Deep clean on motherboard after water cooling mishap

[Nossy]

Ehhhh.. If you don't have the cover for your socket I would advise not washing a motherboard in a dishwasher. der8aeur can do it, but you really gotta know what you're doing. Seeing red in the socket is a big red flag for me (pun not intended ) . You could try flooding the motherboard in IPA and using a plastic syringe to clean out all of the crevices and holes that fluid got into.

I'm going to do that tomorrow. But being King's birthday weekend the only local shops I believe have 70% isopropyl. There is acouple places that will stock crc contact cleaner however. I'll see how much is in that. (What I've been using to flush) this time I'll just be spraying over and into a container

 

[jon_joy_1999]

I'm going to do that tomorrow. But being King's birthday weekend the only local shops I believe have 70% isopropyl. There is acouple places that will stock crc contact cleaner however. I'll see how much is in that. (What I've been using to flush) this time I'll just be spraying over and into a container

I wouldn't use the spray stuff because of the inhalation hazard from simply the amount of stuff you'd have to spray at one time. You could go into the shop, explain what happened, and that you want to make a contact cleaner bath and see if they have anything for that, I'm betting they do, and it should be cheaper per liter than the spray stuff

 

[Solaris17]

Iv used CRC sensor/MAF cleaner and it worked great. For something like this I have also done denatured alcohol in a small plastic bin (you can buy it by the gallon) and a soft tooth brush. Cleaned all the nasty bits

I generally only used maf cleaner on the socket where I couldn’t go with a tooth brush.

don’t forget to change all thermal pads or repast all of the board coolers.

 

[Bones]

Main thing to watch for is to make sure whatever spray cleaner you get is plastic safe.

If it doesn't say it on the can, leave it where you found it.
Also be aware most, if not all spray cleaners will create a cooling effect in the area the board is sprayed and that in turn will attract condensation to the board.

You have to be sure it's dry before hooking up power to the board.

 

[MarsM4N]

Man that looks really nasty. Like you had a visit from Jason Voorhees. Also the reason why soft tubing is way more safe than hard tubing. Plus non dyed/non conductive liquid.

I think the bast way to clean it would be a ultrasonic bath in a "EC Formulated Cleaning" solution, like the guy in the following vid is doing. Then let it evaporate for a day and put it in the oven for a few hours (hot air, not plastic melting temperatures, up to 80 degree celcius should be safe).

 

[Jose Jeswin]

You could try getting the MB cleaned at some electronic shop or PC repair centres for a small fee....it will be a burden off your mind.....can also have it tested while you are at it....as a last option...

 

[eidairaman1]

Take the cmos battery out first

 

[Shrek]

I have also done denatured alcohol

The fumes from which make me sick; but isopropyl alcohol is good.

I'd scrub it with water, follow up with isopropyl alcohol and then blast it dry.

Could be done in 10 mins

 

[maxfly]

The fumes from which make me sick; but isopropyl alcohol is good.

I'd scrub it with water, follow up with isopropyl alcohol and then blast it dry.

Could be done in 10 mins

That's how you kill boards man! Trying to datavac or compressed air dry a mb will 100% end in death. Trust me. I've tried it, and failed. The only sure fire way of drying mbs is to do it exactly like Bones suggested. Otherwise, I guarantee you will end up forcing water under the memory, gpu slots and CPU socket. As well as any other small components that aren't flush mounted.

 

[AlwaysHope]

OP, I realise you don't have a big budget for upgrades but reading over the hints & tips supplied to fix your problem, Is it really worth it in the end?

You do realise today you can get a base model B760 board (as am example) with a low end LGA1700 cpu that will perform about the same if not better than that 2013 X79 board you have back in its day? I mean this is decade old tech right?
Also, if you intend going onto the internet with your old board ( presuming you can get it up & running) there are security issues with DDR3 tech rigs (like Rowhammer exploits for example) to consider today. Heck, it's even been known that DDR4 can suffer row hammering since 2021 already. With constantly increasing levels of cyber threats multiplying every day its something I would not take lightly.

Not trying to discourage you, just saying that from a broader perspective it might be in your best interests to consider the risks here with bringing this old board back to life in this day & age.

 

[Shrek]

That's how you kill boards man! Trying to datavac or compressed air dry a mb will 100% end in death. Trust me. I've tried it, and failed. The only sure fire way of drying mbs is to do it exactly like Bones suggested. Otherwise, I guarantee you will end up forcing water under the memory, gpu slots and CPU socket. As well as any other small components that aren't flush mounted.

So water does not get under if one just soaks, no blowing?

 

[maxfly]

So water does not get under if one just soaks, no blowing?

Of course, that's why the same drying method applies regardless. 2 days in direct sunlight (either in a window or outside, weather dictating)with a house fan blowing on it. This is likely overkill but it's what I know works everytime.

 

[Shrek]

Drying will leave deposits, while blowing will remove them; not that those deposits are normally an issue. Or put it another way: the manufacturers don't use drying in sunlight.

I prefer to remove liquids as soon as possible to avoid corrosion.

 

[Outback Bronze]

i wouldn't recommend a dishwasher.

