Cleaning video card after juice spill in PC

[Philgag]

Hey guys,

A co-worker has brought me a PC after his son spilled juice of some kind on the top of the case. This being a gaming PC the top of the case is mostly air openings and the juice got mainly on the graphic card (an ASUS GTX 560).

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=F0CEDDD6D495EB12!18458&authkey=!AOksqGwMQdPWhNs&v=3

Incredibly the pc is posting fine (can't tell much more because the HDD went out at about the same time...no Windows)

Should I attempt a graphic card clean up? ...How ?

thanks for the precious help!

 

[piasabird]

You might damage it just as much cleaning it. If you got it wet it could damage components. However a lot of components are pretty much water proof. A damp almost dry cloth could be used or maybe some kind of pure alcohol on a rag. Maybe if it works dont mess with it. Components can be damaged and still work. At work we have an insurance policy that covers all our computers. Dont have that at most homes.

Tell him to keep the computer up higher or in a case or something. I have one computer at floor level, I could see this happening easily. No kids at my house. I prefer a computer to be higher when possible. I dont like crawling around on the floor at 57.

 

[RayTheKing]

I think I was told once to use pure isopropyl alcohol to clean sensitive computer components. You might want to research about this, though.

 

[Blue_Max]

Cleaning alcohol and Q-tips have worked well for me in the past. Your biggest concern may be the fan on the card. If the card faces up and juice got in the fan it could gum up pretty bad. $20 should get you a replacement aftermarket video card cooler in that worst-case scenario.

 

[QuietDad]

As RayTheKing suggested, go to your local pharmancy and buy a bottle of isopropyl alcohol. take the card out, pour the alcohol over it and dry it with a Q-Tip. Don't let it evaporate dry. The danger is as it dries, the sugars remain and will corrode the card.

 

[mfenn]

As RayTheKing suggested, go to your local pharmancy and buy a bottle of isopropyl alcohol. take the card out, pour the alcohol over it and dry it with a Q-Tip. Don't let it evaporate dry. The danger is as it dries, the sugars remain and will corrode the card.

Don't dump the whole bottle on it though! You want to keep alcohol from running over the edges of the card as much as possible so that it doesn't carry the dissolved sugars all over the place.

 

[Blain]

Distilled water is non-conductive.

 

[pcgeek11]

Distilled water is non-conductive.

^^^^ They use it to cool laser flash lamps, they are immersed in DI Water.

 

[mfenn]

Distilled water is non-conductive.

Yes, but as soon as some of the juice residue dissolves, it is no longer distilled water and becomes very conductive.

 

[RaistlinZ]

If it works fine you might as well just leave it alone, IMO.

 

[RayTheKing]

If it works fine you might as well just leave it alone, IMO.

The sugars will start to corrode the components of the GPU. So, if OP's coworker plans to keep that sucker for a while, it'd be wise to clean it.

 

[Turbonium]

Make sure the isopropyl alcohol is 99% or better (if it's really cheap to purchase, that's usually a sign it's not that pure). A lot of the cheaper stuff is like 70% or thereabouts, which is bad! You want it to be as pure as possible.

 

[Meghan54]

I've successfully used pure IPA to clean circuit boards, including pouring it over boards. With the fingers at the edge, clean again after everything has dried.

Or, you can look for a contact/circuit board cleaner product, like this:
http://www.superior-industries.com/electra_xl_product_261.html

This sort of stuff is made to clean circuitry and do it without leaving residue while removing grease, etc. But make sure what you use is not too aggressive as some products of this variety are not to be used around some plastics.

 

[Blain]

Yes, but as soon as some of the juice residue dissolves, it is no longer distilled water and becomes very conductive.

So he would have to rinse and allow the components to dry before booting up again?
Well that sucks.
Drenching and immediately booting would be so much faster.

 

[mfenn]

So he would have to rinse and allow the components to dry before booting up again?
Well that sucks.
Drenching and immediately booting would be so much faster.

My point exactly. If the system is off when it puts water on it, it hardly matters how conductive it is, now does it?