Water spilled in PC - your thoughts?

[Mike Tomlinson]

Wow, it runs! Incredible.

Too soon, IMO. Needs to be dried out for a few days at least.

There will be water trapped under chips which needs time to dry out
properly.

 

[Guest]

I bumped my desk too hard when I clumsily stood up tonight, and the
thing tipped over and shattered. That alone was tragedy enough, but
the water within ran into the fan opening in the top of my PC. Oy,
we're talking sizzling sound, sudden shut-down, broken glass, and
water on and in the PC.

I had the wits to unplug the PC and everything attached. I knew
enough to carefully open the case and tenderly blot out all the
visible water with a paper towel.

My husband who is A+ certified and a big know-it-all plugged it back
in at that point and got it to boot. I was ecstatic.

Two minutes later it bluescreened, refused to reboot, and now I have
it unplugged, opened up, and drying out.

Please give me any thoughts you have about how to save my PC.

Frankly A+ certification is not a reliable indication of anyone's
qualifications for doing hardware repairs. CET or a First Class FCC
license are much better certifications for that.

I'm glad everything is normal again, but the next time that happens,
let the computer dry in a warm room for at least 24 hours. That's
typically enough, but I would prefer to then blow off the dust (no
vacuuming or brushing - can cause static damage), and liberally spray
everything but the mechanical parts (disk drives, fans) with plastics-
safe electronic parts cleaner (will be labeled as such, but check
ingredients anyway - should be mostly isopropyl or ethyl alcohol) or
isopropyl alcohol of at least 90% purity. Do not let the hard disks
get wet since they are not sealed but have a weep hole to allow air
pressure equalization. Let that dry at least 12 hours (alcohol
evaporates faster than water). Even spraying distilled water can
help, but parts cleaner or 90% purity alcohol are much preferred.
Never use mineral spirits, WD-40, or anything that leaves an oily
film. I avoid methyl alcohol since it's so poisonous.

 

[Guest]

I gotta say am absolutely not comfortable about the idea of opening up
the power supply. I am not 100% sure no water got into it, but I am
100% sure I will not open it.

Good idea, because when a supply is damaged on the high voltage side
(supplies have a high voltage side and a low voltage side that's
isolated from the former), the large, high voltage (200-500V)
capacitors may never discharge normally and have to be discharged
manually. Unfortunately doing that can require moving the PC board, a
process that itself can cause accidental contact with those
capacitors.

If you ever disassemble a supply for another purpose, such as to
replace its fan, do not operate it until the cover is fully
reinstalled, including its screws. The cover will provide protecton
from electrical shock, provided the supply is plugged into a grounded
AC outlet, and prevent injury if a capacitor explodes.

 

[Dave C.]

Thanks everybody for your interest and comments.

Incredibly, despite everything my husband and I did to try to fix the
problem, the machine survived the ordeal and is running perfectly.

I NEVER would have believed that was possible. I didn't have to
replace a single component. Everything is running fine.

Wow, I know I dodged a bullet.

For the moment. Don't expect the power supply to last long. But even
at worst, if all that dies is the power supply, that's not a big deal.

I am grateful for your remarks and I did learn some things from you
wonderful folks, as usual.

It may please you to know that I had copies of all my personal
documents and files on a external hard drive AND on my laptop before
all this happened. If I woke in the middle of the night to a house
afire, I could grab one bag that had my whole online life in it, and
jump out a window.

I'd toss my dog out first. My husband would be on his own.

If it happens again, unplug it, disassemble it, dry it with a hair
dryer, leave it dissassembled for a couple of days to further dry, and
then reassemble and hope for the best. -Dave

 

[Dave C.]

Thanks Dave, but...

I gotta say, about using a hair dryer to dry it... I respectfully
disagree about that.

For one thing, I don't have a hand-held hairdryer (a blow-dryer), and
I am not going to go buy one for something like this.

More importantly, those hair dryers are not intended to be left
running for any extended period of time, and you certainly don't dare
leave them unattended for any length of time. Would you really sit
and aim a hair dryer into your computer, and just sit there with it
for who knows how long?

Well the question is moot if you don't have one. But it shouldn't
really take more than about 10 minutes, I would imagine. Just
disassembling everything will probably dislodge much of the water
before you even plug a hair dryer in.

What I did do is something that I think is a better idea: I used a
regular household fan, set at a proper angle and kept at some
distance away. I just left both sides of the case open and allowed
the fan to move the air around to facilitate evaporation.

You see, with my method, I could safely leave it unattended, even go
to bed without a single care. Which is what I did. I left it open
and drying overnight, and the next day it seemed perfectly dry. I
booted it, it worked, I left it open as it ran for a while.