PC hardware enthusiast der8auer uses a dishwasher to clean his components | TechSpot

He's doesn't seem to have any issue's but each to their own I guess.

To OP, I have once filled my socket with liquid cooling fluid and dried it all up with a heat gun on low power and all was fine. Didnt think it was going to boot but she did. Was socket 2011 too : )

BTW kick ass machine you built!

 

[Avro Arrow]

I think that it's probably toast. It's things like this that save me over $100 by making me never want liquid cooling.

 

[Lei]

I think that it's probably toast. It's things like this that save me over $100 by making me never want liquid cooling.

People are losing their psu with roach invasion, dead gpu by rat pee and fitting ram sticks right left around. Breaking cpu pins, a fallen vase on a broken monitor, using psu cables on a different brand.

You can use these fittings:

 

[natr0n]

We all can create functional art. When you create to many points of failure it loses its luster.

 

[maxfly]

Some people enjoy the rush of jumping out of planes. Others prefer watching clips on their phones of people jumping out of planes.

 

[A Computer Guy]

The fumes from which make me sick; but isopropyl alcohol is good.

I'd scrub it with water, follow up with isopropyl alcohol and then blast it dry.

Could be done in 10 mins

I use isopropyl alcohol as a drying agent as well however capillary action of the alcohol might be hindered if water is already drawn into and filled in tight spaces so a bit of heat, airflow, and drying time is your friend.

 

[dgianstefani]

OP, I realise you don't have a big budget for upgrades but reading over the hints & tips supplied to fix your problem, Is it really worth it in the end?

You do realise today you can get a base model B760 board (as am example) with a low end LGA1700 cpu that will perform about the same if not better than that 2013 X79 board you have back in its day? I mean this is decade old tech right?
Also, if you intend going onto the internet with your old board ( presuming you can get it up & running) there are security issues with DDR3 tech rigs (like Rowhammer exploits for example) to consider today. Heck, it's even been known that DDR4 can suffer row hammering since 2021 already. With constantly increasing levels of cyber threats multiplying every day its something I would not take lightly.

Not trying to discourage you, just saying that from a broader perspective it might be in your best interests to consider the risks here with bringing this old board back to life in this day & age.

More than the same. Any 12th/13th gen cpu will have at least double the single core performance, triple if you're talking about the Raptor Lake K series parts. Then there's the platform, PCIe, USB, NVMe, etc.

An i3 12100 with DDR4 which is the lowest end system worth building today would be better in every respect.

I can appreciate the desire to restore old high end hardware, but it's not practical to run that system even if you got it working. The hardware has unfixable security issues widely known about since zero day patches for newer hardware have been issued for years, and the patchable software security patches written into any modern OS will cripple it even further.

Selling one of your SLI 1080 Ti and the 3930K/RAM would literally give you the cash to buy a modern platform, keeping the rest of your system. SLI doesn't even work these days.

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/yB7Xgb

$250 USD and you've got a system that is more than twice as fast in single core and almost twice as fast in multi, while sipping power and supporting AVX2.

It's not even close dude.

 

[Avro Arrow]

People are losing their psu with roach invasion, dead gpu by rat pee and fitting ram sticks right left around. Breaking cpu pins, a fallen vase on a broken monitor, using psu cables on a different brand.

You can use these fittings:

View attachment 299616

I suppose that's true. I was just referring to the fact that I have no need for liquid cooling and neither do most people not using an Intel 13th-gen CPU.

 

[Lei]

I suppose that's true. I was just referring to the fact that I have no need for liquid cooling and neither do most people not using an Intel 13th-gen CPU.

Things are getting power hungry.
2- it's better to leak on some low end hardware which doesn't need cooling for the sake of learning curve rather than trial and mishaps on pricy 13th gen
3- it depends where you live too, Sweden, Alaska, or Singapore, Texas, Sahara

I killed my GTX670 by using too much pads on its back. I think I toasted it. Pads insulated it rather than cooling it. I didn't leak on it.
I didn't leak on 1070 either, but I was more confident thinkering and goofing around with it than my next card.

Basically to whom says "I'm not hot enough to use liquid cooling", I'd say "that's exactly where you should start learning and experiment, not when you need it"

Only once I took my CPU block out for an inside wash. I came back from sink and water was all over the floor. I forgot to turn the pump off....
But it was a leak test and PC was off. And my reservoir is outside the case, so all the water was running from the tube unattached from cpu block. The tube was on the floor too.

How could I remove the cpu block while pump was running and then throw the pipe down?
I think pump wasn't strong enough to flow the coolant (I have long tubes) so after block was removed, it could flow

 

[LabRat 891]

I've 'saved' at least 2 laptops from 'written-off, post-spill incidents'. (In other words, revived eWaste laptops from obvious liquid damage.)
All I did was take a bottle of 91% Isopropyl Alcohol and a fresh soft-bristle toothbrush to the entire board, focusing on where there was clearly corrosion/residue. Don't be stingy w/ the alcohol, and do this outside or somewhere well-ventilated. (I did not, and later realized that I put myself at great risk for a fire, and got a bit light-headed. Oops)

On your board, since there's an LGA socket involved: I'd safely cover the socket before any 'work' on it.
Also, for the socket and impossible crevasses I'd highly recommend some CRC QD Electronics Cleaner.


