Water got into the PC, wont turn on!

[riniks92]

Hello everyone!
An accident has happened and my PC might be ruined
I was asleep when my sister was using the computer and she had this rubber heater which has to be filled with water. And it somehow blew up.
The PC was on its side (cpu fan's mount brackets have been broken) and the water got in while being on.
She unplugged everything asap.

When I opened the case I noticed the MB was wet in some places.
The water got in though the two openings that are over the CPU and GPU. Removed the CPU fan and there was a single water droplet on the thing where you put the CPU in. And the MB battery was quite wet.

Dried the whole thing with a fan, made an attempt to start the PC, nothing happened. I remember there being this subtle electricity sound when the PC is off but plugged in, now there's no sound.
Tried to turn on the PC a couple of times with no luck.

I guess the MB is damaged, but what about the other components?

What I really care about the most is the GPU(which I bought a year ago, the rest is like 4 years old) and the hard dive (it would be such a shame to lose all the data)
How likely is that these components are damaged? Inspected the GPU, saw no trace of water but there was water right next to it on the MB. The water didn't get to the hard drive, could it somehow be damaged though?

I'd appreciate your help.

 

[the great randini]

i would take every thing apart, you can leave the cpu in the motherboard. set it on some paper towels on a table. let it air out for a day. re assemble and give it a shot.
we had a accident at work were some one came in to work on a leak on a sprinkler head, he thought it wold be a good idea to try to tighten it, well he broke the sprinkler head and two offices filled water about 8 inches. in one office the user had the pc on the floor a dell optiplex 260 after about a day and a half as a joke we turned it on and it fired right up, you could see a water line 3 or four inches up the mobo.

 

[Poprin]

It's amazing how well some electrical equipment stands up to water. As the great randini said take the whole thing apart, dab any excess water from the componants and leave to dry for at least a day. Give it a good airing and then put it back together and retry. If you have another machine you can try each componant in turn in that machine to confirm they are still functioning... I realise not everyone has this luxury!

 

[vrumor]

Id be more concerned with the fact that you turn your PC on its side in order for the CPU fan to stay on cause the mounts are broken. Not sure theres any part of that thats a good idea.

 

[RetiredChief]

Just "drying it out is probably not the best approach. What I would do.
1) Disassemble; remove MB, ram and GPU. Remove HSF Leave CPU installed.
2) Immerse in distilled water, one at a time, Ram, MB, GPU and agitate for 15 min.
NOTE, this step can be skipped but is one I would do.
3) Repeat, but use alcohol this time.
4) Preheat oven to 150 F, turn OVEN OFF, place parts in oven for 2 Hours.
5) Remove parts from oven and leave overnight.

In mean time get a cheap PSU tester and verify PSU survived.

Re-assemble MB and put one stick of ram in - Leave GPU out. Power on and see if System will try to come up ie fans start to turn, system attempts to post (no video so n display).
If Yes, then install video card and re-try.
If NO, REplace MB and try.

When water evaporates it leaves CONDUCTIVE mineral deposits!!

PS Unless the water shorted the +5V rail to he +12V rail, the HDD should be OK, but easy enough to check, just plug into another system. Or get a USB enclosure and stick in to enclosure and plug into a usb port on a 2nd computer.

 

[neon neophyte]

hard drive is fine
cpu should be fine
gpu could be fine
motherboard is probably toast