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The Filthy, Rotten, Nasty, Helpdesk-Nightmare picture clubhouse

"There wont be any dust in there" said the guy, " my Mum keeps the house spotless"





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Its a noisy blower on the Radeon 6950 anyway but with temps rising the noise was just getting worse. He just bought a bargain GTX 970 so this one is going in a childs Minecraft pc for a friend of mine.
 
P4-630 said:
And then the previous owner wondering why his GPU temps were so high :p
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Just one more reason not to buy a stock cooled GPU you never see the crap until you take it apart
 
Oh wow there is some nasty ones here.

The worst PC's I've ever seen came from the diesel workshop floor at a coal mine. They were so gummed up with grease, dirt and coal dust....

The most disgusting PC I ever saw was a buddies computer. Was in a smoking household, with poor hygeine, zero cleaning and pets.... The tar, the dust, the animal matter.... Yuck!

Makes me unwell thinking about it....
 
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This is cute.Pretty sure those are cookies.
 
Epic Lego minifigure!!
 
I did some testing of a cleaner I discovered that works on smoke damage, gets rid of the stains, sticky/icky buildup and the smell too.
I tested it on a GPU I have that was nasty with it and decided to see how well it would do. The card in question had never been cleaned and the crap had been in it for at least 10 years - I should know because I was the cause of it being there in the first place and bought the card brandnew back in the day.

So, to start off I prepared things for the test. The first pic shows the card itself, just how nasty inside it was.
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This shows what I used and how, I filled the container to the half-full (2 quart) mark then added half of that (1 quart) as cleaner making a 2 to 1 mix of water to cleaner. This shows the kind of cleaner used, the cleaning mix ready to go with the test card ready for cleaning. Note the color of the mix as you see it in this pic.
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I then took the card and dunked it - Swished/stirred it around in the mix twice for 30 seconds each time. This shows the card after it was done as described - Note the color of the mix in the container and how much it's changed from the previous pic.
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I also tried it with a NB cooler after I finished with the card - Note the fan blades are clear except they aren't in this shot, bit of brown tinge to them to say the least and although the cooler itself doesn't look all that bad it could look better so......
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After dunking it for about 30 seconds, repeating the stirring action used with the card I took it out and here's the result, note it's still wet from being in the cleaner:
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I have to say this stuff works and it can be used as a weaker mix no prob, it will work at least as a 3 to 1 mix and have the same results. If you try it I advise that you use rubber gloves while dunking, it will work on your skin and also to fully rinse the parts as soon as they are removed from the container if possible. Since these parts are electronic, a dryout time of no less than a few days to a week should be observed, perhaps using a hairdryer on low for a few minutes or set these in front of a small fan at least overnight to help speed the dryout process will help but definitely make sure it's thoroughly dried out BEFORE putting back into use. I also advise a few drops of oil into the fans, I used regular 3 in 1 oil and it worked just fine.
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I'm hoping this may be of use to someone here and if you do try it let me know how it worked out for you.
 
did uhh... did the card survive being drowned in that?
 
Mussels said:
did uhh... did the card survive being drowned in that?
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Once washed a keyboard in a dishwasher. Went light on the dishwasher detergent, but after sitting on a radiator for 2 days drying out, the keyboard worked fine... and was clean :)
 
Mussels said:
did uhh... did the card survive being drowned in that?
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rtwjunkie said:
I need to know this as well! I'm thinking no way.
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I have pulled the CMOS battery on motherboards and washed them with light detergent and distilled water in the kitchen sink in the past. No problems with them. Of course a person has to let them dry for a day or two.
 
stinger608 said:
I have pulled the CMOS battery on motherboards and washed them with light detergent and distilled water in the kitchen sink in the past. No problems with them. Of course a person has to let them dry for a day or two.
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So it's the distilled water rinse after that makes it usable. Thanks, I wan't even thinking on those terms!
 
rtwjunkie said:
So it's the distilled water rinse after that makes it usable. Thanks, I wan't even thinking on those terms!
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I have used the mild detergent such as Dawn liquid diluted. About a cap full to a quart of distilled water and then rinse with distilled water.
I used one of them dirt cheap ($0.59) garbage paint brushes to do the cleaning with.

I've done that just to insure there is no electrically conductive residue that could cause a short in the board.

When a person does an RMA with a motherboard or video card the manufacture does a sterilized water wash on the PCB's before shipping back to the consumer.
Of course I'm sure the water that they use is much cleaner that store bought distilled water.
 
I have bathed a video card in alcohol after some light water damage, then blew it dry with canned air and used it the same day. Not talking about a dunk in water, but a slow drip from a CPU block that had bad O-rings.
 
I've done this before with things like boards and such, no probs afterwards provided it had enough time to sit and dry which in each case was about a week. I've even had two monitors that I salvaged that had been sitting in the rain for a few hours when found, took those and let them sit in the dry for about two weeks and both worked fine when tested.

Drying time is critical because water vapor itself can remain within certain components and needs time to work itself out. Normally you can set parts in front of a small fan for a few days to help with the drying but even then I tend to allow for even more drying time to ensure it's as dry as it can get before powering up. The card I dunked is still sitting ATM, awaiting the time for testing but I've already tested the fan to the cooler. After hitting it with 3-in-1 oil, working that in and giving it a couple of days to dry I plugged it up yesterday and the fan motor worked great. I'l be testing the card next week and I'm certain it will be OK.

I had to be sure once the parts shown had been cleaned they were rinsed thoroughly, immediately after dunking. I do not know if the cleaner would attack any of the components so that was done to ensure no problems with that and as long as rinsing is done immediately after dunking there should be no problems.
I had the cleaner diluted to help offset this too but it worked great as I had it and literally got the entire card squeaky-clean. I had to remove the cooler to the card to oil it's fan and went ahead and re-TIM'ed it, no probs observed while I had the cooler off.
 
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Awww damn wish i had some dusty stuff, good submissions in here woah :)
 
I use sugar soap and hot water to clean heat sinks make them look like brand new again fans on the other hand get the alcohol and cotton buds treatment and keyboards well a sink full of hot soapy water and a blow out befor putting them back together again
 
Athlonite said:
fans on the other hand get the alcohol and cotton buds treatment and keyboards well a sink full of hot soapy water and a blow out befor putting them back together again
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For that i use wet wipes, alcohol or also some contact cleaner...on keyboards i also use a blower, i got one on the office, so when my keyboard needs a deeep clean i have to take it to the office,

Also for cleaning most hardware i use this:
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Anti-static PC brushes, for most parts, PCB's or whatever you need to clean, pretty cheap on ebay by the way,

Regards,
 
Athlonite said:
keyboards well a sink full of hot soapy water and a blow out befor putting them back together again
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+1
I make a delicious and nutritious bowl of hot soapy keycap soup and just stir it around a bunch. :P

Had a friend who spilled some tea on her keyboard, I told her I was at least 73% confident the best thing to do is rinse it off with rubbing alcohol to displace/rinse out the sugary water.
 
I've sprayed and submerged motherboards, cards and audio amp boards with iso alcohol, soapy water, contact cleaner, all sorts of liquids over the years. Let dry for a week or so, or use fans and dehumidifers to speed it up a bit. Haven't killed anything yet.

Also salvaged stuff that's been smoke damaged and sat in water for days.. just needs to dry properly.
 
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