Emergency help needed

[dennisjai215]

alright i fked up whilecleaning the comp... i spilled91% iso. alchol over my motherboard.. i immediately wiped as much as i could.. can it be saved? or will i need to do something else to work it? help ASAP thanks

 

[jhurst]

Well does it boot?

P.S. why would you hold alcohol over your system.

 

[MichaelD]

1. If it wasn't plugged in AND you haven't tried to fire it up yet, you'll be OK, b/c
1a. Alcohol will evaporate

2. If you were dumb enough to plug it in while it was wet and sparks shot all over the place...
2a You are SO screwed b/c you just fried everything attached to the mobo as well as the mobo itself


Hopefully, you're looking at #1 and saying "OK, cool."

 

[n0cmonkey]

Give it a day or two to dry off and pray.

 

[dennisjai215]

nah i didnt plug it in.. i immeditately wiped it and had a fan blowing it.
when the alcohal evaporate.. will it still be flamable?

 

[jhurst]

Since isopropyl alcohol is water-based, when it evaporates, you should be good. 91% kinda scares me, alot more than say 50% or even 70% alcohol. There is nothing you can really do but give it a few days, keep the fan on it or w/e you have, and then plug it in when you feel comfortable. You have to have hope, and your MB has to have courage. Our prayers and thoughts are with you and your MB. :heart:

 

[NokiaDude]

91% isopropyl alcohol will evaporate much more rapidly than 50% or 70% alcohol. You should have no problem letting it sit for an hour and booting up.

 

[dennisjai215]

hehe well its been drying for about 2 hours.. fan was blowing on it for about a hour im anxious to turn it on i think soime alcohol fell in my apg slot thats where it spilled around that area heh

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
1. If it wasn't plugged in AND you haven't tried to fire it up yet, you'll be OK, b/c
1a. Alcohol will evaporate

2. If you were dumb enough to plug it in while it was wet and sparks shot all over the place...
2a You are SO screwed b/c you just fried everything attached to the mobo as well as the mobo itself


Hopefully, you're looking at #1 and saying "OK, cool."

if 2 happened he'd be too scorched to post about it

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: MichaelD
1. If it wasn't plugged in AND you haven't tried to fire it up yet, you'll be OK, b/c
1a. Alcohol will evaporate

2. If you were dumb enough to plug it in while it was wet and sparks shot all over the place...
2a You are SO screwed b/c you just fried everything attached to the mobo as well as the mobo itself


Hopefully, you're looking at #1 and saying "OK, cool."

if 2 happened he'd be too scorched to post about it

Anandtechers can be a very dedicated bunch. If he was scorched, it would be a different sort of post, but it would still be posted.

 

[justin1466]

why 91%??? I thought 70% was MAXIMUM for it not to eat through a processor? what exactly were you cleaning here? Ever hear of canned air, much easier too work with and spill-proof Other than that, i'd recommend waiting at least a day with a fan blowing, and lay off the Juice while cleaning a computer.

 

[dennisjai215]

omg.. at first when i pressed power... it wouldnt turn on like no lights or anything i was like DAMN mobo is dead dammit!

but then i was like hmm i dont think i plugged the psu thing to the mobo yet.. so i checked and i didn't and now im on this computer and its fine ^_^ w0000000tttttttt

and how i spilled it was because i had a small work surface.. and i was using qtip and alcohol to clean the thermal paste and all that.. there wasnt much alochol left in bottle so i was tipping it over and it spilled.. i was like OH SHlT!!! but everything is all good now hehe thanks all who helped

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: justin1466
why 91%??? I thought 70% was MAXIMUM for it not to eat through a processor? what exactly were you cleaning here? Ever hear of canned air, much easier too work with and spill-proof Other than that, i'd recommend waiting at least a day with a fan blowing, and lay off the Juice while cleaning a computer.

How the hell would Isopropyl eat through a processor?

 

[mobobuff]

Ah, I love happy endings.

 

[justin1466]

My tech friend said something about 70% was able to eat away at the core. I don't know the difference between Isopropoyl and whatever else.

 

[someone16]

Um...no...isopropyl alcohol cannot eat through a CPU...actually 99% iso is recommended for cleaning the CPU core because theres no water in it. (Evaporates fast)

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: justin1466
My tech friend said something about 70% was able to eat away at the core. I don't know the difference between Isopropoyl and whatever else.

I've already let a CPU soak in 91% for a few days to loosen up some Arctic Silver that was in the bridges. I suspected it had other problems though, but either way, even soaking in alcohol for a few days didn't "eat the core" - the Arctic Silver came off, but the CPU was still flaky. Probably because the core was seriously chipped. That was back in the early days of exposed core CPU's. Oops.
Lesson learned - CPUs are sealed up pretty good. Rubbing alcohol isn't likely to do any more damage that water would. I've also soaked an ancient ISA soundcard in rubbing alcohol as a test - after a day in, and a day out to dry, plugged it in, and it worked fine.