How long to leave a wet motherboard?

[Splinterdog]

During a storm last night, water dripped onto my main rig. The first thing I did was disconnect from the wall (it was plugged in but not running), removed the mobo battery and GPU because it had quite a bit of water drops on it.
I've now stripped it entirely, including the NVMe, SATA M.2 and I/O shroud, with the mobo, GPU and PSU being fanned gently in front of a fan (not a hair dryer).
I would say that the amount of water was significant, but do recall in the shock of it all that the RGBs were all lit before I disconnected, not that that fact indicates that is well by any means.
I'm prepared to wait as long as it takes to be certain that everything is bone dry before testing on the bench, but does anyone else have experience with this kind of mishap?

 

[Night]

I would take the motherboard out and put it in dry rice for a few days to get rid of humidity, just in case.

 

[kapone32]

You could leave it out in the sun for a day

 

[mouacyk]

I'd douse it in a bath of isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any contaminants or minerals first, before even letting it dry to avoid corrosion.

 

[RenaissanceDesign]

I'd douse it in a bath of isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any contaminants or minerals first, before even letting it dry to avoid corrosion.

This is the right answer. Just letting it dry and leave conductive deposits on the board is a good way to fry something. 90+% iso will displace the water and all the dissolved nasties.

 

[Splinterdog]

I'd douse it in a bath of isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any contaminants or minerals first, before even letting it dry to avoid corrosion.

When you say 'douse', how do you mean exactly?
Spray or bath?

 

[the54thvoid]

This is direct experience talking. During a water-cooling moment of stupidity, I let the pump pour a lot of water through open ports on the GFX block. I guess, unlike your scenario, it was de-ionised water but i pulled evrything off, mopped up the best I could, and set it on top of a radiator to slowly dry off. It all worked out. You'll know when it's dry. But I gave it 24 hours. Ironically, it was a Crosshair VI Hero.

 

[elghinnarisa]

I'd douse it in a bath of isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any contaminants or minerals first, before even letting it dry to avoid corrosion.

The only way to do it.
For the love of god don't waste your time and hope on putting things in rice, its 110% useless, waste of time and will without doubt make the mess worse. The issue with water damage isn't the water itself, its the deposits of crap it leaves over when it dries, or eventual oxidation to exposed metal. Thats why rice isn't going to help at all.
Rinsing it of and cleaning it with the help of a alcohol that drives water away, and doesn't leave anything behind when it dries is the way to go.

 

[xrobwx71]

I'd douse it in a bath of isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any contaminants or minerals first, before even letting it dry to avoid corrosion.

The alcohol will also absorb and help speed up the evaporation process.

When you say 'douse', how do you mean exactly?
Spray or bath?

Spray would be more controllable.

 

[mouacyk]

When you say 'douse', how do you mean exactly?
Spray or bath?

Why not both and other creative methods you can think of too? To ensure slots and sockets are clean, bath it upside down and gently sway it.

 

[dorsetknob]

I'd douse it in a bath of isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any contaminants or minerals first, before even letting it dry to avoid corrosion.

Spray would be more controllable.

Follow the above as for Drying
i would place motherboard on newspaper and place in a cloths drying Airing cupboard and leave for min 12 hours

Do not under any circumstance use a Tumble dryer

 

[newtekie1]

does anyone else have experience with this kind of mishap?

Yep, I accidentally left a window open during a rain storm.

My suggestion is to buy a good dehumidifier. One that uses refrigeration not a weak peltier. Put the computer and dehumidifier in a room in your house that you can close the door to, and then just set the dehumidifier to the lowest humidity setting possible, some even have a contunious setting so use that if possible.

Leave it in there for a few days to a week and you should be fine.

 

[Splinterdog]

Until I can get some isopropyl spray, I'm giving it some gentle drying air and fortunately I have my other gaming PC to use in the meantime.
My main concern is that the PC was plugged into the mains at the time, although not actually running.

 

[Bones]

I'd let it dry for a few days.......
Alternately you can pop it into an oven on low heat for about 2 hours, just make sure the heat used is under 90c. Then I'd let it cool, place a fan on it for about an hour to make sure any water vapor is gone and try it. Remove everything from it including the CPU and all else.
My oven can be set as low as 170f/76c and use it whenever I'm having to dry one out after Ln2 use to dry out the socket or a trip through the dishwasher for general cleaning.
Done it many times with no ill-effects.

 

[Tom Sunday]

In the past 4-5 years I lost two (2) motherboards due to leaky and defective AIO's. My ASUS boards had Q-LED trouble-shooting lights on the motherboard and which were ALWAYS ON even after the board is shut down. Meaning that electricity was still flowing through the board in any situation. Like in your case I essentially as well had to totally disassemble my entire computer to get the water out of the key parts like CPU, DRAM, Graphics Card, Heatsinks, HDD/SSD, etc. With that I also lost (1) power supply. I used my air-compressor and carefully many times over blowing out any and all crevices and letting the board stand in a warm place for several days. The AIO leaks as I could tell were possibly on the mobo for 3-4 weeks until overheating resulted. After a total hardware reinstall I wound up however having 'intermittent' issues with my memory, NVME slots and overall functioning of one board. The other mobo took longer to die and about 180-days thus blowing my AIO warranty. I would venture to say that any sort of water-logging can never be 100% removed. FYI: I also made sure to immediately CLONING all my storage drives as I could not trust the contined lives of the watered-down mobos. A water damage incident like this is very similar to actually building a new system as everyhing has to come out. In the future on incidents like this I will simply buy a new mobo and get on with my life. Also installing "still good working hardware" on a potentially sick mobo can be expensive. Then you might as well buy a new PC.

