Pc Emergency!!

[Drop-Top]

OK, this is really bad. My roomate was playing WC3 on my comp while drinking coffee. He proceeded to spill the coffee into the 120mm blowhole of my comp, where there is a fan that sprayed the coffee throughout the entire computer. The screen did the rainbow thing, then I pulled the power cord. It looks like the video card took the brunt of it, but I am really unsure how to pursue this problem. I dried it out the best I could, but where do I go from here? Do I test the components separatly, or just plug it in and hope all goes well? ANY help soon app.

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[Jimbob7]

ouch, erm there are many things that ive heard of doing, such as bathing the hardware in alcohol, or drying them in a really low heat over. Dont go off and do these things tillsomeone has backed me up, i have no experience in getting water/coffee on hardware!!

Good luck!

 

[SewerBeing]

I would try the alcohol bath method, usually 70%+ alcohol is pretty good at removing these things, also try alcohol + Q tips to clean components, and look for any obvious burn marks.

 

[fletch]

Yeah, just clean everything off as the previous two said - you may need to let it dry for a day or two before you reassemble it just to make sure everything is dry.

 

[fhanderson]

In addition to the other suggestion using an artist paint brush with the alcohol will get into really tight places. You may have some in you AGP slot. The really small brushes will help. Dry everthing good and retry it.

 

[Entimann]

i would make him buy me all new stuff and let him do what he wants with the stuff he ****ed up.

 

[am8soccer]

i would make him buy me all new stuff and let him do what he wants with the stuff he ****ed up.

what are friends for

 

[Yuriman]

Get some 99% alcohol. I im sure you can get it fairly easily, and it well eat the coffee right off. I normaly dump distilled water over my parts, then soak them in alcohol for a few minutes, lightly scrubbing with a paintbrush and a q-tip.

 

[NewBldr]

First, Drop-Top... punch your roommate straight in the nose.

Then, proceed to clean the components as mentioned above.

 

[VisEtVirtus]

Omg, if someone spilled coffe on my computer (and it was actually worth something) I would probably beat the bejesus out of em.

 

[hafa]

After you are done taring, feathering, and riding your ex-roommate out of town on a rail, do the cleanup as mentioned above + use compressed air for good measure before you let it dry for a couple of days. Then set up a strict policy of NO food or drink within 3 feet of any component of your PC upon penalty of a slow agonizing death.

 

[M4D]

Did you get anything sorted and does the computer still work

If not,
Firstly i would pour red hot coffee on your friend then procced
in drying your components as mensioned above ...

I once spilt coffee on my table and a bit splashed onto my graphics
card but i was quick enough to pull the power cord out
and tip the tower onto its side so nothing ran into the other
parts of the pc ...

I then cleaned the vid card with some isopropyl alcohol "Hope its spelt wright ?

And all was well a few hours later ...

 

[Captain Newbie]

High purity isopropyl is your friend.

 

[macklin01]

Youch! That's really too bad.

Personally, I don't see a need to actually clean the coffee off (at first). There shouldn't be anything conductive in it, so once you get it to dry, you should be able to give it a try.

Only reason I can personally see to clean it off is if it's preventing electrical contact in a socket / slot. If there's something I'm missing here, please let me know.

The idea of a future rule against food / drink within some distance of the computer is a good one. At least against drinks. Or do what some more liberal libraries do: only drinks in "spill proof" containers, or perhaps more liberally, drinks in the refillable mugs such as one finds at Starbucks ...

Best of luck, and please report back. -- Paul

 

[Yuriman]

Coffee leaves sticky residue, and from what I always thought, sticky=liquid=conductive.

 

[macklin01]

Hmm, good point, although in my experience (from spilling coffee all over too many times), coffee itself is pretty dry when dry, soft drinks are quite sticky, and others are in between. If it was a coffee with flavor shots, for example, I'd definitely say that sticky residues were a good possibility.

At the end of the day, you're probably right: cleaning it completely first is probably safest. I was just trying to provide an alternative with less effort. Thanks for helping me see your viewpoint. -- Paul

 

[dropadrop]

Alot of sugar in the coffee?

 

[IndianScout]

in 22 years of electronic experience I have seen this 100's of times,

here is the way we cleaned anything that leaves a film or is sugar based..

remove the boards spray them down with 409 using a brush very mildly clean the boards the 409 will cut thru the sugar and coffee,

then fill a spray bottle with denatured alcohol and rinse the boards clean and dry, leave them to air dry for a couple days then retry them...

 

[Drop-Top]

ok, here is the report. I let everything dry with a huge fan blowing in it for six hours. It looks like my 9800 took the most coffee. I took qtips and cleaned it with 70% isopropyl alcohol. Every thing seems fine, except about ever 4th time I reboot it tells me there is a new processor installed. So I am confused by that, however my temps are good, running at stock, and I played WC3 for about an hour this morning after it was done drying, and it worked fine. So what should I do about the bios not remembering settings, and should I still take the board out this weekend and clean is with 409 and more alcohol, because I didn't see anything on the board, but who knows.

PS thanks for all the help, the people are this site are great, and I really appreciate it.

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[M4D]

Not so sure about what to do about the bios not remembering
settings, and yes i think you should still take the board out and
clean it with some more alcohol ext, because you never know,
And it's best to be safe then sorry ...


One more thing though, Did your friend survive the bashing

Hope it starts to run fine for you mate, You deserve it after a scare like that