Spilt a cup of water onto my desktop, shut down almost immeditaly?

marriah

Prominent
Dec 28, 2017
4
0
510
I have a 2011 Acer windows 7 home desktop with monitor. The monitor sits up on a desk and the desktop on the floor. There was a cup of water right beside the edge that was beside the desktop (yah i know stupid but I've had it there before, its like this is some karma). i bumped it somehow, it spilt right through the top vent and around. it had to be within a minute that between the spilling and me screaming 'NO!' multiple times (and the little 'ssss' sounds) that it shut down by itself. I unplugged everything within 5-10 minutes and turned it upside down and made my fan face it for about two hours. Called acer support and talked to two people, both say wait a day, one says to put it in direct sunlight tomorrow for the whole day and it should work again and one says to make sure its dry and bring it to a technician. Everyone on the internet has agreed that taking components within the computer and placing them in rice is the best option but I don't even know if it opens up, and i don't know how to take apart the components, i will probably mess something up.
Advice, and what are my best options? this has all the photos of my family memories on it, i wouldn't want to lose that.
 
Solution
So the model is an Acer Aspire X3990
https://www.cnet.com/products/acer-aspire-x3990-006-core-i3-2120-3-3-ghz-6-gb-1-tb/specs/

It's a very standard mini desktop type of computer. spilling water on it probably went in the back and hit the power supply and/or motherboard. The chance of survival after it powered down with the popping and hissing is very poor. To be reasonable, the machine itself can be replaced fairly cheaply. I'd say £150 ish with the same specs for a refurbished unit with some warranty.

However the disk drive inside it with the information has a decent chance of being OK, it's located near the front of the machine usually away from where the water would enter. We can hope anyhow.

The inside of your case looks like...

yeti_yeti

Reputable
Apr 29, 2017
414
4
4,965
You didn't lose any photos of your family don't worry, you can just take the storage out and its gonna have all of the stuff on it, unless it was damaged aswell, which is highly unlikely. As for your computer, sounds like its pretty much dead.
 

Mark RM

Admirable
DO NOT PUT YOUR PC COMPONENTS IN RICE, ever. That's the worst pile of BS I ever heard. It fixes nothing and leaches starch into everything. /rant

Anyhow, it's quite probably your hard disk is OK, the thing with the data and pictures. It's also quite probable you're in for repair cost, but truthfully few Acers are worth the cost of repair.

If you could tell us the exact model number we could offer more advice on getting your data back.



 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Find a tech savvy friend, or a repair shop.
Have them take the drive out and COPY all of your photos and other docs to another drive. A USB external drive, maybe.

That's the important part.

Once you have that, anything else can be fixed or replaced. You can't replace your family pics.
 

marriah

Prominent
Dec 28, 2017
4
0
510

Please elaborate on why it would be dead

 

Mark RM

Admirable
So the model is an Acer Aspire X3990
https://www.cnet.com/products/acer-aspire-x3990-006-core-i3-2120-3-3-ghz-6-gb-1-tb/specs/

It's a very standard mini desktop type of computer. spilling water on it probably went in the back and hit the power supply and/or motherboard. The chance of survival after it powered down with the popping and hissing is very poor. To be reasonable, the machine itself can be replaced fairly cheaply. I'd say £150 ish with the same specs for a refurbished unit with some warranty.

However the disk drive inside it with the information has a decent chance of being OK, it's located near the front of the machine usually away from where the water would enter. We can hope anyhow.

The inside of your case looks like this
http://gsm.vn/attachments/10157160_1165424036808783_1758038036830253264_n-jpg.205826/

Water would have went down that top grill hit the motherboard and into the PSU at the bottom taking it out too. In the picture you can see the large square area that occupies the left upper 2/3rds, it's an optical disc(DVD) and under that is a hard disc that looks like the one in this link at Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-MQ01ABD-Internal-Drive-MQ01ABD100/dp/B009AYVNMQ

Basically you need to remove that drive from the dead machine , inspect it for water damage, even if you see none, blow carefully around the circuit board with compressed air (even get the tip of the compressed air can under the board) if you see moisture moving then the drive is not dry enough to attempt to restore. Do not pack it in rice, instead just let it dry, for a week or more if you have to.

