Video Card Shower

[q149]

I'm about to give my Ti4200 a shower as a last resort to breath life into it again. It died a couple weeks ago and i removed all the heatsinks and ramsinks on it, lapped the core and ram to get all the as3+super glue off then cleaned the whole thing with alcohol. I put only the XP HSF back on the core and put it in, it was breathing once again. Well today i decided to stick my ramsinks back on. I thought to myself "What can ramsinks do to it? It must have been the hsf on the back that killed it". Well, i got the rest of the crud of the memory chips with some 400-600 grit sandpaper and stuck on the re-lapped ramsinks. I was getting all kinds of graphical errors now... I'm thinking it must be particles of AS3 and whatever else messing with the board. I took everything back off and cleaned the whole thing with alchohal. The monitor will come on put the mobo won't even do the post beep now.. I figure it's screwed but a nice bath might be it's last chance for survival.. Anyone know exactly how i should go about doing this without definately killing it... like how long should i wait now that it's been off before giving it it's shower.. and how long should i wait after before i try it again after it's all nice and clean.
thx

 

[POL-tec2002]

hmm....what if u gave it a rubbing alcohal bath...idk...just a thought...

 

[q149]

Well, i figured i'd run it under the bath faucet for some water preassure. I was thinking of giving it some alcohal after though to maybe speed up evaporation and stuff... I really don't know how long i should wait though to make sure all the electricity is out and what not.

 

[gahdzila]

Giving your GeForce a bath? DEFINATELY a last resort! LOL

I really don't know how long i should wait though to make sure all the electricity is out and what not.

you mean, how long to wait to bathe it after you get it out of the case? I would say immediately would be fine. There won't be any residual electricity.

It would probably be a good idea to wait until the card has cooled off to room temperature. Maybe it wouldnt hurt anything, but I would think that a sudden drastic change in temperature from "smokin hot video card" to "cold water from my faucet" might cause componants on the card to contract rapidly, possibly cracking something on the card.

If you're asking how long after it's bath you should wait before using it, I would recommend you let that baby air dry for a couple of days or so. You don't want ANY water ANYWHERE in that thing when you plug it in.

I would also recommend distilled water, to prevent leaving particles of crud from the tap in your card.

LOL...sorry...this whole idea just sounds rather ludicrous to me. But, hey, it's worth a shot. I seem to remember talking with some guy on some other message board (arstechnica boards maybe?) who said he sprayed down ALL the PCB's in his computer once or twice a year, just to get all of the dust and crap off.

 

[q149]

Well, i did it already. I was talking about how long before and after... because electricity stays in the caps or somethin. Anyway it's done, i used a faucet to do it... Maybe if i blow dry it a bit tomorrow it would dry out. I will probably wait till the day after tomorrow to test it out. Also i would think rinsing it down with alcohal after the water would flush out the water and replace it with the alcohal that drys much much faster.

 

[Skiing Squirrel]

I would think at least 6 days to have it all dried out. Take a hair dryer andhave that blow on (on coolest setting) for about 10 minutes a day or something. I have never brought any of my componants to water before and hope I don't. Good luck with it!

 

[G-PHoRCe]

Just let it dry on its own in a warm place for 7 days. That's wut I did with my mortherboard after I realized there was a leak in my watercooling system, and all the parts were sprayed with water and antifreeze. Only my soundcard died though cry: R.I.P after 2 years of loyal service). Well, I cleaned everything with some napkins, and waited for it to dry, now everything is fine.

 

[gahdzila]

Also i would think rinsing it down with alcohal after the water would flush out the water and replace it with the alcohal that drys much much faster.

Well...not really. Alcohol will evaporate faster than water, but any alcohol you'll be able to get your hands on has *some* water in it, that will stay behind after the alcohol evaporates.

Over-the-counter rubbing alcohol is 70% alcohol, 30% water IIRC.

 

[Bull]

I've done this with a Geforce 2 ti and it helped a little. I gave it an alchohol bath first then I rinsed it with some water. The card works but it still has alot of artifacts on it. I've heard from other members that have done this that it has fixed the problem. If it didn't work right in the beginning then you had nothing to loose.

 

[KILLorBE]

You don't have to wait long before you clean it as plain tap water has a resistance of ~100K+ Ohm.

Depending on where you let it dry it could be dry in ~24 hours, if you want to know for sure just put a cup with a few drops of water next to it.

I would use an old toothbrush and some dishwasher soap, scrub it real well, rinse with water and try to blow as much water as possible from underneath the chips.

I've done it several times and never had a problem.

1) V-card (Diamond)...friend spilled cola over it and it didn't work anymore, he gave it to me, cleaned it and I'm still using it.
2) Keyboard...I spilled beer over it.
3) Asus S370-DL Slocket.
4) V-card (GF2 MX).
5) 3Com NIC.
6) P3V4X MOBO.

3, 4, 5 and 6 are all due to condensation problems, which caused oxidation in the socket, AGP slot and first or second PCI slot....uhh the condensation leaked thru my V-card on my NIC while my rig was running, but it didn't kill anything.

 

[Hughhefner]

If you want to rinse with alcohol you can look for 91% normally sold at drug stores vs. to normal 70% that was mentioned earlier, it will say right on the bottle, most pharmacies carry the 91 stuff but your dept. stores won't... It will dry much faster and help to get most of the water out...

 

[q149]

Well, i gave it another shower using a toothbrush this time. I will try it in a couple days and hopefully it will live.

 

[larrymoencurly]

Why not get a can of electronic parts cleaner spray? I don't think anything is safer, although some types, like TechSpray's HFE Cleaner/Degreaser, dissolves certain plastics.

If any of the chips have metal packaging, could some metal powder have gotten into the board?

 

[vinyljunky]

You guys in the states got WD40? Every self respecting techie should have a can. It displaces water completely, I have used it on live components before - once on an external tv card that met a pint of water via its top grill :/ A blast of WD had it fixed on the fly within minutes. It does, however, leave a slightly greasy finish but that's easily fixed with some isopropyl alcohol.

 

[q149]

I tested it today. My pc will now post with it and some stuff will show up but it is totally screwed up looking just on post and in the bios. This is how it looked before it totally stopped working... Oh well, i guess it's just dead for good.
I have some WD40.. maybe i will let it soak for a day or so in alcohal or something then try that just to make sure.. i think it's done for though.