Water leaked on graphics card

[dave4900]

Hi,


My water cooling system recently leaked a small amount of water from the cpu block which dripped down on to my Nvidia FX5200 graphics card ( I discovered this afterwards, it was while my computer was on the graphics went blurry and flashing so I switched it off immediatley)

I have sorted the leak and dried the graphics card and the agp slot and left it to dry overnight (about 9 hours)

When I powered it on this morning it all came up fine no blurring in the graphics no pink chequered lines.

I monitored it for about 5 mins, after this lines started to appear again and the graphics went blurry, I switched off imediatley.

Have I destroyed my graphics card or my agp slot? or might it be that there is still some water left that is causing this ?

Thanks in advance

 

[mkaibear]

Sounds like you killed it...

Leave it* to dry without turning it on for a week, preferably in a nice warm place.

Then try again.


*where "it" is "the whole computer".

 

[Grizely1]

Sounds dead to me... last time I dripped water on a card (GeForce2 GTS) it started smoking and ended up having 16MB of ram instead of the 32mb it was supposed to, but still worked. so who knows for sure, but it sounds fried to me if it keeps messing up like that.

 

[13thmonkey]

The water will have left some residue behind and this might be causing the problem.

Given its an FX it probably isn't worth cleaning, if it was anything newer it might have been if you tried an RMA first.

But if you really want to clean it, then there will be others on here who could help, but it will be time consuming, risky and will cost money. I'd suggest washing it with de-ionised might lift or reduce the residue, but beyond that I'd try some solvents but they might (read probably will) damage the card in other ways if you get the wrong one. Others may have better advice. Either way unless you already know what you are doing I wouldn't bother, and if you knew what you were doing you know what the problem was and be posting as a solution not as a question.

 

[jkflipflop98]

Here's an RFC for water in your computer:

1. Power down the PC.
2. Unplug the power cord from the supply.
3. Attempt to restart the PC while it's unplugged. This will discharge your capacitors and keep you safe.
4. Clean out all excess water from board faces and slots.
5. Use compressed air to blow out the water from those hard to reach spots.
6. Gather up thin, dry, sythetic wipes and the most pure Isopropryl alcohol you can get your hands on. 90%+
7. Liberally wet your wipes with IPA and start wiping stuff down. ESPECIALLY inside the PCI/AGP slots. Be sure to get the video card's PCB too.
8. If you cant physically get inside the slot, pour (Yes, pour) a very small amount into connector.
9. Being careful not to get it in your eyes (you're wearing safety glasses, right?) use more compressed air to blow everything dry.
10. let it sit overnight to be certain everything is dried out.
11. Reassemble and power up.

Good luck. If all else fails, at least you have an excuse to upgrade your video card. :twisted:

 

[croc]

I'd prefer ethyl alcohol for that method... 100%, straight down the throat. Screw the dead card....

 

[croc]

OOpps...

 

[dave4900]

Firstly thanks for all the prompt replies.

It looks like I have had a lucky escape, the card and pc have now had almost 14 hours drying time, I powered it up on my lunch time to test it again ( I wouldn't be to upset if my card was broken anyway its old !)

It seems there must have been a very small amount of moisture left which has dried out completely since this morning.

I ran it for approximatley 30 mins, it ran 100 % fine, no glitches blurrs or anything, I also ran dxdiag to check the card was still functioning correctly, all tests passed 100%.

I also ran a few 3d games, both ran fine.

So thank you once again for the help, I will be keeping a close eye on it over the next few days for any further errors, though I am very hopefull now there won't be any.

I will post an update if there are any changes.

 

[gomerpile]

hair dryer works good for that, I remember awhile ago when I had a chiller hooked up I had condensation big time, water dripping on vcard, mb but what saved my ass was dielectric stuff. I used a hair dryer to dry up the parts and today the parts are still being used.

 

[Mach5Motorsport]

some people would say that a FX5200 is dead before the leak. :lol:

others would say such an event could only help a FX5200 improve its performance.

in any event, that's the risk you take putting in a water cooling system.

(I would ask why would you install such an extreme cooling system when you are using a FX5200?) :?

 

[tool_462]

Good to hear it is still working. Good call on turning it off right away People here have seen (some have done) much more stupid things than that and it has cost them.

 

[dave4900]

OK I presume this is related as I have no idea why it happened.
It has been running fine for 3 -4 days, today I switched it on there was a loud pop, and flash (saw the flash as I still have the side of the case off) and it tripped my fuse box.
It looks like part of my motherboard has blown.
Will this have damaged my cpu, memory etc.

 

[redwing]

Not necessarily.

Also if this was a current spike, more likely than not it's your PSU that's damaged, and your mobo might still be ok.


edit : if the short-circtuit was inside the mobo (somewhere around the power circuit or the 24pin connector), then it's very possible that the CPU and mem are both dead, I didn't see the part about the flash at first.

Regardless, you should test your components in a friends' PC - memory should be easiest (just drop it in any other mobo), the CPU and motherboard is more annoying, but still worth trying if you want to try reusing as much of your system as you can. If you have a spare PSU around (or a 2nd computer with a working PSU), I would try that before anything else.

 

[Slappy_Slime]

today I switched it on there was a loud pop, and flash (saw the flash as I still have the side of the case off) and it tripped my fuse box.
It looks like part of my motherboard has blown.
Will this have damaged my cpu, memory etc.

if ya talking about your house breaker box that triped, ya have a dead short in the PSU :!: check mother board for burn marks and even under the psu/MB connections. take MB out of case and look for visiable burn marks even on back side of the MB. do this in bright light "it make it easier to find". if the board checks out ok, the rest of the componets should be ok but not 100% certain.(freaky things do happen).......O-yea on the water thing on your vid card, alochol works great, but if ya can pick up a can of "electrical cleaner" its made for electric contacts and circuit boards and etc....and it will clean out your agp/pci/mem/ slots. (wear eye protection)!......Good luck. :lol:

 

[dave4900]

Ok, I have tested my power supply and it is in fact dead, there is a small scorch mark on the motherboard (not sure what you call them) but its a small black square with 2 metal tails on, this is just above the AGP slot, I am guessing the board shorted here, causing the power supply to blow up.

I have inspected the CPU and memory, both appear to be ok on a visual inspection, however I have no way of testing these until I get another motherboard and PSU.

I am praying that my ram and cpu are ok.

I have got a replacement motherboard, I was looking for a PSU reccomendation, my previous was an Enermax