Computer got some beer inside the chassis.

[ratirt]

Hi guys.
My colleague had an accident with his computer and beer. Some of the beer spilled and got into the computer.
The computer was on and it did beeps and some of &*#&^%#(%^) sounds froze and then he pulled the plug.
It's been drying for 2 days but from what he told me you can see the traces of liquid on the graphics card, motherboard and ram.
What do you guys think? Is there any chance it will still work?
Honestly I said that there are basically no chances but maybe I'm wrong or it depends on the spill and components that got wet?

 

[R-T-B]

Mhmm. An accident. This is why I don't drink. I know my family history and know something like this will happen, or I'll just end up trying to mate with the computer. How do you think I was born a frogman?

Sorry, just find this kinda amusing. I'd clean the component residue with some alcohol (isopropyl, not beer) + microfiber cloth and hope for the best. Good luck.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

There is always a slim chance. strange as it may sound, he can wash the beer off the gpu and motherboard with de-ionised water and rinse the boards in de-ionised water ,and leave them to dry, then try it.

 

[R-T-B]

... that might work. It also might wreck things more. How "drunk" is the computer though? (How much beer?)

 

[Vayra86]

There is a good chance you can still pull the CPU and it'll be working fine.

 

[ratirt]

... that might work. It also might wreck things more. How "drunk" is the computer though? (How much beer?)

There is a good chance you can still pull the CPU and it'll be working fine.

Well. From what he told me it was just a small amount. He spilled this on the table and it dripped to the chassis since it has an opening to install the fans. it splashed across the components I assume and from what he told me it did. After the spill the computer went %^&$^%(&^(*& sound and he pulled the plug. I think the mosfets on the board had a bit as well. The cpu is probably ok but if mosfets got wet a lot the current might have killed the CPU as well.

I think that isopropyl might help clean things up although I'm not sure about de-ionized water.

 

[witkazy]

Yeah, i beepd coupla times after beer myself but usually i'm fine next day
But seriously , take it apart and examine carefully before You toss it , clean what You can and cross Your fingers if no dice may be some components can salvaged at leest

 

[silentbogo]

What do you guys think? Is there any chance it will still work?

Beer is bad. Any fermented/acidic or salted liquid spilled on powered electronics == almost immediate corrosion (even if you had no sparks and fireworks initially).
I'd start with thorough cleaning and inspection of GPU. If there are no visible corroded components - try re-assembling and re-installing the card.
You may get lucky if it was just a little bit of liquid and it did not damage any critical components.
Last time I had a zenbook drowned in beer in my workshop - it was a sad-sad picture. The entire board was corroded so badly, it looked like it spent a few months on the bottom of the ocean (though the device made its way from the owner to my lab next morning after the accident).

 

[Vayra86]

Well. From what he told me it was just a small amount. He spilled this on the table and it dripped to the chassis since it has an opening to install the fans. it splashed across the components I assume and from what he told me it did. After the spill the computer went %^&$^%(&^(*& sound and he pulled the plug. I think the mosfets on the board had a bit as well. The cpu is probably ok but if mosfets got wet a lot the current might have killed the CPU as well.

I think that isopropyl might help clean things up although I'm not sure about de-ionized water.

All good but my point was

do pull the CPU. Not tomorrow... today

 

[ratirt]

Thanks for the info. I will tell him but I think it won't work anyway. Although I will not tell him that. Just gonna say there's still a chance

All good but my point was

do pull the CPU. Not tomorrow... today

I will tell him to take all of it apart and give it a good cleaning. We will see what's going to happen.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

https://www.embeddedarm.com/blog/deionized-water-the-gold-standard-for-electronics-cleaning/

 

[Ferrum Master]

I think that isopropyl might help clean things up although I'm not sure about de-ionized water.

No. Isopropil will not help. Fairy and water is your best chance. Then oven it at 80C for an hour.

