Wet 6800GT

[kev22257]

Greetings,

I was working on the ater cooling I have in my system and had my video card out of the AGP slot and not powered. The smallest drop of water landed directly on what I take to be a tiny resister near the header where the fan would connect on the video card. I of course let the card dry out overnight after gently soaking up what I could. When I fired up my machine the next morning I got a plume of smoke. I cried a little and tried it again after deciding I didn't have much else to lose. The only damage was to that one resister which is rectangular. The plastic cover that shielded the metal inside melted off so it looks like current can still move through it[/img]. It worked fine after reassembly. Now however I get blue screens like it's my job. By reinstalling basically all my drivers it's been working solid, no blue screens. Is my little smoke show what caused the blue screens or was it just coincidence?

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[Heyyou27]

That's a horror story if I ever did hear one. :lol:

 

[mdd1963]

I can only assume that whatever was mixed with the water for your water cooling setup left a small residual amount of something conductive which caused the short...; I am sorry for your loss! (you might be able to find the exact resisitor rating and attempt replacing it, as you have nothing to lose really....unless.....

(Is the video card made by anyone with a lifetime warranty?)

 

[kev22257]

Well I really don't need to because the video card works fine, I was just curious as to the origin of the smoke, maybe it was something from the water burning off. I just use a mix of distilled water and high grade anti-freeze.

 

[Arucard]

The plastic melting seems like a good supply of smoke.

 

[kev22257]

That's what I gathered, think it might be related to my sudden wave of BSODs?

 

[Arucard]

Any component going up in smoke is a bad thing, so that would be a big yes. Nothing can smoke and retain the same properties afterwards. I should know, I'm at the point where I can differentiate between whether someone's burned a resistor, capacitor, or transistor in a laboratory by smell.

 

[MasterLee]

Your first mistake was not spraying the card with WD-40 after it got wet. I soaked one with water, sprayed it, next day powered up and all I lost was the fan (well maybe 2 cards got wet lol, saved both).
A light layer of the 40 will protect your card should you get water on it again. A "light layer" only, you don't want it to load up with dust

 

[jap0nes]

what about the smell of wd40 vaporizing as components start to heat? do you have to wear an oxygen mask while playing?

i think the smoke could be some residual thing from the water vaporizing... you can test the resistor with a multimeter if you have one.
i guess if it indicates the correct resistance, then you should be fine...

 

[MasterLee]

Not at all, you won't even know it's there. When it dries it's dry.
The card I thought I killed is a GeForce3 Ti200, got it wet in 2002, and it's in a friends' son's computer running right now.
Nothing on the card gets hot enough to burn the stuff, unless you've got another problem.