You can hook the disc up to the USB ports on another computer in order to recover your information by using something like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-Docking-Including-External-Tool-Free/dp/B00IS7Y96I/

The drive just pops in there and gets powered up and is seen on another computer.

Now I understand you might not feel comfortable with all of this so don't hesitate to get some technical help if you need it. I've laid this out the best I can, Your PC is not fixable, don't even plug it in in case a fire starts.

The hard disk MAY be recoverable, I've outlined the process as best I can to give you a chance at data recovery.

Good Luck.
 
Solution

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator


Unfortunately, the fact that you left the PC running upon spilling a water instead of immediately yanking the power, instead choosing to run it until something bad happened, has greatly increased the chances that at least one component has been permanently ruined, perhaps more.

Your hard drive has *likely* survived, though all bets are off when something like this happens. If the PC is unrecoverable, it's very likely you can put the hard drive into an enclosure and recover the files using another PC. And for god's sake, if these family memories are precious, they shouldn't be residing solely on a single hard drive but backed up in multiple places, so use this situation as an opportunity to make a proper backup plan (it's basic upkeep for PC ownership).
 

marriah

Prominent
Dec 28, 2017
4
0
510


I’m sorry, but how can for sure you say the PC is not recoverable when situations like these has happened to other pc-owners many times, and even worse like where they smell the scent of burning and yet a week later their PC is fine. Please don’t think I’m being rude, but I have talked two employees (over the phone yes) of the Acer company and both say the pc should be fine and take it a to technician before you turn anything on (I will see the technician tomorrow). And maybe I over exaggerated the sounds I heard, or lack thereof, I didn’t hear popping or hissing , I put my ear close before I unplugged it immeditaly and heard a VERY faint water-settling sound , kind of like when you first pop open a soft drink can. But I really doubt that my computer has that much of a chance of not recovering. Much of the water didn’t even go straight in.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
As said....remove the drive and save off your personal critical docs and photos.
After that...investigation and debugging can begin.

"(and the little 'ssss' sounds) that it shut down by itself."

That does not sound good.

It may work prefectly
It may be completely hosed.

No one knows until you power it up and see what happens.

But...
"this has all the photos of my family memories on it, i wouldn't want to lose that. "

This requires that you save that critical data off to elsewhere before you begin this investigation process.
Unless you don't care, and want to risk your family photos to complete and utter destruction.
 

Mark RM

Admirable


Up to you, do as you please. once that that snap crack and pop hit, you were out of luck.

Good luck, good bye.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator


Great, call center employees reading a script off a computer screen telling them to tell you not to worry told you not to worry.

Lots of people recover from water spilling into their PC. But most of them don't spill water into their PC and then leave it running while they wait for electricity to go where electricity should not be going.

Best of luck to you. I'm *not* paid customer support, so I don't need to deal with rude people who loudly insist they know exactly what happened despite not even knowing how to open up a desktop.
 

marriah

Prominent
Dec 28, 2017
4
0
510


ok, i sense a bit of tension here.... possibly caused/started by me....
Im sorry, i just really want there to be a chance this computer may start up again.
But you got to agree, from a lot of threads i read, the computer did power down by itself, why is my situation different because of that detail?
I Just want to ask, where exactly did the water go? From what i got by looking inside the vents with a flashlight and one eye open, seems like it had to hit the fan, and whatever was above it (and some drops on external sockets in the back..)
Once again, really sorry, I just want there to be a chance and don't want to accept there isn't.

And I don't know if it is already noticeable, but I am obviously a tad younger than all of you, so explains why I can't do jackshit when it comes to opening up a desktop tower.

 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
The chance of something being completely dead is between 0% and 100%.
And that something might be a minor part (a fan), or a major part (the motherboard).

No way to tell until someone gets in there and starts looking around, and possibly swapping in new parts.

However, you don't just do this blindly, and you do not do it with a hard drive containing the only copy of critical family photos.