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wet 3870 is this the end?

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Oc1Kenube

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Ok my swiftech apogee drive sprang a leak and soaked my new 3870 card, as soon as i rralised i took nescessary steps quickly to dry off the card and as a safety measure cleaned off the affected with arcticlean no2.
After drying the card off i replaced it in the pcie port and everything worked great, i played games and surfed the net no probs. HOWEVER. i now find after15 mins of cod4 the monitor goes blank or all white until i reset and it works again, at least most of the time it does, can anyone suggest anything to save my ailing card? ps i am using my wii browser so sorry in advance for spelling mistakes.
 
No, not at all


well my friend first of all I would look for signs of oxidation on the card(on the pcb, should be either white or green)

if there is no oxidation, check for burned out chips(which in this case I doubt will be found)

next step is to check your motherboard pci-e slot for oxidation, check your whole motherboard while your at it.

What to do when you have found oxidation?

First of all, do NOT run any of the components, they might be damaged further.

Get some 90-99% denaturated alcohol, you can get it from your pharmacist

Use Q-tips and tissues with alcohol on them to clean the oxidised parts

let it dry for a day to be sure that all moisture got out


Last but not least, pray your stuff works


can't give you any more tips on this, when my storm leaked it took out my 8800GTS and oxidised my mobo without me knowing it, now the mobo is sent for RMA..

so PLEASE look carefully and not globally
 
Does denatured alcohol contain impurities that can hurt your components? Or is it just a mixture of different alcohols?
 
I have a bottle of isopropyl alcohol on order, going to take 3 days to come, very hard and barely legal here in the uk unforunately.

I think i have give up on the idea of my card working again :O(
 
I've taken many a component for a bath. Never had one go out on me yet. Just make sure you clean it up real well, and check the PCI-E slot too. Sometimes have you to clean a component a few times before it's completely fine.
 
I've taken many a component for a bath. Never had one go out on me yet. Just make sure you clean it up real well, and check the PCI-E slot too. Sometimes have you to clean a component a few times before it's completely fine.

Very true,

I once had to bath both my WHOLE motherboard and video card after a spillage. Everything worked just as normal after wards. :)

I did leave everything to dry in front of a fan for 24hrs though.

bryan d
 
I fear the damage i have caused by running the gpu after not noticing the leak.
 
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