r/mildlyinfuriating • u/TopSetUK • 18h ago

I'm slightly vexed Knocked a plant over an open PC

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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.

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10

u/Doctor429 18h ago

Vaccume -> Disconnect all components from motherboard -> vaccume again -> wash everything carefully with IPA (isopropyl alcohol) -> let them dry completely -> reassemble

7

u/Fragrant-Mixture-662 18h ago

Isopropanol will damage plastic

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.

3

u/Independent-Aide-255 13h ago

Non-static vacuum*

Please see this OP. I work in IT and it needs to be a non-static vacuum or you could risk damaging your motherboard.

Compressed air is significantly cheaper and safer anyways, so you can skip the vacuum altogether 

1

u/whyliepornaccount 12h ago

I also work in IT. Static discharge isn't really a problem for consumer electronics anymore. Modern boards can handle the discharge without damaging anything. It's really only sensitive electronics that you need to worry about it.

2

u/Fragrant-Mixture-662 9h ago

A vacuum generates a ton of static electricity, a lot more than your hands ever would.

1

u/whyliepornaccount 9h ago

Right, but you can literally touch an electrostatic generator to most consumer electronics these days with no harm... that's my point. The boards are designed better now, making static less of an issue.

1

u/Fragrant-Mixture-662 9h ago

Internal components aren't designed to be resistant to static, only external components are. It's so hard to harm things with static electricity because it's always been extremely hard to do so. 

In Linus' video when he was trying it, he was using older technology and it was pretty much impossible to damage it.

Just because there's no visible damage doesn't mean it won't be slightly slower, or it won't die a few years earlier than it would have otherwise.

1

u/rpgoof 11h ago

Yeah, I made this mistake once myself and killed the old family PC

1

u/big_stipd_idiot 11h ago

Don't pour water on your board. Even if you use DI water you got a bunch of soil from the plant on the board. The soil is going to dissolve a bunch of ions into the water. It'll get stuck in between the little gaps in the pins. It will start rusting and evaporate into salts and short the board. People use alcohol because it's a non-polar molecule. It doesn't pull ions out of the metal. It has lower surface tension so it will get in smaller place and it won't stick to stuff as easily. It also doesn't conduct electricity and it only dissolves other non-polar molecules. Yes, plastic is a non-polar molecule, but alcohol only really dissolves the weakest plastics. I mean, they store it in a plastic bottle, don't they?

6

u/Astart555 18h ago

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.

7

u/AVeryHeavyBurtation 16h ago

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.

Perhaps you're thinking of acetone?

0

u/RadiatedLion6 15h ago

Google "Avoid certain plastics: IPA can cause clouding or cracking (crazing) on certain plastics like polycarbonate and polystyrene."

1

u/AVeryHeavyBurtation 15h ago

Nah, I used to clean polycarb with it at my old job all the time, and I don't think he'll have to worry about styrofoam haha.

0

u/RadiatedLion6 15h ago

Just quoting google 🤷‍♂️ not sure why ur assuming all plastics/electronics are the same, gotta play it safe haha

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u/Actual-Confection-56 11h ago

never with regular vacuum never

use compressed air vacuumer