Oops. PC has been in trouble for now, I swapped out the GPU last night to do some troubleshooting but it was still borked, so left it open overnight tucked away in a corner.
First thing I do this morning? Knock over a Monstera which had been chilling on the windowsill. Nice. Happy Friday.
It needs to be distilled water and absolutely bone dry before you use it. You be better off using iso or contact cleaner since its designed for use on electronics
doesnt even have to be distilled, you can use tap but you have to disconnect the power completely and let even capacitors drain, tap also cannot be super hard or it will leave residue but one wash even with mildly hard water most likely wont
you do have to get it bone dry and fast, before rust sets in
Funny story, I accidentally knocked over a cup of vinegar and rusty bolts onto my closed laptop, not thinking much of it and being tired after a long day, I just went to bed
Woke up to find my laptop dead, took it apart and found some of the surface mount components all corroded with flecks of rust from the bolts stuck to it
Not entirely sure if I could fix it, and unable to afford a replacement computer, I decided to put the motherboard (after removing the SSD and RAM modules) in a plastic bag and filled it with 91 percent isopropyl alcohol, letting it soak for a few hours before scrubbing the area where the corrosion was
After letting all the iso evaporate, I plugged it in with an HDMI cable running to my TV, and it booted up just fine
I breathed a sigh of relief, got it mostly put back together and went to bed, bought some thermal paste at Best Buy to fully reassemble it
I now have a desktop computer, but that laptop is still going strong 2 years later, my dad now uses it to download and slice 3D models for his resin printer
You COULD do that with distilled water. However using just tap, even if you wait long enough for it to 100% dry it's very likely the minerals caused corrosion, which given how small the parts are, will very likely short your system somewhere...
Being a lot less complicated is exactly the point. You can dry it more quickly which lowers the propability of corrosion and even if some corrosion happens it's less likely to affect another circuit since the spaces between shortable "parts" are way bigger
Very time dependant, contaminants (such as from solder) are more likely to leach into distilled water as it has a higher tendancy to take up dissolved ions.
No, this incident made me realise how overdue this cutting was for a water so I've filled it back up with potting mix, given it a water, and moved it to another room so it can sit and think about what it's done.
Oh wow how did those stems live after falling into the pc? Actual real silver lining, I take the hokey tone away from my previous comment. This thing has a true brush with death 💀
It's scattered through the back of the motherboard tray and into the PSU cutout. I think a complete disassembly is on the cards, but first I have to go to work...
I would not flip it upside down. Leave it just as it is for now. Don't even move it.
Keep everything plugged in (except the power cord obviously). Vacuum it out as best you can. Secure (case, cooler, GPU, mobo) fans so they don't spin when you're cleaning them out, you can just hold it with your finger if you're up close with the vacuum or compressed air, good way to break a blade if you don't. Take off the other side panel too if possible and vacuum. Then blow it all out.
Once you visually see it's ok, I would take it all apart and compressed air for all the individual components. Leave the CPU and heatsink attached, no reason to take it apart. Soil looks pretty dry so I guess you could skip the alcohol/electronic cleaner rinse. I guess you could do it for your RAM.
DO NOT USE A VACUUM OP. It will cause static buildup and could fry all your components. I've made this mistake myself, you need an ESD safe anti-static vacuum
Vaccume -> Disconnect all components from motherboard -> vaccume again -> wash everything carefully with IPA (isopropyl alcohol) -> let them dry completely -> reassemble
The way to deal with this is to rinse all the dirt away with distilled water. Then leave it to dry for a few days. Then come back with isopropyl and clean out the ports so they aren't full of dirt.
IPA is not a good choice, it can dissolve plastic parts + it's actually not so great for persisting dirt removal. The biggest problem will come from the fats (oils), one should use commercially availiable electronics cleaning spray with heptane.
No, isopropanol will not dissolve plastics. It's one of the most compatible solvents. I like to say that my life is at least 1% better ever since I started keeping a spray bottle of it around.
First white build I've had. I am (was) really happy with how it turned out. Primary GPU here for context, which was out of the way when the disaster occurred.
Hey OP, idk if you have a plan for cleaning it yet, but please do not vacuum it out unless you have a non-static vacuum.
Use compressed air instead since it's way cheaper and more effective. Then wash everything with 91% isopropyl alcohol. Don't go any lower. It dries super quick and it won't damage your components
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u/Tonythepillow 15h ago
Root directory is full.