Help! Did something stupid.. got lucky.. I think

Ok.. So I made the mistake of moving my computer from underneath my desk to the other side, without anything covering the top. I told my roommate to make SURE not set any drinks or anything on that side... but what did I do? Oh yes.. I did. I knocked over my milk.. and into my computer it went. I have a fan on top so yes, there is plenty of room for liquid to go in. I was in the middle of playing a video game and the screen went white. I almost had a heart attack. I am a working college student with very little money to spare. I reacted very quickly and dove for something to clean off the top and flipped over the computer as it didn't look like too much liquid went inside, and i didn't want more dripping from my fan to my video card.

I immediately unplugged my computer and started cleaning up the mess. I suspected the worst, i thought it got on my motherboard and perhaps my cpu. To my surprise my cpu was unaffected, but i did notice a few drops of liquid on top of my power supply that seems to have fell from my video card, also my video card was directly below my fan, so that could be a good assumption.

I powered up my computer and it looked fine.. until I loaded Windows. Horrible green lines everywhere. I unplugged my computer again and removed my video card, and did something that I haven't heard of most people doing... I took it into my bathroom and washed it off. I don't mean I soaked it, I took very small drops of water on tissue and wiped off the mucky looking stuff on the card. I had success in the past repairing keyboards and my gamegear this way, (yes gamegear! long time ago, i kno!) The card is a 9800 radeon pro so it isn't exactly cheap when I got it. I made sure that I left no liquid residue on my video card, and let it dry a bit.

I then plugged it back and and booted to windows, and I still had green lines... but not nearly as bad. After about 5 minutes they went away completely and it looks fine right now. I can load into WC3, WoW, and it looks perfect. Though I haven't been on for that long at all.

My question is, do you think my card has been severely damaged on the lifetime of the card? Are there any steps I should take? Was my cleaning technique stupid? Comments please

Cleaning it with some non-conductive cleaner probably would've been a better idea, but as long as it was COMPLETELY dry when you popped it back in you couldn't have hurt it anymore than it was.

Hope those green lines don't come back!

yea unfortunately I am getting very few right now on a few select JPG's. I haven't gamed intensively yet. Stuff like the google banner... I see small green lines but nothing else I have seen has triggered it yet.

Having problems finding stuff on google relating to this, but does anyone know exactly what causes the green lines. Is it just certain gunk on ANY trace on the video card, or on certain chips, I spilled it on the side without the card's CPU on it.

you might want to buy some high percentage rubbing alchohal (95+ %, not that 70% stuff) and some Q tips and wipe everything off, let it sit overnight to evaporate everything and fire it up, if it's working good now you probably dodged the bullet.

Kinda funny I always here about stuff like this...my saving grace is my mouse and computer are on the right side and drinks/cups get in the way of the mouse cord so I always stick em on the left...lol...that and I havn't knocked anything over onto the keyboard or anything important

*edit*
looks like thier back...not sure what causes the lines really, theres probably a lot of things that can cause that, my guess is a short or intermitten short on some traces...clean the card and also in the pci/agp slot well and let it dry, don't rush it.

Water by itself generally doesn't damage electrical components except when they're running; alcohol might have been a better choice though, as (generally) it doesn't leave any residue that might lead to shorting out contacts. But if it's running, I think that it should be fine.

I've also spilled liquids near computers, and I've been more careful since then, but the best solution would definitely be to set up safeguards, either by moving the case or by installing some sort of splashguard/roof over it.

Use alcohol to clean it and canned air to dry it off.

Use alcohol and clean the card off. Look for any residue that is remaining from the milk or water.

i remember when i dropped my digital camera into lake superior. Luckily when i came home my sister had a hair dryer with the option to use unheated air, so i just opened it up and blow dryed it over night. Lots of noise, but it worked fine after that. So i might suggest investing in a hairdryer with the option to use cool air along with some rubbing alcohol.

DietPepsi0219 said:

i remember when i dropped my digital camera into lake superior. Luckily when i came home my sister had a hair dryer with the option to use unheated air, so i just opened it up and blow dryed it over night. Lots of noise, but it worked fine after that. So i might suggest investing in a hairdryer with the option to use cool air along with some rubbing alcohol.

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psh just invest in some deltas

I use something called QD Electronic Cleaner, available from Napa for about six dollars a can. I've found it to be fantastic for this kind of thing, even circuits that are corroded due to liquid. It's non-conductive and is mostly methanol based, so it evaporates in no time. You can really douse it on there and give things a good scrubbing without leaving residue.

the only reason to use alcohol that i'm aware of is that it evaporates quicker, but as long as he let it dry and it didnt get under the HSF, etc he should be fine.

this 6600GT AGP i got for $15 had what looked like milk spilled all over it, and a bad cap (got bent like and ripped one of its pins out)

i soaked it in alcahol and scrubbed bently with an old toothbrush, and all the crap seems to have come off pretty good. then i had to replace the cap tho. the lines are likely caused by one of the ram chips acting up, which makes sense if there is ram on both sides of the card. if there is still a bit in the pins of the ram, it could be problematic. thats where the toothbrush came in handy for me, could get in the little cracks between the pins and get it all.

is it working yet? also make sure it isnt sticky

I would actually kill myself if i spilt anything on my pc