Spilled drops of tea on new unpowered graphics card, can i save it?

Thompson Slee · May 20, 2015

basically i'm building a new pc and i'm close to being finished. but i have accidentaly spilled a small amount of tea on top of the pc. a few drips of it got through the top of the casing and landed on the graphics card. the graphics card is an ASUS GTX 970 STRIX. the graphics card has plating on top where most of the drops landed but a slight bit of it got through the holes of the plating. i've put tissue in the hole and i've used a hairdryer to dry out as much as i can

i'm really worried that the graphics card was damaged because of the tea. the graphics card was turned of and unplugged during the incident.

what else should i do ? i really need help.

davidarad02 · May 20, 2015

just turn the PC on and see if it turns on.

Thompson Slee · May 20, 2015

davidarad02 :

i don't have all the parts for the pc. it's an unfinished build and i'm gradually putting new parts in when they come

Grimwinder · May 20, 2015

You can take off the shroud and clean it with cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol, just don't go crazy with the amount of fluid and make sure the card is completely dry before installing and running it.

davidarad02 · May 20, 2015

Grimwinder :

adding to that,

when doing that, don't forget to replace the thermal paste.

martinch · May 20, 2015

davidarad02 :

He's talking about the backplate, which has thermal tape (if anything) on it..?

Thompson Slee · May 20, 2015

martinch :

davidarad02 :

He's talking about the backplate, which has thermal tape (if anything) on it..?

i'm talking about the graphics card. it landed on the backplate of the graphics card.

John Chesterfield · May 20, 2015

As long as you don't power it up when you're unsure it's dried out, you should be fine. Liquid only tends to do lasting damage to components if those components are powered up at the time. I once left my work laptop in its bag out in the rain all night. Blast of heat from the footwells of my car on my way to work and then blowing heat against it for an hour at work and it powered up fine.

If you're really paranoid, just get a shoe box, fill it an inch with rice, lay the card on the rice, put on the lid of the shoe box and leave for 24 hours.

Thompson Slee · May 20, 2015

John Chesterfield :

thank's, i'll try the rice and hope for the best!

John Chesterfield · May 20, 2015

It will probably be fine. You don't need to use rice really, as long as you left the card in a warm, dry place for about 24 hours, you could be sure it's dried out and it should fire up ok.

Like I said, components really hate liquid when they're actually powered up. The card wasn't powered up, no short circuiting will have taken place.

Thompson Slee · May 20, 2015

John Chesterfield :

thankyou very much for the help, it's cured a lot of stress and panic.

Saberus · May 20, 2015

You should be fine, but if you had and sugar or cream in your tea the residue might attract bugs or mold, but after a few hours of running it will no longer be an issue.

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Spilled drops of tea on new unpowered graphics card, can i save it?

Thompson Slee

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davidarad02

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Thompson Slee

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Grimwinder

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davidarad02

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martinch

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Thompson Slee

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John Chesterfield

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Thompson Slee

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John Chesterfield

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Thompson Slee

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Saberus

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