Washed Mobo and Video Card

[Rich3077]

My Corsiar H50 sprung a leak all over my mobo and video card, PC would not stay booted longer than a minute after that. After consulting the almighty Google for a while I gathered that my best bet would be to give the mobo and video card a bath. I put them in the sink with some dish soap (cold water) and gave them a mild scrub down. I followed up with a rinse of distilled water followed by some contact cleaner and a final rinse in 91% rubbing alcohol, then used compressed air to blow some of the water out. (Yes I remembered to pull the BIOS battery first)

Both pieces had a greyish/whitish covering from the H50 contents. (Antifreeze and water)

Did it work? I dunno, they are drying so I will let you know in about 3 days.

Why am I posting this here?? Well.. I need help of course.

You see.. during all the fun I broke off a push pin that connects the southbridge heatsink and I have no idea where to get a replacement, or better yet.. an idea for something I could use to replace the push pin that I could pick up locally. I am pretty sure people in the overclocking forum know a little about this.

If you want the details the motherboard is a Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H AMD AM2+/AM3 mobo. I would really like to save this mobo because I have 8 gigs of DDR2 RAM to go with it. Its my wife's machine and is more than powerful enough for her.
Video card is an XFX 5770. (I think the CPU is a 965)

Any help/ideas/suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

 

[podspi]

I know Microcenter sells chipset HSFs. Might want to check them out if you have one local?

 

[Kenmitch]

The push pin is one of those little plastic ones that's spring loaded? If all else fails you could try home depot. Mine sells plastic bolts and nuts but you gotta look in the drawers in the hardware section.

I'd be more worried about permanent damage from the bath than the clip for now. Did you submerge the mb and video card in the sink?

 

[Rvenger]

The push pin is one of those little plastic ones that's spring loaded? If all else fails you could try home depot. Mine sells plastic bolts and nuts but you gotta look in the drawers in the hardware section.

I'd be more worried about permanent damage from the bath than the clip for now. Did you submerge the mb and video card in the sink?

If you discharge the motherboard and remove the Cmos battery you can soak them in water and scrub them with simple green. You just have to let it completely dry.

 

[tweakboy]

This is news to me. cleaning with water,,, wtf ,, talk about a death sentence, thx gg and gb

 

[Kenmitch]

If you discharge the motherboard and remove the Cmos battery you can soak them in water and scrub them with simple green. You just have to let it completely dry.

Hmm....Guess I learned something new today.

 

[Rvenger]

This is news to me. cleaning with water,,, wtf ,, talk about a death sentence, thx gg and gb

Not really. If done properly, it can actually fix an issue.

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1463

 

[Rich3077]

The push pin is one of those little plastic ones that's spring loaded? If all else fails you could try home depot. Mine sells plastic bolts and nuts but you gotta look in the drawers in the hardware section.

I'd be more worried about permanent damage from the bath than the clip for now. Did you submerge the mb and video card in the sink?

Yes both submerged. I am not to worried about it... its more common than people think.
One guy who salvages old PC's has bathed hundreds or thousands of mobo's in the sink so they will look like new. Also I understand they are washed in industrial dishwashers at the manufactures to get off all the solder paste and other garbage. Years ago I knew a guy who washed his in the shower.

I felt this was my best option because the fluid had even penetrated the PCI slot. There was also fluid inside my video card.

 

[Kenmitch]

Yes both submerged. I am not to worried about it... its more common than people think. One guy who salvages old PC's has bathed hundreds or thousands of mobo's in the sink so they will look like new. Also I understand they are washed in industrial dishwashers at the manufactures to get off all the solder paste and other garbage. Years ago I knew a guy who washed his in the shower. I felt this was my best option because the fluid had even penetrated the PCI slot. There was also fluid inside my video card.

I never researched MB bathing before

I guess under the circumstances you didn't have much choice. Leaving the coolant on the MB and card would cause permanant damage. Maybe you caught it in time to salvage them....Time will tell.

 

[Schmide]

You really should have just spot washed the effected areas.

The Ethylene/Propylene glycol is diluted enough in the liquid cooling equipment that it would not be very reactive.

As for the south-bridge issue, head to your local hardware store and pick up some nylon nuts, bolts, threaded rods and/or spacers. For simple mountings nothing beats them as you can cut to size and slightly bend them.

