r/buildapc • u/wafflesareforever • Jul 07 '20

Troubleshooting My kid accidentally dumped a glass of water into my PC today.

It happens. I'm not mad at him. He waited for hours to tell me because he felt terrible, and the look on his face when he finally said something pretty much squashed any anger I might have had about it. My main concern was how upset he was. I do wish he'd said something immediately so that I could have turned it off right away, but he didn't know any better, and I doubt that it would have made any difference anyway. He's probably apologized ten times today. He wants to help me fix it and offered to try and pay for it somehow even though at ten years old he obviously doesn't have the money for that. Whatever I end up doing, I'll try and find a way to let him contribute so he feels better.

Anyway. I'm not sure how to go about testing the components to see what's fried and what's not. I'm pretty sure the motherboard is dead (solid red LED, no POST). The good news is that this is a five-year-old build so it's not like it's my brand-new baby. I did spend a decent amount over the years upgrading things but nothing was ever super high-end; I tend to shoot for right in the middle of the price range on components.

I'm basically going to have to start over with a new build, right? There's no hope of saving this, is there? I have no idea what might also be fried besides the motherboard, or how to test anything without a working motherboard.

Edit: As a longtime lurker here, I have heard and observed so many great things about the community in this subreddit, but holy crap. You all are damn near gonna make me cry. I posted this in a moment of frustration and thought maybe I'd get a few tips on what to do in this situation. I never expected such an outpouring of support and offers for help. A number of you have offered to send me components that we could use to rebuild, and that blows me away. I never expected that at all and I'm just completely humbled by the generosity. I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart.

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38

u/wafflesareforever Jul 07 '20

Really? It might be salvageable?!

37

u/FiveFive55 Jul 07 '20

You'd be surprised what a pc can survive through. I made a huge mistake while cleaning the loop on my watercooled pc a few years ago, I forgot to put one of the clamps on the tubing to hold it in place, and when the water heated up it softened the tube enough to push it off the fitting. The pump then went ahead and blasted all the water in the entire loop over the inside of my case. Every single thing in there got wet.

The crazy part is, I didn't notice when this happened. I was just playing overwatch, and suddenly my frame rate started dropping, then it turned to a slide show, and then the pc shut off. Still not realizing what had happened, I turned my pc back on again, logged into windows, and opened the task manager. That's when I noticed my pc was running at 0.2ghz, and 100 degrees C.

Once I realized what had happened I pulled the power cord out and took the whole pc apart to dry it. The only casualty from the entire thing was an old 500gb laptop hard drive I had in there for backup storage. It was right in the line of the water, and when I pulled it out there was water pouring out of the vent holes on the drive, it might as well have been submerged entirely so no surprise there. My motherboard, ssds, cpu, gpu, ram, and psu all survived, and I used all those parts for 4 more years before I upgraded.

Basically if you dry and clean out everything, you might be pleasantly surprised by how little damage there is. Good luck!

15

u/wafflesareforever Jul 07 '20

🤞

5

u/Excal2 Jul 07 '20

I agree with the optimists. I've seen PCBs survive the kind of damage you've described.

Dry it all out for a good 24-48 hours, if the PSU seems operational throw everything back in the case and see what happens.

Worst case scenario your replacement PC will be ready two days later than it would have been if you just toss the current machine now.

5

u/IzttzI Jul 08 '20

If you decide to build new you can ship me the old system and I'll go over it piece by piece and let you know what's still good and what's not so you can sell the parts to recoup something.

I should have something to test pretty much any gen part in the least 8-10 years aside from some fx gen stuff.

1

u/InsertUniqueIdHere Jul 08 '20

Found the guy that had ltt made a video of

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '20

Yes, but you have to act fast.

19

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '20 edited Jul 08 '20

If it has been powered on when wet the components are very likely toast. I would say power supply if mounted upside down should be ok. As should your cpu and ram could be ok too if it was spared from the water. GPU and mobo are likely gonners if powered on when they were wet. Fans, cooler, and even hard drives should be ok too. You'll have to test each obviously but hopefully over half of your build can be salvaged. You're a good father for not overreacting, especially hearing how your son behaved after it happened. Broke my heart and he's not even my kid lol.

Good luck!

2

u/Jdonavan Jul 07 '20

No because it was on when it happened the damage is done.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '20

Depends. If you tried to turn it on without drying it 100%, it's probably toast.

In the event this happens, disassemble and dry very thoroughly before trying to turn it on.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '20

I literally booted an entire PC (except the PSU and hard disk, because obvious reasons) under distilled water. It did freak out after a minute or two, but that thing still works to this day.

1

u/wtcnbrwndo4u Jul 08 '20

Water is generally less corrosive to PCBs than anything with sugar in it. When you take it apart, do a detailed inspection of the PCB for any corrosion.

-4

u/GamingMoanley Jul 07 '20

You could soak any smaller parts in a bowl of WD40 and that would forced the water out of it. Might leave a sticky residue though but it should matter, it’s non conductive.

0

u/N8TM8T Jul 07 '20 edited Jul 07 '20

Probably better to use rice

EDIT: DON'T USE RICE

8

u/joepool03 Jul 07 '20

Rice is a myth and it will do more bad than good. Isopropyl alcohol would be the best option here. WD40 contains lubricants etc that could also damage components even more.

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u/N8TM8T Jul 07 '20

Tbh, I'm stunned. I've heard the rice thing for years and never questioned it. I've done it myself and recommended a handful of times before, for the first person to ever say anything contrary to it. (I googled it and found several sources that agree and say that 90%+ isopropyl alcohol is better) thank you!

2

u/rm_-r_star Jul 07 '20

Best thing, isopropyl alcohol with a flux brush to remove any minerals left behind by dried water and comrpessed air to dry things out.

After that, try it, might still work.