Aside note:
An ultrasonic cleaner filled w/ an electronics-compatible solvent like Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol would be 'ideal'.
Big warning here though when you agitate and warm alcohol, it fumes heavily; those fumes become a fire/(minor) explosion risk! There are ways to mitigate the risk, but unless you're regularly cleaning boards, the complexity and costs aren't really worth it.
If you were to go that route, I'd be doing it outside, away from anything flammable, on a long extension cord.
(I'd also have to be willing to 'write-off' both the ultrasonic cleaner and board before attempting. Meaning, I'd treat this method as a last-resort after manual cleaning)

edit:
My $0.02 on post-waterwash 'drying'
A dehumidifier is a great thing to have around.

Just last week I spilled coffee in my cheapo goodwill-find Red Dragon mech KB. All I did was unplug the keyboard, take it to the kitchen sink, doused it in Dawn and took a big soft-bristle brush to the whole thing. Did about 5 'passes' of scrubbing @ angles and rinsing before a final rinse and setting the thing up on the exhaust of my dehumidifier.
Before the end of the day, I had my keyboard back on my desk, working. (Notice, that at no point did I even remove the keycaps. Top-tier laziness, but it worked out.)

Be aware:
most tap water is full of minerals and other 'ions' that can leave behind high-resistance shorts during drying. If I were to ever attempt a dishwasher-ing or a sink-cleaning of a board, GPU, etc. I'd be rinsing it in distilled water and again in alcohol before leaving to dry.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Things are getting power hungry.

Well, if I need to, I'll get a bigger air cooler.

2- it's better to leak on some low end hardware which doesn't need cooling for the sake of learning curve rather than trial and mishaps on pricy 13th gen
3- it depends where you live too, Sweden, Alaska, or Singapore, Texas, Sahara

I live in Canada where the temperature can go from -35°C in winter to +35°C in summer.

I killed my GTX670 by using too much pads on its back. I think I toasted it. Pads insulated it rather than cooling it. I didn't leak on it.
I didn't leak on 1070 either, but I was more confident thinkering and goofing around with it than my next card.

I never use pads. If I take a card apart and the pads on it are bad, I replace them with actual thermal paste. Pads are inferior to paste and are only used because they're much quicker and easier to apply. They make the manufacturing process less expensive that way.

Basically to whom says "I'm not hot enough to use liquid cooling", I'd say "that's exactly where you should start learning and experiment, not when you need it"

I built my first PC in 1988 and have been building them ever since. I once bought a Zalman AIO (it was on some stupid sale for less than $40CAD) for my FX-8350. It made a difference of only about 6°C when running Passmark burn-in and had no effect on the PC's performance whatsoever. It certainly wasn't worth the risk of having liquid coolant inside my PC case. The most strenuous thing that I use my PC for is high-end gaming so my CPU never gets overly hot to begin with. Even so, I've used benchmarks like 3DMark, Unigine Superposition, Prime95 and Passmark burn-in. I've never experienced any thermal throttling with air cooling. Sure, if I had a garbage air cooler (the old Intel stock cooler comes to mind), I might have had some throttling but AMD air coolers have always been pretty robust (with the possible exception of the Wraith Stealth).

What's really funny is that I gave my AM3 platform to my mother to upgrade her HTPC so it could use W10. I ended up removing the AMD AM3 box cooler from her PC because it sounds like a jet engine and it reminded me why I kept using the AM2 cooler from my Phenom II X4 940 with it. Knowing what her use-case is, I just threw in the cheapest AM2/3/4/5 cooler that I could get my hands on. It only cost me $13CAD but whenever I check her CPU temperature, it never goes much over 30°C. Here's the cooler:

Arctic Cooling Alpine 23 CO Compact CPU Cooler - $15 (Oh no, it went up by $2! LOL)

It claims to have a 100W TDP limit and the FX-8350's TDP is 125W but my mother only uses her HTPC to browse the net, read emails, play music and watch movies. I'd be surprised if she used more than 60W of CPU power.

Right now, I just use an AMD Wraith Prism on my R7-5800X3D:

It keeps the CPU cool enough at all times to avoid thermal throttling, has nice-looking RGB and it cost me nothing. Kinda hard to beat that, eh?

Only once I took my CPU block out for an inside wash. I came back from sink and water was all over the floor. I forgot to turn the pump off....
But it was a leak test and PC was off. And my reservoir is outside the case, so all the water was running from the tube unattached from cpu block. The tube was on the floor too.

How could I remove the cpu block while pump was running and then throw the pipe down?
I think pump wasn't strong enough to flow the coolant (I have long tubes) so after block was removed, it could flow

Hey, we all make mistakes because we're all human. That's another reason why I prefer to limit risk as much as possible. I know that I could very easily make a bone-headed mistake that can cost me dearly. Air cooling works and it doesn't have that risk associated with it.

 

[Shrek]

Trying to datavac or compressed air dry a mb will 100% end in death.

100% ?