I closed the case hours later when it was evident that it was running
well. Air continues to circulate, because like almost everybody
else's, my PC has fans inside!



I have a theory about the sizzling sound... I believe it was just
water turning to steam.

I have one remaining question: The PC shut itself down instantly
when the water splashed inside - I'm not sure why. Of course it's
good that it did... but what caused that behavior? A short?

A good power supply has protection circuits built in. One of them is
over-current. Another is under-voltage. Those two (both of them)
would have been tripped by water just about anywhere in a power
supply. These are protections that SHOULD be in a power supply,
but are often skimped on in cheaper power supplies. The fact that your
power supply shut down immediately when wet is actually a good sign.
It shows that it does have some protection circuits of some kind in
it. Shutting down is what a PROPERLY ENGINEERED power supply SHOULD DO
in that particular scenario. Not all will though. (unfortunately)

To be clear, the engineers don't design the power supply to shut itself
down when WET. They factor in normal electronics faults that might
cause certain conditions like too much current or not enough voltage.
And the protections are not really for the power supply itself, but for
the connected components. And to protect connected components they
design the power supply to fault to a powered OFF condition if all parts
of the power supply are not operating as designed. It is coincidence
that these protection circuits would be activated by water. -Dave

 

[Charlie]

What? Mineral spirits IS methyl alcohol? I didn't know that.

Then again, I never claimed to know that, so nobody has a right to
be outraged.

Mineral spirits is *NOT* methyl alcohol but a petroleum based
solvent. I would not use mineral spirits on a computer. Methyl
alcohol also called methanol, wood alcohol or wood spirits is also
sold in most paint stores.

Charlie

 

[frischmoutt]

Toolpackinmama here,

My friends, never mind why I didn't know better than to perch the
Captain Kirk water globe I got for Xmas on top of my computer. It was
a narrow cylindrical water-filled teleporter that lit up n stuff, and
I just wanted to look at it a lot, OK?

I bumped my desk too hard when I clumsily stood up tonight, and the
thing tipped over and shattered. That alone was tragedy enough, but
the water within ran into the fan opening in the top of my PC. Oy,
we're talking sizzling sound, sudden shut-down, broken glass, and
water on and in the PC.

Unplug everything, put a big fan in front of the open case and all the stuff
inside for one day or more. Wait for one or two days while drying. Check
everything by visual inspection, replug the stuff and turni it on.
That's all. Don't use any solvent or so.

 

[david]

Buy a can of "mineral spirits" at a paint store or hardware store.

This is the worst idea I have heard. Mineral spirts is not methanol.

Methanol is what you want.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

1. Take it apart.
2. Dry it.
3. Put it back in one piece.
4. Test it.

No big deal.

Let us know how it goes.

Also can you provide us with a picture of the thing that fell on it ? =D

It sounded kinda interesting. How the hell did it fall on it ?

Was the PC on the ground ?

(I would not place PC's with vents on the top on the ground... way too much
risk of something falling in it ! )

Anyway if you have any problems with the hardware... then come back here !


Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Dave C.]

Well that was fluent and succinct Dave. Thanks. FWIW I have an
Antec PSU in there. One of the Earthwatts ones, I think a 550.

OH, maybe you have one of the earlier Seasonic-made units*. Those would
definitely be engineered correctly with all necessary protection
circuits. It's kind of a shame though if that's what got drenched.
Kind of like when you total your merc and wish you'd been driving the
chevy that day...-Dave

*The Earthwatts series used to be made by Seasonic, for Antec. Now the
Earthwatts are made by Delta (?) and the reviews I've read are not
good. But Seasonic is world-class quality, even if it's wearing an
Antec logo.

 

[Toolpackinmama]

Mineral spirits is *NOT* methyl alcohol but a petroleum based
solvent. I would not use mineral spirits on a computer. Methyl
alcohol also called methanol, wood alcohol or wood spirits is also
sold in most paint stores.

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Toolpackinmama]

Thanks everybody for your interest and comments.

Incredibly, despite everything my husband and I did to try to fix the
problem, the machine survived the ordeal and is running perfectly.

I NEVER would have believed that was possible. I didn't have to replace
a single component. Everything is running fine.

Wow, I know I dodged a bullet.

I am grateful for your remarks and I did learn some things from you
wonderful folks, as usual.

It may please you to know that I had copies of all my personal documents
and files on a external hard drive AND on my laptop before all this
happened. If I woke in the middle of the night to a house afire, I
could grab one bag that had my whole online life in it, and jump out a
window.

I'd toss my dog out first. My husband would be on his own.