 

[dac7nco]

I routinely wash MBs in a cold tub before I sell them or hand them down; I think the first time I did that was with a C64 I donated to Stuart School here in Santa Rosa... you abso-fraggin-lutely have to make sure they're dry, and use distilled water (CVS/Walgreens...etc). I've been known to wash keyboards in a cold dishwasher, as well. I don't smoke indoors, or anything, but hardware needs a gleam sometimes.:biggrin:

Daimon

 

[nonameo]

Alternatively you could use some thermal tape or other thermal adhesive.

 

[sm625]

Yeah get some nylon bolts.

I wash boards all the time. Just about every pc board in existence goes through a board washer.

 

[gramboh]

I thought those Corsair H series coolers had lifetime warranty against leaks? Was thinking about going that route for my next computer but really do not want to deal with potential leaks (even if they have a good warranty).

 

[996GT2]

I read somewhere that Corsair replaced one guy's entire system because it had been damaged by his H50 leaking. Maybe you should contact Corsair to see what they'll do.

 

[podspi]

I thought those Corsair H series coolers had lifetime warranty against leaks? Was thinking about going that route for my next computer but really do not want to deal with potential leaks (even if they have a good warranty).

I was really tempted as well, but if you look at some of the reviews online, they really don't perform any better than high-end air cooling. The only advantage is that they tend to be easier to fit in smaller cases.

Personally, I am incredibly happy with the TX3 for like $25 bucks. Added a cheap $5 fan for a push-pull combo, works fantastic.

 

[gramboh]

I was really tempted as well, but if you look at some of the reviews online, they really don't perform any better than high-end air cooling. The only advantage is that they tend to be easier to fit in smaller cases.

Personally, I am incredibly happy with the TX3 for like $25 bucks. Added a cheap $5 fan for a push-pull combo, works fantastic.

Thanks for the heads up, haven't done any reading on CPU cooling since I bought my U120 Extreme in 2007. Looks like I'll probably pony up for a Noctua ND14 or Thermalright Silver Arrow when I do an Ivy Bridge build... or just get a CM 212+ and save $60 and have performance within 10% lol.

 

[Germonicus]

Any updates on the washed board?

 

[Kenmitch]

Any updates on the washed board?

I was wondering the same thing when I saw this thread bumped

 

[daveybrat]

Maybe it didn't work so he threw them in the Dishwasher.

 

[Zap]

This is news to me. cleaning with water,,, wtf ,, talk about a death sentence, thx gg and gb

People use water to clean themselves all the time. Why not PCBs? You should try it some time. As long as there isn't any electricity running through them at the time, you don't inadvertently dissolve something that shouldn't be dissolved (unlikely with just water, but who knows with soaps/solvents), it doesn't leave any deposits (use distilled water if you are paranoid) and it is thoroughly dried before being used, why not? Works great to remove smoke residue on used hardware. Note that some things probably shouldn't be washed this way, such as HDDs, fans, etc.

 

[podspi]

Assuming you let them dry out completely (which honestly wouldn't be that easy) fans should be ok I think.

But I think HD's would be a BIG no-no. Water would seep through the breathing hole and destroy EVERYTHING. This is why when you see people making those aquarium PCs they usually have the HD on the outside or partitioned somehow away from the liquid...

We need an update!

 

[Morg.]

Thanks for the heads up, haven't done any reading on CPU cooling since I bought my U120 Extreme in 2007. Looks like I'll probably pony up for a Noctua ND14 or Thermalright Silver Arrow when I do an Ivy Bridge build... or just get a CM 212+ and save $60 and have performance within 10% lol.

Hopefully there will be much better solutions than the SA at that point in time ... a heatsink that kills so many RAM slots is more a pain than a solution imho --

The current trend of tower-rad needs to die sometime soon tbh.

 

[bntran02]

This is news to me. cleaning with water,,, wtf ,, talk about a death sentence, thx gg and gb

Water does not break electrical components. The rust that it leaves behind does. So if you can prevent all the side effects of water then you can basically dump your whole computer in a pool and it should work assuming you can properly dry every little bit.

Ever heard stories of a cell phone dropped in a puddle of water but it still worked after it was all dried out?

 

[aigomorla]

water does break eq... and its not the rust.. its the dust it gets in contact with, which then charges the water so it can hold a current frying whatever it touches.

OP... how bad is the leak and how bad is the gunk?

Try to clean it off as nice as possible... use rubbing alcohol to get rid of the PEG residue...

And then once the board is completely dryed out... fire it up to see if it still posts.


Also... u will get better liquid cooling help in cases and cooling more so then overclocking.
Because u got a deity errr mod who knows a lot about water and other members who know a lot about water in that section.