 

[Splinterdog]

In the past 4-5 years I lost two (2) motherboards due to leaky and defective AIO's. My ASUS boards had Q-LED trouble shooting lights on the motherboard and which were ALWAYS ON even after the board is shut down. Meaning that electricity was still flowing through the board in any situation. Electricity and water do not mix. I essentially had to totally disassemble the entire computer to get the water out of the key parts like CPU, DRAM, Graphics Card, Heatsinks, HDD/SSD, etc. With that I also lost (1) power supply. I used my air-compressor and carefully several times over blowing out any and all crevices and letting the board stand for several days. The water leaks (drippings) as I could tell were possibly on the mobo for several weeks until overheating resulted. After a total hardware reinstall I wound up however having 'intermittent' issues with my memory, NVME slots and overall functioning of one board. The other mobo took longer to die and about 120-days. I surmise that any sort of water-logging can never be 100% removed. FYI: I also made sure to immediately CLONING all my storage drives as I could not trust the contined lives of the watered-down mobos. A water damage incident like this is very similar to actually building a new system as everyhing has to come out. In the future on incidents like this I will simply buy a new mobo and get on with my life. Also installing still good working hardware on a potentially sick mobo can be expensive. Then you might as well buy a new PC.

I'm prepared to take my time on this, especially since the RX5700 XT is brand new and the replacement costs here for Crosshair Hero mobos etc are enormous. If it takes a week or two, then so be it.
I found this which should do the trick.

 

[Tom Sunday]

I found this which should do the trick.
View attachment 183558

Thank you for your post. Looks like a spray-on "alcoholic based drying agent." I did not know how many crevices and cranies my mobos actually had until my water damages or floods as I called them took place. Even under my CMOS battery, deep within the EPS pin connectors, under mini switches and soaking the VRM'S. I guess I could have build a new PC faster and not sweating the consequences of a failed remediation process. As my dear Mother used to say: "Water and Electricity do not mix very well."

 

[Vayra86]

Post-process I really am curious about your POST-process.

Keep us posted! (I'll see myself out)

 

[Splinterdog]

Post-process I really am curious about your POST-process.

Keep us posted! (I'll see myself out)

That won't be for a few days yet and in the meantime I'll be on tranquilisers.

 

[buzzi]

Since water is dried and residuals could be formed by now, I'd spray alcohol and gently brush with a toothbrush to remove them, if any. When water was all around, I would have blown it away with an air compressor and then apply generously alcohol on it.

 

[Vayra86]

That won't be for a few days yet and in the meantime I'll be on tranquilisers.

I'll light a candle for your rig. Hope all goes well!

 

[AsRock]

I would take the motherboard out and put it in dry rice for a few days to get rid of humidity, just in case.

Me too, i would hit it with a air dryer too, just don't get it really hot. If any thing else is wet do the same with those too and the case if that's wet as well.


NO rice though. rice has a good chance of holding water in it stuck some were.

 

[thesmokingman]

If you had a datavac, you could use that to push all the water off.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I think the oven is a bad idea. There could easily be several devices/components not designed for those temperatures. Plastic connectors come to mind. Don't forget that ovens do not sit at the pre-set temp. They cycle well above the setting, then cool down below below, then the burners light up and cycle well above again. In older ovens the swings can be as high as ±50°. I doubt things would melt or catch fire, but they could misshapen.

I also think using a good electrical contact cleaner would be better than alcohol. It already comes in spray form too. I recommend using CRC QD Electronic Cleaner or WD-40 Electrical Contact Cleaner.

The PSU would be my biggest concern because the voltages are much higher than found on the output side - which are no more than 12VDC. Plus paper materials are often used in transformers. If me, I probably would swap PSUs and take no chances.

Hard drives would be another concern. Contrary to what many think, they are NOT totally sealed. In fact, they all have a small "weep" hole in them that is there to allow pressure equalization due to elevation changes. These tiny holes are filtered to keep just out, but water can still seep through. Not only would it take a very long time to dry out, but mineral deposits causing water spots might disrupt data access. Electric motors don't like to get wet either.

 

[Splinterdog]

Agreed, there's now way I'm putting expensive PC components in our crappy gas oven. Besides, the missus might mistake it all for dinner and turn the heat up!
Nine hours on and the main components are still being gently wafted by a fan and I've just got hold of the isopropyl spray.
@Bill_Bright what's the main difference between Isopropyl and the WD 40 you mentioned?
I found some here:

Wd40 Limpiador De Contactos Specialist 226 Gr - Rex - $ 14.822

Wd40 Limpiador de Contactos Specialist 226 Gr Limpiador de Contactos ideal para todo lo relacionado con circuitos eléctricos y electrónicos. Elimina eficazmente aceites, grasa, suciedad, polvo, residuos de soldadura y condensación eléctricos y/o electrónicos, incluyendo materiales delicados...

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