Pass the Salt, please
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I second the alcohol... we use it at work for cleaning components...
Albert Holguin wrote:
alcohol..
... so versatile ...
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DD said rice, along those lines, I recommend silica. I'm really sorry to hear this. Were they on the ground?
Rice is a hell of a lot cheaper and more easily available, and you can eat it afterwards
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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Gary Wheeler wrote:
Unfortunately most kitty litter is made of clay. It would absorb the water, bond to itself nicely, and do a very convincing imitation of concrete covering your motherboard.
Good point hadn't thought of that.
VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1An unfortunate byproduct of the being the client of a number of felines over the years is an appalling familiarity with the properties of kitty litter.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
DD said rice, along those lines, I recommend silica. I'm really sorry to hear this. Were they on the ground?
Well - on my ground (only) floor. It eventually took on over a foot (30cm) of water - but the PC's were up on table and chairs well before that. Power strips were immersed. UPS's, oddly enough, chirped well into the night (having been lifted above the flood, as well. I suppose they might be OK, as well. Silica Gel is not so easy to get as rice.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Suggestions Wanted: My three desktops, all vertical standing, had about one inch (2 1/2 cm) salt water in them before I could get them off the floor. Since they were off (and power had gone out about half an hour earlier) nothing was immediately fried. Any experience or suggestion on trying to retreive them alive? I'm planning to rinse the with plain water and letting the dry. Then, it's power up (and watching the pretty sparks and clouds of smoke). Some external USB drives did the teabag trick - I plan to open, inspect, rinse and dry if needed, and use USB dock to read drives. With 9.4 million registrants, someone must have tried this before.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Salt water is the worst that can happen to electronic components. The only chance to recover is to immediately flush with large amounts of fresh water and wait until it is dry (this may take some weeks). Then power the device and hope for the best. Flushing later (that is about more than hour after the first contact with salt water) may be too late. You can check the board using a magnifying glass. When you see a white substance (salt), you can be sure that there is corrosion below. However, you can always give it a try to wash even if a little bit too late. You may have luck and the system is working. But the system may fail in the future due to corrosion. When washing later, using de-ionized water is preferred. Isopropyl alcohol can be used after washing with water to shorten the drying time. If there are still some small white plaques, use a tooth brush dipped into isopropyl. I did not have tried with computers so far, but know the process from experience with yacht electronics and oceanographic measuring equipment.
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Albert Holguin wrote:
alcohol..
... so versatile ...
...and the more of it you drink, the more versatile you become... :-D
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Rice is a hell of a lot cheaper and more easily available, and you can eat it afterwards
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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Well - on my ground (only) floor. It eventually took on over a foot (30cm) of water - but the PC's were up on table and chairs well before that. Power strips were immersed. UPS's, oddly enough, chirped well into the night (having been lifted above the flood, as well. I suppose they might be OK, as well. Silica Gel is not so easy to get as rice.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Salt water is the worst that can happen to electronic components. The only chance to recover is to immediately flush with large amounts of fresh water and wait until it is dry (this may take some weeks). Then power the device and hope for the best. Flushing later (that is about more than hour after the first contact with salt water) may be too late. You can check the board using a magnifying glass. When you see a white substance (salt), you can be sure that there is corrosion below. However, you can always give it a try to wash even if a little bit too late. You may have luck and the system is working. But the system may fail in the future due to corrosion. When washing later, using de-ionized water is preferred. Isopropyl alcohol can be used after washing with water to shorten the drying time. If there are still some small white plaques, use a tooth brush dipped into isopropyl. I did not have tried with computers so far, but know the process from experience with yacht electronics and oceanographic measuring equipment.
Your response seems particularly appropriate and a bit depressing. Flooding was the 29th - it's already a week. Well - trying is cheap. Replacements won't be mind-numbingly expensive as I'm a bare-bones fan. Three systems - days of configuring. Perhaps I should look at this as an opportunity to, at long last, upgrade?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Your response seems particularly appropriate and a bit depressing. Flooding was the 29th - it's already a week. Well - trying is cheap. Replacements won't be mind-numbingly expensive as I'm a bare-bones fan. Three systems - days of configuring. Perhaps I should look at this as an opportunity to, at long last, upgrade?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
I'm sorry that my reply is depressing. I've told customers in the past something similar. Most decided to replace affected parts even when they were working after cleaning. The problem is the corrosion by the salt. If only the lower side of the motherboards has been in contact with the water you may re-use drives, CPU, RAM, extension cards, and even the housing. But be prepared that steel housings will oxidize. A problem I forgot to mention are the connectors. If connectors were in contact with salt water, I would not waste time for cleaning because chances of success are low. I hope that you will have success with at least some parts.
