Spilled water on BOTH of my GPU's!

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Jake Mitchell

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Jan 17, 2014
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Ok, so in a "I am the dumbest man alive" moment:

I just got my second GTX 760 to SLI. I was also getting ready to install some new fans so I pulled most of my components out of my PC to reorganize wires and what not.

Well it seems once I got everything apart it was pretty late so I figured I'd just come back to it the next day. The cats electric water fountain (yes no need to discuss cats or the fact that they have a fountain) is stored in the office where the computer is, so since I had all of the computer parts lying all over the place I figured I'd just take the fountain and put it in the hall.

As I was picking up the awkward device full of water (apparently I think i'm superman and didn't take any precautions) and open the door to put it in the hall, about a cup full of water spills out and low and behold directly onto BOTH of my GTX 760's that were laid out on a box.

One of the 760's was pretty much completely covered and the other just had some residual splash from the main one getting hit. First, I cursed myself for being such an imbecile since I haven't even hooked these graphics cards up yet (just got them in the mail today).

I then blotted up any water I could visibly see with paper towel, after that I got a new can of compressed air and blew off as much of the water on the cards as I could before the pressure ran out of the can / the can began icing over on the outside from over use. I then went and filled 2 boxes with rice and completely submerged the GPU's in them. I am leaving them there all day today and when I get home from work I will use a blow dryer to remove any excess moisture that may not have come off in the rice before plugging them in and testing.

My questions are:

1) I did not have any rubbing alcohol lying around to take a toothbrush to it. I'm hoping between the quick paper towel blotting, condensed air and rice I should be okay? Feedback on this would be appreciated.

2 and most importantly) Do you think the card(s) will be okay? They were unpowered and not connected to anything else, so everything i've read in other places seems to say that they have a much better chance than if it were plugged in.

3) If the cards DO power on, is there any tests or anything i can do to verify they are running properly? I just want to be sure that even if they do power on (which is the main hurdle) that I''m not running the system with damaged goods or am not able to achieve the speeds that I should be able to/graphical potential due to some unknown water damage.

As can be expected, my heart is sinking due to the fact that I had just purchased them that day (yesterday) and hadn't even got them into my PC before being an idiot and spilling water all over them. Any feedback is appreciated!
 
Solution
laviniuc
yes, if you had them powered on you most certainly would have caused irreparable damage.

1) yes there's not much else to try. next steps would be to completely disassemble them, clean out any residue from the water and reattach the cooler. but this can cause more problems than it fixes.

2) depends on whether water got inside them or just on the surface(s). it's it's just surface leaving them to dry is plenty.

3) most of the pcb (printed circuit board) is immune to water damage IF it has dried out completely so that it doesn't cause short circuits - the integrated circuits (gpu chip itself, the ram modules) are water proof and so is most the pcb. the worse affected in my opinion is the fan if water got inside it - though it would...
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laviniuc

laviniuc

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yes, if you had them powered on you most certainly would have caused irreparable damage.

1) yes there's not much else to try. next steps would be to completely disassemble them, clean out any residue from the water and reattach the cooler. but this can cause more problems than it fixes.

2) depends on whether water got inside them or just on the surface(s). it's it's just surface leaving them to dry is plenty.

3) most of the pcb (printed circuit board) is immune to water damage IF it has dried out completely so that it doesn't cause short circuits - the integrated circuits (gpu chip itself, the ram modules) are water proof and so is most the pcb. the worse affected in my opinion is the fan if water got inside it - though it would need to be thoroughly soaked for this and the thermal paste if it was washed out
 
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Solution
laviniuc

laviniuc

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i know i was clearing out this aspect for him:
"2 and most importantly) Do you think the card(s) will be okay? They were unpowered and not connected to anything else, so everything i've read in other places seems to say that they have a much better chance than if it were plugged in."

it's not just a much better change, it's the only chance. if they were plugged in and running it would have been game over in 99% of cases.
 
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Jake Mitchell

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Jan 17, 2014
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Thanks for the quick feedback.

