brcromer
CLASSIFIED Member
- Total Posts : 4503
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2010/05/12 10:27:26
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 27
A couple of weeks ago I drained my radiator on my computer at the office. When I hooked everything back up and filled it with fluid everything was fine. No leak. So I went ahead and started the computer. I had it doing the things I usually have it do when I'm not in the office.
The next day I returned to my office only to find my computer was not on and a pool of radiator fluid had puddled beneath my desk. When I open up my PC I saw that the fluid had dried on my video cards (3 - 280s) and a x-fi sound card. All four cards had scorch like marks on them and I thought I was out some big money.
So i thought about it and decided I would try to save my cards but there was no simple way to remove the baked on coolant. I would have to take them home and try mineral spirits or something and probably wind up wasting my time anyway.
Here was my quick fix solution. I placed the video cards and the sound card in my office dishwasher on the highest rack. I turned off the heated dry feature and washed my cards without detergent. I let the dishwasher do its thing and I air dried the cards for two days.
The result was I was able to save my sound card and one of my video cards.
Thoughts?
|
msmith5150
FTW Member
- Total Posts : 1586
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2008/11/01 12:04:49
- Location: Mahaska County Correctional Facility
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 4
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/13 19:36:37
(permalink)
Odd thing to try, but I guess you really had nothing to lose.
My bet is that those 2 out of the 4 components had already survived the coolant disaster and you were lucky they survived the dish washing.
Just another reason to give yourself plenty of time when dealing with watercooling, make sure everything is ok. And I don't recommend leaving a WC build unattended.
|
eppopipe
CLASSIFIED Member
- Total Posts : 3294
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2009/06/28 16:38:16
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 7
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/13 19:55:54
(permalink)
More reason to use distilled + a kill coil
...and always always always leak test :)
|
RainStryke
The Advocate
- Total Posts : 15872
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2007/07/19 19:26:55
- Location: Kansas
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 60
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/13 21:46:51
(permalink)
Not sure why you put it in your dishwasher, if anything that would just make it worse in my opinion.
There was a youtube video that showed what happened when your machine is being emerged in water. As long as the water was distilled it would usually just power off and you could dry your equipment and not really have too much to worry about... Epsecially if the water is only a few days old, it has not had enough time to get any kind of deposites built up to become conductive enough to ruin anything.
Main PC | Secondary PC
Intel i9 10900K | Intel i7 9700KMSI MEG Z490 ACE | Gigabyte Aorus Z390 MasterASUS TUF RTX 3090 | NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super32GB G.Skill Trident Z Royal 4000MHz CL18 | 32GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB 4266MHz CL17SuperFlower Platinum SE 1200w | Seasonic X-1250Samsung EVO 970 1TB and Crucial P5 1TB | Intel 760p 1TB and Crucial MX100 512GBCougar Vortex CF-V12HPB x9 | Cougar Vortex CF-V12SPB-RGB x5 3DMark Results:Time Spy|Port Royal
|
NordicJedi
EVGA Forum Moderator
- Total Posts : 12570
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2007/07/16 21:05:08
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 77
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/14 00:20:41
(permalink)
Keep in mind that while water damage is always possible, washing off the card in acetone or giving it a shower while NOT powered are decent ways to get the card clean. Of course, make sure to dry the heck out of the card before attempting to boot it again. Still, I'd not suggest doing this unless you really need to.
|
YerBuddy
Omnipotent Enthusiast
- Total Posts : 8919
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2005/08/25 09:55:57
- Location: Classified
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 59
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/14 01:06:49
(permalink)
I would not have thought of doing that. What coolant were you using? No matter, I would switch to distilled water and a silver coil. Anyway, good that it's not a total loss. I've had several drips, spills, and leaks and the only time I had an issue was when I was using a colored coolant. Distilled water has never caused the "crusting" residue. Sorry it happened to you. Do you know exactly what caused the leak? It would be good if you can identify it so others can learn from it. Again, sorry for the mess. I hope it all works out in the end.
post edited by YerBuddy - 2010/09/14 03:12:59
|
vlad01
CLASSIFIED Member
- Total Posts : 3495
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2008/04/19 16:55:43
- Location: Australia, Victoria
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 6
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/14 02:21:52
(permalink)
This is nothing new. At work i have washed a few amplifier boards and mixing desks in the sink and dried them in the kitchen oven for 3 min bakes at a time on low temp.
I also wash my video cards and mother boards sometimes when they get really dirty. As long as you dry it Very well before use then its perfectly fine.
Distilled water is best.
My computers are liquid cooled while my vehicles are air cooled.  
|
Gakusei
iCX Member
- Total Posts : 388
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2007/10/28 13:06:56
- Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 3
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/14 10:41:17
(permalink)
Eject the core immediately! If for some reason the system jams and ejecting the core is impossible (which is always the case it seems) then evacuate the ship to the saucer and prepare for separation. That's my solution anyway. :D
MSI Z87 G45 | Intel i5 4670K @ 4.0 GHz | 32 GB 1866 G-Skill RAM | nVidia GeForce GTX 1080 SC | Samsung 1TB 850 EVO | Dell U2718Q & Dell P2715Q | Still on Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit Planned Upgrades: Samsung 2TB or 4TB SSD 2nd Dell U2718Q Windows 10 Pro
|
vlad01
CLASSIFIED Member
- Total Posts : 3495
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2008/04/19 16:55:43
- Location: Australia, Victoria
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 6
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/14 15:06:59
(permalink)
My computers are liquid cooled while my vehicles are air cooled.
|
rhussain
FTW Member
- Total Posts : 1679
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2009/07/17 06:58:49
- Location: Infinite Loop
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 7
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/14 18:39:40
(permalink)
I had a small coolant drip on a $2,000 quadro and I went insane about it. It just dried up on the plastic body of the card. It did not touch any of the grpahics board terminals or components. And you just go and stick both ur cards in a dishwasher lol. You have guts man. I wouldn't dare attempt such a feat. Some people would suggest using a hair dryer to dry the cards, but dont even think about it. Those hair dryers will emit static sparks on any metal surface, and they can fry your cards.
|
Rudster816
CLASSIFIED Member
- Total Posts : 4353
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2007/08/03 22:07:51
- Location: Eastern Washington
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 18
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/14 18:43:21
(permalink)
Stick to straight distilled water and you wouldnt have had that problem in the first place 
[22:00:32] NordicJedi: the only way i can read this chatroom is if i imagine you're all dead  
|
Tweaked
Omnipotent Enthusiast
- Total Posts : 10630
- Reward points : 0
- Joined: 2006/08/12 12:24:15
- Location: Texas
- Status: offline
- Ribbons : 29
Re:A way to save your stuff if there is a coolant leak.
2010/09/14 21:26:58
(permalink)
My recommendation would be to completely disassemble the cards, and use 90% Isopropyl alcohol and a clean tooth brush and scrub all the residue off. Then take a blow dryer and thoroughly dry the entire card paying special attention to the gaps beneath caps and IC's. Then let it completely dry for several days.
I have used this method several times and it has never failed me. All of the water damaged parts are still functioning.
 EVGA DG-77/ EVGA 750 G2/ Gigabyte B450/ AMD Ryzen 5 3600/ 16gb Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3600/ RTX-2080 XC/ Dell S2716DG / Windows 11 64
|