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Suggestions Wanted: My three desktops, all vertical standing, had about one inch (2 1/2 cm) salt water in them before I could get them off the floor. Since they were off (and power had gone out about half an hour earlier) nothing was immediately fried. Any experience or suggestion on trying to retreive them alive? I'm planning to rinse the with plain water and letting the dry. Then, it's power up (and watching the pretty sparks and clouds of smoke). Some external USB drives did the teabag trick - I plan to open, inspect, rinse and dry if needed, and use USB dock to read drives. With 9.4 million registrants, someone must have tried this before.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Leave it be. I like salt on my chips.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Suggestions Wanted: My three desktops, all vertical standing, had about one inch (2 1/2 cm) salt water in them before I could get them off the floor. Since they were off (and power had gone out about half an hour earlier) nothing was immediately fried. Any experience or suggestion on trying to retreive them alive? I'm planning to rinse the with plain water and letting the dry. Then, it's power up (and watching the pretty sparks and clouds of smoke). Some external USB drives did the teabag trick - I plan to open, inspect, rinse and dry if needed, and use USB dock to read drives. With 9.4 million registrants, someone must have tried this before.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Not quite salt, but I've washed boards from laptops that have been covered in soda using a good dish detergent like dawn and hot water. A toothbrush is good for getting stuff around the connectors. Afterwards for drying the board, I've used a small electric space heater and let it dry overnight with the heater blowing hot air on it. The hot air heats up the board and helps water evaporate from under components. One other thing, if there's a removable button cell battery (for the BIOS/ROM settings), remove that prior to washing the board. Good luck.
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Suggestions Wanted: My three desktops, all vertical standing, had about one inch (2 1/2 cm) salt water in them before I could get them off the floor. Since they were off (and power had gone out about half an hour earlier) nothing was immediately fried. Any experience or suggestion on trying to retreive them alive? I'm planning to rinse the with plain water and letting the dry. Then, it's power up (and watching the pretty sparks and clouds of smoke). Some external USB drives did the teabag trick - I plan to open, inspect, rinse and dry if needed, and use USB dock to read drives. With 9.4 million registrants, someone must have tried this before.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Your story reminds me of a printout in one of my "Computer humour" boxes, from around 1980, so I don't have any clip-and-pastable version of it. This story had the headline "How to steam clean a DEC PDP-11". This computer room had a raised floor, as all computer rooms had in those days. Underneath was space for cabling, but also for pipes carrying steam for the heating of the building. One Friday night (it was later estimated), one of the steam pipes broke. When people came down to the computer room Monday morning, the room was like a sauna, and the mist was so thick that you could see about twelve inches in front of you. The water level hadn't yet reached the floating floor, but it was close (or at least so goes the story as I read it). The computer people soon split into two groups, one claiming: "It's no use trying - just carry everything over to the dump and order new hardware". The other group insisted: "It's just pure water, and very clean, too. Let it dry up, and let's then see what we can make of it!" Essentially, the second group were right. A number of cables had to be replaced - the hot steam had ruined the insulation - but essentially, all hardware, like CPU, disks and interface electronics, worked OK once everything was properly dried up. Now, this was fresh water of the well filtred kind (you don't want dirt into your heating system water), and that makes a HUGE difference from salt water. On the other hand, temperature was above boiling, which is not ideal for neither disks nor electronics. Yet, the electronics did survive. I guess this isn't necessarily transferable to your situation, though.
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Suggestions Wanted: My three desktops, all vertical standing, had about one inch (2 1/2 cm) salt water in them before I could get them off the floor. Since they were off (and power had gone out about half an hour earlier) nothing was immediately fried. Any experience or suggestion on trying to retreive them alive? I'm planning to rinse the with plain water and letting the dry. Then, it's power up (and watching the pretty sparks and clouds of smoke). Some external USB drives did the teabag trick - I plan to open, inspect, rinse and dry if needed, and use USB dock to read drives. With 9.4 million registrants, someone must have tried this before.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
On the New Jersey shore, you should open up a Salt Water Computer Parts store right next to all those salt water taffy stores. There will be someone fool enough to buy them from you! PS. Will the salt water taffy stores be selling Double Salt Water taffy now, after Sandy? :laugh:
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Leave it be. I like salt on my chips.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
This is funnier every time I read it. If I get any of them running I'll put a little sign on each about their sodium content. +5
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