 

[Toolpackinmama]

If it happens again, unplug it, disassemble it, dry it with a hair
dryer, leave it dissassembled for a couple of days to further dry, and
then reassemble and hope for the best. -Dave

Thanks Dave, but...

I gotta say, about using a hair dryer to dry it... I respectfully
disagree about that.

For one thing, I don't have a hand-held hairdryer (a blow-dryer), and I
am not going to go buy one for something like this.

More importantly, those hair dryers are not intended to be left running
for any extended period of time, and you certainly don't dare leave them
unattended for any length of time. Would you really sit and aim a hair
dryer into your computer, and just sit there with it for who knows how long?

What I did do is something that I think is a better idea: I used a
regular household fan, set at a proper angle and kept at some distance
away. I just left both sides of the case open and allowed the fan to
move the air around to facilitate evaporation.

You see, with my method, I could safely leave it unattended, even go to
bed without a single care. Which is what I did. I left it open and
drying overnight, and the next day it seemed perfectly dry. I booted
it, it worked, I left it open as it ran for a while.

I closed the case hours later when it was evident that it was running
well. Air continues to circulate, because like almost everybody else's,
my PC has fans inside!



I have a theory about the sizzling sound... I believe it was just water
turning to steam.

I have one remaining question: The PC shut itself down instantly when
the water splashed inside - I'm not sure why. Of course it's good that
it did... but what caused that behavior? A short?

 

[SteveH]

Anyway if you have any problems with the hardware... then come back
here !

Why, what help could /you/ be?

 

[SteveH]

Thanks Dave, but...

I gotta say, about using a hair dryer to dry it... I respectfully
disagree about that.

For one thing, I don't have a hand-held hairdryer (a blow-dryer), and
I am not going to go buy one for something like this.

More importantly, those hair dryers are not intended to be left
running for any extended period of time, and you certainly don't dare
leave
them unattended for any length of time. Would you really sit and aim
a hair dryer into your computer, and just sit there with it for who
knows how long?

Who said anything about leaving it running. You just keep hold of it, and
keep it moving, so as not to heat up any one part for too long, and just for
a few minutes (no longer than it would take to dry your hair).
I can't imagine anyone here (except maybe Skybuck!) would set up a hairdrier
pointed into a PC and leave it running for any great length of time, but
then again, I didn't believe anyone would dab a bit of water out of a PC and
then immediately tun it on..

 

[Toolpackinmama]

To be clear, the engineers don't design the power supply to shut itself
down when WET. They factor in normal electronics faults that might
cause certain conditions like too much current or not enough voltage.
And the protections are not really for the power supply itself, but for
the connected components. And to protect connected components they
design the power supply to fault to a powered OFF condition if all parts
of the power supply are not operating as designed. It is coincidence
that these protection circuits would be activated by water. -Dave

Well that was fluent and succinct Dave. Thanks. FWIW I have an Antec
PSU in there. One of the Earthwatts ones, I think a 550.

 

[Toolpackinmama]

Pratically... the system will never be stable anymore. I won't risk
working on this system, unless you use it for internet only or
videogames.

Sadly, that is all I use it for. LOL. It's not like I'm designing a
rocket or keeping state secrets.

 

[Toolpackinmama]

I can't imagine anyone here (except maybe Skybuck!) would set up a hairdrier
pointed into a PC and leave it running for any great length of time, but
then again, I didn't believe anyone would dab a bit of water out of a PC and
then immediately tun it on..

Yeah that is kind of incredible. LOL. And maybe I am living on
borrowed time, but for now it runs.

 

[Dave C.]

Interesting. Dave where do you get such information?

I've been an IT professional, off and on, since before the days of DOS
(remember that?). I also do a lot of research on my own about hardware
components though. Just to give you an idea...for my last build, I
must have read hundreds of detailled reviews (jonnyguru type detail) on
power supplies. That was just one build. When I'm spec'ing out a
new system to build, I focus on the power supply and the motherboard,
and I usually spend more time (a lot more) researching the power
supply. That's partly because it's often harder to find detailled
reviews of power supplies.

Even many computer 'experts' tend to under-estimate the importance of
choosing the proper power supply. But literally everything else in
your computer depends on that particular component being rock-solid
stable and reliable.

Anyway, I'm extremely familiar with most common brands of power
supplies. If it's sold on newegg or similar, I've probably read a
review of it (or a model from the same line) at one time or another.
-Dave

 

[Toolpackinmama]

*The Earthwatts series used to be made by Seasonic, for Antec. Now the
Earthwatts are made by Delta (?) and the reviews I've read are not
good. But Seasonic is world-class quality, even if it's wearing an
Antec logo.

Interesting. Dave where do you get such information?