Wet PC

[narf poit chez BOOM]

indeed.

[David E. Gervais]

WB, AT

Now you need to get a nice big jar and every time you make a post here drop a quarter (25cents) into it. Within no time you'll have enough to start buying replacement/upgrade parts.

Of course if you want to speed up the process, drop in a buck/post and then you'll get there really fast.

Cheers!

[Roanon]

Argh, I am sad to hear this, Atrocities. I hope you will be able to restore most of the parts to good use. I feel with you, it is not only the money but a lot of work to restore everything to the previous state, and this really sucks.

Just make sure they are *absolutely* dry before powering up. Do not just blow air into the vents, open them and use a hair dryer. A lot. Most problematic is the power supply. A very good chance that most parts are ok if there was no power when it got wet. Although the fans are probably toast or will become toast within a few months.

[Maerlyn]

what a ****!
but take care if you reactivate them. sometimes this works, sometimes this only works temporary. and the PC must be TOTALLY dry again otherwise you'll get in troubles.
(dont even ask me how I know this )

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Roanon and Thermodyne...twins seperated at birth?

check their Posts.

[Renegade 13]

Whoa dude, that day is a long way off. Just look at Canada One of the least populated countries per square mile. Come move up here if you're worried about endless cities, and where people have a number not a name. It'll be a long time before Canada is overpopulated!! Of course, you have to like snow, and cold, and dark, and hard work, but if you do, this is the place for you!

Seriously, I can see what you are describing happening within a century or two, but hopefully by that time I'll be long gone.

[Phoenix-D]

Atrocities, I'd like to point out that predictions of that sort aren't new. It was once predicted that we would overpopulate and begin to starve within 40 years.

That was 1798.

[Wardad]

Atrocities,

Sorry to hear of your problems.

I have some experience with WET circuit Boards. Cold testing below 0c has a way of frosting up the Boards with moisture from room air. Some what avoidable... but back on subject.

Power Down and dry the PCs quickly, with warm to hot air. A hair dryer could help, just avoid too hot settings that can melt stuff.

I generally stick contaminated Lab Test Boards in a burn in oven set to LESS than 70c for several hours.
Caution: A home oven may not be well behaved, use a thermometer.

70c is the standard commercial IC operating maximum, but with the power off your IC can handle higher storage temperatues. The real limit will be the pLastic connectors etc.

Your pc Boards are likely to be an FR4 epoxy fiberglass, which is porous, like a sponge with microscopic holes. It should have the standard print coat moisture barrier, but check around the solder lands and you will see that the coverage is not 100%.

One of the worst things that could happen...
A milky white and very conductive substance forms around the solder joints and causes a short.
A little washing with a qtip (or antistatic brush) and 90% rubbing alcohol can clean it up.
BUT... this crap forms were water sits, like under connectors and sockets that you can't get to. Murphies law you know.

good luck

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Atrocities, the evils of the day really are sufficient.

i'm not saying that planning for the future is bad, but, at the risk of sounding trite, to make a difference tommorrow you do something today.

[ January 31, 2004, 23:44: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Atrocities]

Money is always a nice thing, but alas, I have very little of it, and get very little each month. I miss the day where I could go buy a new PC each month if I wanted to paid for in cash. (The days of $1,500 and $2,000 dollar PC's)

I remember paying $200.00 for an old Voodoo 1 video card by now defunct 3dFX. It had 8 megs of ram on it and it was coooooooool.

It makes me sick to see all of the inovation going into the industry and knowning that I have no part in it. I am so sad when I think that I paid $1,800 for an Acer p75, 850 meg, 4 meg ram, PC only 9 years ago. My Last PC, the HP that I am now using, cost less than $500.00 and is 500% better.

Kinda makes you wonder now what else can be invented. The "discovery" phase of Computers and Computer gaming is long gone. We are now well into the copy everything that has been done before and try to make little improvements to it in order to rack in the cash.

Inovation and imagination no longer play a part in compter gaming design. Most of the games I have seen in the Last three to four years have been bleak shadows of games that have come before them. Excluding the very few original ideas.

In Computers we have only seen smaller and faster, cheaper, and weaker products. Reliability has dropped 10 fold, as has cost, while the market has stalled and profits plumitted.

Sure cheaper is always better, but at what cost? 200 gigabyte Hard Drives that cost the same as a 1 gigabyte Hard Drive did 5 years ago fail six months after purchase while that 1 gigabyte Hard Drive is still running.

Memory that cost less than a quarter per meg often fails in a fraction of the time that memory of two or three years ago did.

From motherBoards to modems, everything is cheaper, both in cost and in reliability. With no new inovations on the horizions say for the More's (sp) law, and the onset of DVD burners, we really have nothing to look forward to.

I know, I know, smaller, better, faster, cheaper, and such is the way of the future, but that road is now being paved by those who have already forked over tens of thousands of dollars already, and how much more are they going to be willing to lay down on the super highway of tomorrow?

The world has grown much smaller in the Last nine years, a whole hell of a lot smaller. How much small will it become in the next nine or ten years? I can see a day when things are so restricted, freedom is no longer free, and people cover nearly ever squar inch of what was once pristeen open land for as far as the eye can see. Where we all live and die without ever knowning our own names, just our number, and free thought and inovation is something that we dare not think of for fear that the big corperations will read out minds and exterminate us before we pose a threat. Where children are enginered and you must have permission to have a child. Where only the super rich can drive cars and leave the cities without passes. A place where you are nothing but a renewable resource that is both expendable and undervalued. Where freedom is measured in how much you are capable of paying for.