Water related failure confusion

I'm not sure whether this goes in nVidia or water cooling. Apologies if I guess wrong, please move if needed.

My 660ti got hit by a non-negligible amount of water during the recent installation of my new CPU/MB/RAM due to faulty/lazy/improper leak testing. I waited for everything to dry out afterwards while I continued to leak test and fix issues properly. On first fire up afterwards, the display had display glitches along the bottom tenth of the screen. I immediately shut everything down and waited longer. The next day I fired it up again and got a beep code indicating faulty graphics RAM. I removed the card from the slot, disconnected power, and installed my 750ti in an available PCIe slot, leaving the card hanging. After a few days, I took out the 750ti and reinstalled the 660ti. And it worked!! I played games on it, browsed the web, no issues. I probably used it for about 3 hours before shutting the rig down and going to bed.

The next morning it wouldn't POST.

I removed the 660ti again but left it hanging without power again so I wouldn't have to modify my loop just yet. That lasted a few days as I started to evaluate my options. Yesterday afternoon I decided to give it one more try. I removed the 750ti and installed the 660ti again.

And it worked.

I've run Heaven for an hour (no problem), I ran GPUgrid tasks on it overnight (tasks validated), I gamed with it for a few hours yesterday and today (no crashes or glitches). It seems to run just fine. I'm terrified to shut it down overnight at the moment though.

So, the question is: if I shut it down tonight and it doesn't come up tomorrow, what does that mean? Is it something that might be fixable somehow? Or is it just plain toast and I should forget about it? I inspected the PCB and there are no burn marks or scorches, no smoking gun to speak of. The whole thing has me slightly puzzled and I'd appreciate any thoughts on the matter.

I'm not expert at all-

I'll tell you this though, I had a lot of condensation on my video card once and it started showing horizontal lines on the screen until it just shut down the computer. I unplugged it over night until it was completely dry. Then re-installed it in the slot and fired it up, I have not had a problem since. So you might be ok with what happened if it keeps working.
I'm new to mixing water and computer parts so I don't know much but thus is just my experience with water on the video card.

I mean, you might run into issues here and there with the GPU but it seems to be working from your experience. Maybe its death has been progressed, idk. Maybe you'll have it for another 1-2 years more, who knows. If it works, it works.

If it worries you so much, go grab a nicely priced GTX 970 and call it a day.

Funds are too tight to justify a new card. I spent my available play money on the MB, CPU, and RAM. If the 660ti doesn't boot after the next long shutdown I'll have to limp along with the 750ti and save my pennies for later. Every bit of lag, slowdown, or stutter will remind me to leak test properly.

Update on this after a month nearly 8 weeks later. As I mentioned earlier, funds are tight at the moment. I shopped but I didn't buy anything. All issues resolved with time. It behaves perfectly now. I have no idea what the actual issue was or what caused it to go away, but it POSTs and runs just as well as it did before at this point. Weird, but I'm not complaining.

FYI, a moisture displacer can be of use in these type situations. There are several made by different chemical companies and most are molybdenum/benzene based. Harmless to electronics.

I use a product called Mo-Ban. Others available include this one:

http://www.oilcenter.com/ProductInformationSheets/A-M/MD50.PDF

I keep a can on the shelf and have used it on outdoor electrical motors as well as PC parts with no adverse reactions, everything works as intended. Better computing through chemistry.

One long and three short beeps today indicates it got testy again. Happens to coincide with the weather here getting really hot and humid all of a sudden over the weekend. After a series of reboots it eventually booted properly and all seems to be ok again. Maybe it's just really sensitive to humidity now for some silly reason? Random electrical problems are always such fun to diagnose.

Hopefully you were saving some cash for the writing that is on the wall??? (impending GPU death?)

I have some cash, yes. Not enough for the G-sync monitor and GPU upgrade I'd hoped for "eventually" though. This card still does everything I need it to do at 1200p, seems almost a little silly to upgrade it without also upgrading the monitor. Oh well, we'll see if it dies or not. I've got a GTX260 sitting in the corner I can use as punishment for my lazy leak testing ways. The 750ti went into a build for my gf.

As a side note, my next GPU, if watercooled, will have a backplate. The bend in the PCB on this poor 660ti is kind of obscene. I secretly wonder if that's part of the problem.

JeremyCT said:

if watercooled, will have a backplate. The bend in the PCB on this poor 660ti is kind of obscene. I secretly wonder if that's part of the problem.

Click to expand...

Yes, the backplates help and add support. It helps a bit in the cooling side as well.

If there are thermal pads between it and the pcb it helps cooling. Otherwise it is purely aesthetic and for support.

Card continues to randomly not POST properly maybe once a week, then run flawlessly after a reboot. Replacement acquired via the site classies.



This came with it.



Backplate and way more GPU power than I actually need for 1200p, check! I'm looking forward to getting this all installed.

Congrats Jeremy! That should go really nice with the rig!