 

[ratirt]

https://www.embeddedarm.com/blog/deionized-water-the-gold-standard-for-electronics-cleaning/

That actually helps. Thanks

 

[R-T-B]

No. Isopropil will not help. Fairy and water is your best chance. Then oven it at 80C for an hour.

May I ask which fairy? Not sure I understood that bit.

I have used isopropyl 90% or whatever to clean up thermal paste but that's admitedly different than beer.

 

[Ferrum Master]

May I ask which fairy? Not sure I understood that bit.

I have used isopropyl 90% or whatever to clean up thermal paste but that's admitedly different than beer.

Can you wash a glass of beer with just running water? I guess no... fairy dissolves the additional additives and the corrosive after products(salt) better. Yes there are official additives for using ultrasonic bath, distilled water. But motherboards are are very large and no room for that. I wanted to ask what kind of beer it was in the first place. Yeast amount. If it was craft, then it can have almost anything including fat.

Fairy, water, toothbrush... foamy washing... blow it it out using compressed air. Wash again... rinse and repeat. Then bake to get out the moisture. It works with a hairdryer or just leave it under a direct sun for a few hours.

IC's officially need to be baked 3h before usage after being stored without being sealed actually. But the practice shows, it rarely causes problems, maybe because the air is dry here. In humid places like dreaded Malaysia it is a huge problem. Why do you think many batteries bulge that were made there? Bingo, because of the humidity. Electronics is a capricious thing.

 

[R-T-B]

Ok, this is just showing my lack of beer expertise. Carry on.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Ok, this is just showing my lack of beer expertise. Carry on.

Well, there are non alcohol containing beers also, some of them ain't that bad, if you are the driver.

I really like some US beers, like Hopping Frog too... With Evil Twin and Lervig those two breweries deliver some good stouts.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

That actually helps. Thanks

Washing electronic components with deionized water is fine. Just be sure to dry them thoroughly.

 

[Chomiq]

I know it's ok to rinse components with IPA, but not THAT sort of IPA.

 

[John Naylor]

Hi guys.
My colleague had an accident with his computer and beer. Some of the beer spilled and got into the computer.
The computer was on and it did beeps and some of &*#&^%#(%^) sounds froze and then he pulled the plug.
It's been drying for 2 days but from what he told me you can see the traces of liquid on the graphics card, motherboard and ram.
What do you guys think? Is there any chance it will still work?
Honestly I said that there are basically no chances but maybe I'm wrong or it depends on the spill and components that got wet?

No paper towels in the house ?

When this occurs, should immediately cut power, remove all componentry and wipe down with a non shredding type paper towel or cloth giving a last wipe with 90+% isoprphly alcohol wetted cloth / towel. It is also important to place components in a dry environment. And air conditioned space is good ... if all else fails, don't laugh, a refrigerator. When smartphones came on the scene, my son was late to a party because he had to pick up his 1st one, upon getting there, he was imeditaely pushed in the pool .. with the phone. He took it out of pocket and it was not functional. It had that red dot warranty submersion detector, removed the battery, SIM and SD card .... the detector was deep red, put it in fridge overnight and phone was fine. That event somehow led to everyone among their friends bringing their phones over when similar events happened... gotta be more than a dozen instances and all phones survived. More than once this was after submersion in rice was tried. Have also done this with potable GPS, walkie talkies and other components .... a few video cards and once all the componenty in an ITX Build that had been atatcked by hot coffee which covered the MoBo as was installed horizontally.

But you need to take this precaution. An AC removes humidity from the air which is why they "drip" ... so does a refrigerator. So a refrigerator will suck the humidity from the air inside too. However, when you take it out, any humidity in the air will condense on the cold surfaces. So along with the device, I stick in a large freezer bag with a balled up paper towel inside to keep it open. After 12-16 hours... open the fridge, put the item(s) inside the bag(s), seal it ... take out of fridge and lay it somewhere to come back up to room temperature naturally ... no hair dryers whetever to acceelarte the process as you want to avod rapid temp changes. The sealed bag will keep any moist air from getting to it while it warms up.

