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Tips for cleaning after water spill???

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Seufari

Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2006
Location
Fort Collins, CO
So I was dumb and tried filling one loop that had an impossible to reach t-line, and as a result I spilled a bit of water on some components. I am fairly certain that I didn't get any on the mobo, only the fan controller, dvd-rw, and a couple of molex power cords. Here is my game plan:

I am going to let the system air dry 24 hours and then look for any remnants with canned air. Then let it sit for another 24 hours and re-use the canned air. If at that point I dont see anymore traces of water, then I plan on powering the system again.

Does this sound like a good plan?

I cannot believe I tried to fill this t-line. It was very stupid of me and I am very mad. I was all excited to get all of my stuff together and setup; I had been priming all day trying to find the max overclock and I didn't want to take it all out of my cubby hole. I cannot believe that I had to refill the t-line in the first place! I bled the line for an awful long time.

Anyways, anyone have any other suggestions to make sure I dont ruin any components?
 
Did you have any additive in it? If you had some antifreeze in it just look inside the fan controller and clean off any fluid with a paper towel. Then clean the surface with some alcohol. Theres no real need to wait that long.

If its distilled water just blow it out with compressed air or use a paper towel. As is it probably won't do any damage but I can understand wanting to be thorough.
 
It was only distilled water and a little blue food coloring. (just enough to give the water a bit of color).

I think I'll blow it out with air and then try her on Tuesday. What is the idea behind the alchohol?

If I ruined anything... i'll cry.
 
As long as you didn't get it onto the MB or the like, just do as you said and blow out those parts with compressed air and put a fan to them for a while. If water got inside of the DVD drive, you may however have a harder time with it as trying to take apart a drive and get it all dryed out can be a challenge.

Rubbing alcohol is what is best to pour over anything if you really need to make sure you get it dry, particulary if you get MB slots or cards wet. As it evaporates, it takes water with it and will pull out the water where you can't.

BTW, don't use food coloring. It is particulate based and can screw up your pump. Spend a few bucks and get some decent water soluable dye from cool-cases-usa or somewhere. Also make sure you add a few drops of povidone-iodine or algaecide to prevent growth.
 
Ill see if I have some high concentration rubbing alcohol around. I got my compressed air and am going to be working on it tonight. If I dont see any traces, I may power up the system tonight.


voigts said:
BTW, don't use food coloring. It is particulate based and can screw up your pump. QUOTE]

There was a huge discussion on the use of food coloring over at xtremesystems and it was determined that it was not particulate based and that the worst it could do would be stain the tubing.

I dont think I spilled enogh to get in the DVD drive itself and I hope it doesn't screw it up.

Thanks for all of the help guys@!
 
WTF... I am typing this on the water spilled system except for one big thing. Temps in BIOS read 90c. Speedfan reads -90c and TAT reads 35c...

I am going to try to reset CMOS to see if that clears it up, otherwise ????

Any ideas?
 
well... it seems I may have also had a leaky waterblock!?! I found more water than I spilled located underneath the chipset block.

I hope I didn't permenantly screw anything up.
 
ok... definately a leaking chipset block. I must have unscrewed the barb a bit when mounting it...

Looking back on it, I couldn't believe I had to refill the T-line and I shouldn't have had to. I had a leak so I was just making the problem worse.

I am extremely suprized that the system still powered up fine and was working except for the temp issue. There was water on the chipset and it had also worked its way into the cpu socket. If nothing is permenantly damaged I will be very suprized :(

EDIT: It's kinda odd how the problem didn't present itself until I moved everything. Judging by how much water there was, it had been leaking for a few days now...
 
well system is running now.... Everything seems fine except my temps are reading rediculously low. I'll have to see if I can hit the same clocks as before

*crosses fingers*

EDIT: Temps have returned to normal now that I have started OCing again... At stock speedfan was reading around 20c idle
 
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If water gets into any of the sockets especially is when you want to bathe in rubbing alcohol. There is almost no way of getting all of the water out of them with just compressed air. Loosening the barbs accidentally while putting on and tightening tubing is a common problem. It actually should boost your confidence a bit as to the fact that a leak doesn't mean instant death necessarily.
 
yeah... I am glad there was no instant death. I am currently priming at my last stable overclock and it seems to be holding up. If I dont reach my goal I'll blame this incident.

The alcohol worked like a charm, I didn't use a whole lot but it sure helped get all the water out of the socket area.

Thanks for all of the help.
 
A little of topic but I see you have a storm. do you know anywhere online where it isnt sold out?:-/
 
I picked up mine in the classifieds forums for $50 shipped.

I never buy anything new it seems :S

On topic: It seems that either my Storm mount is not as good as it was pre-accident, or my ambient temps have risen a bit. I am loading a 2-4 degrees higher than I did before. :(
 
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Hmm 60 more post and i will find one in the classifieds. Until then I guess I will have to be patient:-/
 
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