Check your o-rings part 2

a couple months back i had a thread about checking your o-rings as mine were cracked on the outside, a little after a year of use. Of course i did nothing as ive been busy to say the least.

last night i hear, honey your dam computer wont work rite! [get were in going lol ] it keeps shutting the monitor off. I look at the water level and all was good, looked with a flashlight still no problems. Let computer sit for 5 minutes start it up again then clock it down. All is good, well for 10 minutes then it shuts down again.

time to tear it down and find out whats up. as soon as its unplugged and taken out into better light i see the water soaked all through the agp slot as well its wet around the cpu heatsink. its now 10 at night and i have no stinkin o-rings.

Take a quick break from work this morning buy some o-rings and dry things out with a napkin or two reinstall everything and no damage

i think i got pretty lucky and id like to believe that good equipment [abit mb and leadtek 6800U] had something to do with it.

now it will be another year or so before upgrading now


anyway i guess the whole point is dont wait for luck to shine on you things could have been ugly keep an eye on your o-rings

wow, i probably would have crapped my pants if that happened to me! I'm going to have to double check my o-rings before i put my computer back together. I'm glad nothing bad happened to you, imagine how bad it could have been.

Well, the next time I drain everything out I will have to check them. I am kind of surprised as O-rings usually last years in other applications. I'll have to make sure to put some vaseline on them all.

You were very fortunate you didn't fry something, especially turning it on and off like that.

I wonder if there are specific reasons for this... perhaps overtightening, or not adding enough anticorrosive agents to the water (don't see why that would cause the o rings to go bad) though O rings do tend to go bad (dry up and crack, more specifically) when exposed to oxidizing agents, like hydrogen peroxide, for example.

could over checking not be a bad thing too though ? added stress tot he rubber by checking it too many times lol.
i suppose taking the block apart and putting a thin cote of vasaline on the dry side ( as in outside not water compartment) would help it.

there was no over tightening as its how they came from danger den, i used 20-30% dexcool gm coolent [the inside of the o-rings were fine] nothing touched the o-rings exept the air around them. [on a side note im atleast 5c cooler with straight water as i was just testing with the higher amounts of coolant] only the outside part of the o-ring was cracked.

ive been a mechanic for a number of years and this is the fastest o-ring failure ive seen

anyway must of us dont let a rig run for a year or so without inspection or upgrades and the next time you see a cracked o-ring exterior know failure will follow soon after.

I would stay away from vaseline on any of the rubber o-rings. I know that it's not good for scuba gear (o-rings and masks) as the vaseline eats at the rubber. Suntan lotion does the same thing to diving masks. The silicone or rubber becomes tough and cracks, destroying the seal on the face.

*Thought I'd throw my 2 cents out there*

BTW - I happened to lose a great 9800pro due to bad o-rings on my cpu waterblock. The card used to hit over 500MHz core (380MHz stock) with a slight volt mod, now it displays lovely blocks......nothing even remotely distinguishable.