URGENT Need help with a flooded Tower

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by Aioras, Dec 4, 2016.

  1. Aioras

    Aioras Guest

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    URGENT Need help with a flooded Tower (Resurrection Worklog inside)

    Hello guys, this weekend we had a real bad raining period, due to the floods inside the cellar of a friend, his tower was flooded at all under water and mood so badly.
    The only good new was that the tower was dissconected from the wall at all "if it helps...", the components are (Mobo Asus Sabertooth Z77, i7 2600k, GPU Asus Strix GTX970, Corsair H100, SSD Samsung 250gb, HDD 1tb Seagate and so...
    Now the question is... Is there any chances we can recover anything from inside if I dissasemble every part, clean it with alcohol carefully and let it dry for a few days?

    Could it work? Or is a waste of time?

    Thanks guys
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2016
    airbud7 likes this.
  2. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    If tower was physically disconnected then you just dry it with warm air. I don`t know whether motherboard and all other parts contain materials which could be destroyed with water but I suspect they don`t. So just be sure it is dry when you connect it back.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2016
  3. Extraordinary

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    Good chance a lot, if not all will still work if dried out fully first, you might want to clean them with isopropyl alcohol though to remove the crap/impurities that would have been left behind from the water
     
  4. Aioras

    Aioras Guest

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    Sounds pretty good, thanks for the tips guys.
     

  5. Zooke

    Zooke Master Guru

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    Remove CMOS battery.

    It's gonna be a hell of a clean, but bearing in mind it's already wet then you do not have to be careful with water when cleaning it.

    Warm water and a few shakes will likely remove any foreign material from each component.

    The drying process will take the longest, warm air and time.
     
  6. Aioras

    Aioras Guest

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    Thanks mate
     
  7. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    No, don't use more water, the impurities in the water are what cause the problems in the first place, use isopropyl alcohol
     
  8. CrazY_Milojko

    CrazY_Milojko Ancient Guru

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    +1
    What worries me most are SSD and HDD and data on these. It'll be OK to take apart SSD and clean everything inside around chips and PCB with isoprophyl aclohol + gentle painting brush but don't try to take apart HDD because most likely you're gonna do even more damage. Try to suck moisture inside HDD with weak vacuum cleaner through small HDD's vent hole, but do it slooooowly.

    Don't try to clean everything for one day, let moisture evaporate for few days with a bit of your help: isoprophyl alcohol, gentle painting brush, canned air, small vacuum cleaner and hair dryer set to low temperature. Do it for few days, take it easy.

    Good luck!
     
  9. Elder III

    Elder III Guest

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    I'll agree with what the others above said. There's a decent chance it will be ok if cleaned and dried 100% before turning it back on.

    For something tricky to dry, like the HDD, maybe see if you can get some Silica Gel packs https://www.amazon.com/Dry-Packs-Moisture-Absorbing-Indicating-Contains/dp/B001UYEBNW to put in a sealed container with the hardware for a day or more. I haven't personally ever had to do that, but I think it might be a help in this case.
     
  10. scatman839

    scatman839 Ancient Guru

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    Sorry but this is flood water.

    It's not like running a PCB under a tap, surely there's going to be a lot of impurities left over, especially salts, and short circuits or corrosion everywhere. Even with alcohol or other cleaning fluids.

    Also, while hard drives are reasonably sealed, some will not hold up being submerged.

    I wouldn't try clean it and turn it all on at once. Test things one at a time in another working computer, replace every cable.
     

  11. zettajhony

    zettajhony Guest

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    Hello there

    mmmhhh .., the way that I try things indeed this sounds very funny and it makes no sense .. but you can try this way .., and I tried this successfully on my cell phone long time ago .., try to be entered into a heap of rice each component mainly HDD, but its volume should be 1 to 10 minimum and keep it that way for less than two or three days .., rice has a warm nature and it will evaporate the water there is on the sidelines between the components that are not covered by the manual tool.., it's works to my phone cell (nokia 3150...until now)
     
  12. Aioras

    Aioras Guest

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    Thanks for all the replies guys, at this point the owner probably has completely lost his hope for all, he is looking for the insusance covers and see if its possible to get a few euros for a new one.
    But I told him to literally shower the entire tower with alcochol for a surface dirty clean, and from now I want to take this as a challenge, I will work up my best to recover the most with your tips.
    I will try to post some pictures of my daily work and see if it helps to someone else on the same situation one day.

    Thanks guys
     
  13. Zooke

    Zooke Master Guru

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    I know others disagreed with my suggestion of warm water but as another poster pointed out, this is Flood water not a drink spilled over the tower.

    Sure go with some isothingy alcohol afterwards but lets get it to a reasonable state 1st.
     
  14. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    Makes no difference what sort of water damaged it first, you don't put more water on it


    Good luck, be interested to see how you get on
     
  15. Elder III

    Elder III Guest

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    If you take pictures, take some before starting cleaning and post them for us to take a look at. :)

    Also, as mentioned above, rice does help to absorb moisture. If you can't get silica gel packs definitely try the rice method.
     

  16. airbud7

    airbud7 Guest

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    Yes - clean with alcochol

    Yes - rice does work

    Yes - let dry for 3 or more days

    NO - clean with more water? wtf :bang:
     
  17. Aioras

    Aioras Guest

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    Ok, Lets go with it... Caution, looks really bad...

    Day Zero:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    First step was to "shower" everything with alcohol for a surface mood cleaning... Tomorrow I´ll start to dissasemble all and start deep cleaning the GPU and the Mobo.

    PD: I want to recover everithing but the PSU as I don´t feel confident enough to plug it back to the wall even cleaned... What do you think guys?
    More pics to come...
     
  18. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    Ouch, some reason wasn't expecting that, things like the HDD might never work again if silt and mud got into the actual drive/platters

    Nice project though, very rewarding if you manage to salvage the main parts
     
  19. Aioras

    Aioras Guest

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    I thought platters where pressured sealed... The HDD is in fact one of the most important part to recovers as it contains a lot of pictures (my mate should have listened to me when I told him about data clouds....)
     
  20. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    For those saying to avoid water..... Distilled or De-Ionized water would be perfectly fine to use. Do NOT use tap water, spring water or mineral water though. De-ionized water is completely harmless to electronics as it's both non-conductive and non-corrosive. Distilled water is fine if it's subjected to pre and post distillation filtering.
     

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