, especially WD and Seagate.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I don't see a spill causing complete catastrophic damage unless it was a direct vertical drop on top of the case into the fans.

Personally I would just hose everything off with isopropyl (literally...hose it). Preheat oven and place components in there. Dunk in rice + put in oven too if you want. Low heat in an over won't damage anything (<200F). This is a common practice for cleaning flux off PCBs.
 
Not sure you guys read what I said. It was not a matter of the liquid hitting the monitors, it hit the rear and bottom of the case which caused everything to short. The monitor still will not turn on. I had everything airing until today and now I will put the Isopropyl on. Do I need to put that much on the motherboard?
 
I have accidentally dumped a can of Pepsi down my Antec 900 once while it was running. I shut it down, and wiped it, and it fired right back up. All this looks overkill to me, or there was underlying problems before the spill.
 
You might be better served making a new build thread in the General Hardware forum.

So have you given up on trying to clean / fix all of your old parts? A lot of them are probably ok...
 
What kind of asshole roommate gets drunk and spills drinks near expensive equipment?
 
jesus dude id be running my loop with the blood of the person who did that. howd you make out?
 
kierwest said:
What kind of asshole roommate gets drunk and spills drinks near expensive equipment?
Click to expand...

MrGuvernment said:
drunk key word...
Click to expand...

babelmh13 said:
jesus dude id be running my loop with the blood of the person who did that. howd you make out?
Click to expand...

I deserve an update as of now...

Kierwest.... It was not even him it actually was a combo of his girl / her gf
MrGuvernment... So true
Babelmh13 In the same boat.

Right now he paid fro the laptop, and said he would get me some by the end of the week. Personally I have not waited on him as I need something now, CC is at about 8grand in charges with Cross RMA purchases and everything... Crossing my fingers on EVGA / WD / Seagate. I told them the issue so its really up to them if they want to honor the warranty but all I can say is WoW to their customer service. X58 wise, its in a shop seeing if they can breathe life into it and the Xeon. If so who knows it may work again. If thats the case, I will try it out and stress test it. If it works, full disclosure and sell it for what I can get to offset my purchase until I get some $$ from him.
However, the Monitors are a totally different story.

Right now I went and purchased a GIgabyte Rampage V Extreme, memory, Titan, 5930K.cooling kits.

Having more of an issue now figuring out the new system and how to "jimmy" the AIO into this system or how to get a good cooler which will clear the case with my 2 90mm fans in. Made another thread if you want to chime in :cool: Appreciate the support been a ride.
 
Sounds like you are making strides. I would honestly just hand him lists of things off the internet that you want and tell him to buy them. But, I understand the need for the machine. If he doesn't pay, take his shit.
 
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