At very first moments after the disaster, what scared the most to the owner was the main HDD (Toshiba 1Tb Sata3) as he had a tons of non backed up familiar pictures and so... We really spected to loose all that data and started looking for an expensive data recovery enterprises... But we are shocked as the HDD has survived after the big clean and rice trick! I did a quick back up just in case but after a Cristaldisk pass it shows is healthy! Non single error. Even so, he´s not 100% confident and will buy a new one, leaving the flooded old just for non important backup data. The tower is now clean and tomorrow I will start building all again, after all this adventure I would be really dissapointed if the motherboard and cpu are not saved but... Honestly what we have recovered so far is a pure win afterall. Thanks again for all the tips guys, D Day is close now.
Good job! Really great news about HDD, guess trapped air inside HDD didn't let the mud and water to get in and make a mess because there is only one vent hole on the top plate, if there was another one hole air could get out from one and mud/water could get in through the other. Or maybe dense mud just saved HDD by "sealing" the vent hole, that's why water couldn't get in. Every day we learn something new Don't worry dude, CPU is alive, wanna bet?
Looking very hopeful! Great news on the HDD too Don't forget you'll very likely need a new CMOS battery, that thing would undoubtedly have died under water
For sure! The cmos battery was one of the first things I removed and replaced. I really believe motherboard and cpu are alive
good job saving it. two things: dont use (normal) vacuums. they produce static, which isnt good for components/electronics. and dont mess with rice. go to your local home improvement store and get those humidity removers for damp rooms/cellars. put it in a bag with the component and seal it with tape. will be dry in 24h.
Yes could be that the mud in this case was useful. Plus only single vent hole creating a pressure plug. Great news OP and a solid plan for the HDD. I think if the HDD works 100 % the rest is a breeze. Look forward to a working system once you get it put together *knocks on wood just in case*
So the final day arrived... with the real great news! Everything´s working!!! I´ve built back all the stuff, turned on "with my psu" and working!! I´m really in shock that all seems to be working flawless!! I loaded a saved bios config because of the cmos battery replacement, started Windows and did several stability tests, I did Aida64 stability test for 1 hour, a couple of runs of 3DMark Firestorm, like one hour playing Battlefield 4 and Dying Light, did a cristaldisk pass to be sure there was no damage on the hdd and ssd´s.. It´s like all this disaster was a bad dream and I´m awake now. Even so I want to be cautious with all this, every component has been under water and mud for like 2 or 3 hours, now they´re so much clean and there´s no mud at all... There´s no single signal of corrosion or rusty anywhere "I used a tiny lamp and a lens to be sure", I´m really happy anyway, all is back and working. I want to thanks everyone one for the tips and steps to do this job succesfully, thanks very much guys!
Man you are unbelievable. Hat off to you, you are a really special human being. All my respects for you dedication. :thumbup:
haha that's pretty spectacular tbh, most people would definitely have written it off So is your friend still claiming on insurance / giving you the rig, or keeping it himself? Very impressive indeed, I know who I`m calling if that happens to me
Excellent! Happy for you! Not a lot of people would have been willing to go through all that work, even to help a friend (or themselves). May the reborn system live long and prosper
OP, you have my respect, because of your dedication, efforts and time spent on rebirth of this rig. Imho this thread deserves a sticky, can't remember if I ever saw simmilar thread elswere. Once more: hats off to you OP...
Thanks again guys, without your tips and suggestions this couldn´t be achieved. I´m really happy that all that effort had such a great reward, honestly thanks all.
11 days from first post for completely wrecked machine, to completely working rig again Would have taken longer to RMA one part lol