"next steps would be to completely disassemble them, clean out any residue from the water and reattach the cooler. but this can cause more problems than it fixes."

How do I disassemble the graphics card? It was already detached from the Mobo and sitting separately on the floor.... is there further disassembling that can be done? Also, how do I clean off "water residue" and if it can cause more problems that it fixes should I just skip this?

"yep thats why you should bake them in the oven as outlined above it will get the mosture out of hard to reach places without damaging them"

Really? Put them in the oven? I feel like that would damage them? Sitting in 100 degrees for a few hours, wouldnt that melt the thermal paste, certain sodders, do damage?
 
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cst1992

cst1992

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Nov 8, 2013
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I don't know about the GPU, but here is what I read on a site:
A guy's power supply caught fire.
He turned off the power, doused it with water.
Some of the components were burnt, so nothing could be done about them. But the hard drive was water soaked, and he kept it in the oven for 4 hours at 100F and it works fine.
So maybe you should do the same.
 
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legokill101

legokill101

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he means remove the cooler just remove the screws from the backplate though it might void your warenty and when you ressable replace with a high quailty thermal past

and thermal past willl not melt becuase im talking around 100-120 fahrenheitt gpus througtile around 85 celcius so thats 185 fahrenheit and if your woried dissable it first then apply new thermal compound when you re assemble
 
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laviniuc

laviniuc

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edit: yes, in most cases it voids warranty. so does water damage.

1. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290-accelero-xtreme-290,3671.html
something like this but search for a guide for your exact card. it's tricky business that's why i said maybe best skip it as you could cause worse results.

it would allow you to inspect the card/pcb and clean out water from any places that you didnt see it had reached. you would clean with rubbing alcohol or normal alcohol and a clean tissue. much like a normal cpu thermal paste cleanup but applied to all the places that seem to have had water on them. and of course the paste needs to be reapplied so the chip/memory modules too like on the guide.

2. he means 100F so about 37C-40C it would get only warm -ish. besides, gpu is designed to work up to 60-70C so no problems there. this could help too in case there's still water inside
 
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Jake Mitchell

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Thanks guys. So you think putting it in the oven at 100 degrees farenheit for a few hours is a good idea? If so, I'll do that when I get home.

Also, I don't think I'm going to take it apart, since I'm not an expert and would probably just end up doing more harm than good. Also, if all else fails i figured i'll try to RMA it and if I get lucky they'll just send me a replacement.
 
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laviniuc

laviniuc

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agreed.... unfortunately they can figure out it was water that caused this...

also when you're done baking, power on with the card that got the least water, if that one starts ok try the second one too... if that better one fails in any way i would say you have no choice but to take the second one apart... take the cooler down, clean again, etc.
 
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Jake Mitchell

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Ok thanks everyone! Also, if the card does power on and boot into windows normally would it be safe to assume I'm in the clear? Or are there other things that I should be looking out for? I'm asking because I have no clue. What would be some things to test/look for to be sure it's working A-OK?
 
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Jake Mitchell

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definitely will do.

Also, with putting the video cards in the oven... what should I put them on? I'm assuming not tin foil? just lay them directly on the pan? Won't the metal of the pan on the plastic/metal of the card amplify the heat though? Or is tin foil ok?
 
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RobCrezz

RobCrezz

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Something non conductive, like baking paper or something.
 
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J

Jake Mitchell

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Jan 17, 2014
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Ok so i've been doing a little searching around on the internet and am just a bit concerned with "baking" my cards. A lot of them say to remove your fans, and other units attached with thermal paste first so as not to melt those peripherals.

The problem is that I don't want to mess with taking the GPU's apart as i'm not very experienced with that and don't want to ABSOLUTELY void the manufacturers warranty (yeah i know it's "water damaged" but its more of a chance having not taken it apart than doing so).

So do you all think that having it in the oven for 2 hours at 100 degrees ferenheit will be fine WITHOUT taking the card apart? Or is it too much of a risk?

Thanks again!
 
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