DO NOT take it a step further and put it in a freezer I have seen this justified with the crazy logic that ice is nonconductive ... ice expands and it could break things and your screen (Liquid Crystal Displa) is likely not able to survive extreme low temps. I have not as yet seen any electronic component whereby 35F - 40F lies outside it's exposure range. If it did those in temperate climates couldn't do mail order in winter.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I would open the side panel and blast a desk fan in there for another 24 hours.

Liquid causing a short is certainly a concern, but so is rapid contraction from a cold liquid hitting a hot component. With the low voltages found inside a computer, in many cases, once the short is removed, the problem goes away. This is why mounting a motherboard on top of extra stand-offs usually causes no permanent damage. So fingers crossed there.

But rapid contraction of matter can shatter some components - especially those consisting of ceramic materials. Those materials can take extreme heat and extreme cold, but not rapid transitions from one to the other. So hopefully that did not happen.

As for cleaning, I recommend using short squirts with some quality electrical contact cleaner. For stubborn spots, use a acid brush to help the cleaner.

It might be a good idea to pull the drives and, if sure they didn't get wet, attach them to or install as secondary drives in another computer and copy off any user data he does not want to lose.

Once all looks clean and dry, with fingers and toes crossed, connect power and see if it boots.

 

[funkymonky]

Hi guys.
My colleague had an accident with his computer and beer. Some of the beer spilled and got into the computer.
The computer was on and it did beeps and some of &*#&^%#(%^) sounds froze and then he pulled the plug.
It's been drying for 2 days but from what he told me you can see the traces of liquid on the graphics card, motherboard and ram.
What do you guys think? Is there any chance it will still work?
Honestly I said that there are basically no chances but maybe I'm wrong or it depends on the spill and components that got wet?

You should've licked it clean, before you unplugged it! God, how stupid are people these days.

How did it get inside, if the case was closed? Spilling something directly on your PC would be really hard for me. Most have their PCs on the ground, in their desk, or on top of it. Many of us have sworn to never drink liquid around our PCs, like I have to keep it that safe. I don't let any liquid near my desk/pc.

 

[infrared]

A mate of mine poured a full bottle of beer into an old dell pc years back when we were drunk, I remember it vividly as he was calling it the party computer! Anyway, I yanked the power cord, pulled out the hard drive, dvd drive and power supply which were all dry luckily, also removed the cpu and ram.. Then I literally put it in the bath tub and washed it lol. I gave it 48 hrs in the hot water tank cupboard to dry, reassembled it and it worked fine until it got too outdated to be useful anymore.

Deionized water is a good idea for sure, even just to rinse off the tap water, but as long as you clean the crap off the parts and make sure its completely dry there's a reasonable chance it'll be fine. Definitely try to save it though, you've got nothing to lose

Edit - I've also dried parts in the oven at 80c if I'm in a rush, hair drier can work too.. Just err on the safe side because it can take a while for all the water to evaporate from under chips.

 

[juiseman]

Give it a bath in 90% Alcohol , old toothbrush then scrub. That
won't fix it; but it will get the beer off.
Use compressed air to dry it; check for any residue; repeat process.

The damage (if any) has already been done.
let dry and try it out . If it doesn't work; try the cpu and other components
in another board; salvage what you can....

That's what I would do anyways....

 

[hat]

You should've licked it clean, before you unplugged it! God, how stupid are people these days.

How did it get inside, if the case was closed? Spilling something directly on your PC would be really hard for me. Most have their PCs on the ground, in their desk, or on top of it. Many of us have sworn to never drink liquid around our PCs, like I have to keep it that safe. I don't let any liquid near my desk/pc.

I set my drinks on top of my PC case... but I also don't use open cups. However, even if something did totally spill, it would be pretty hard to get it in the computer.