I accidentally left my desktop for 2 months in a room with high humidity. When I got home, I found that the computer casing is rusted with some moist water droplet at the back air outlet. The inner components looks good, dusty as always except there's some small stone/salt crystal(?) in the cpu and gpu heatsink.

As expected, the computer won't start - just like a those car engine that won't start and then you have to push the car for some few meters to get it started.

I need your help figuring the hardware affected/damaged during those 2 months so that I can replace it and salvage what's left. Thanks.

12 years ago*

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There's nothing "quick" about this. Wish I could help, but my experience in water damage is...........................well................................................zero. Sorry to hear what happened though :/

12 years ago
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Not even the harddisk? Edited the title. :(

12 years ago
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You would need to try out the harddisk on another machine. See if it's readable.

12 years ago
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Salvage is only thing for u. microChips (CPU) r basicly addicted to water.. then only thing u cand do is change them

12 years ago
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Nice avatar xD

12 years ago
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Yup. Zer0 brothers! :D

12 years ago
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I'd suggest checking for obvious defects for every compontent and carefully cleaning them. Test every component that looks okay in another computer and rebuy the rest

12 years ago
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You need to isolate each component by using them in a different machine to see which component(s) are failing.

12 years ago
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^this.

12 years ago
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That's pretty much what you have to do, it may take some time tho.

12 years ago
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Most definitely do this first.

12 years ago
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Water is generally moist :D

12 years ago
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Only the driest of water for me please.

12 years ago
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Take out each component, and test them one by one in someone else's/friends PC.

12 years ago
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at least it didn't grow fungus :P
and yeah as others said isolate each hardware and try them on other computers.

12 years ago
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my first suggestion: remove the computer from the room :P

no but in all seriousness, you should clean up each component very carefully and check to see if they even look like they would work (e.g. pins bent/rusted etc.)

the hard drive should be fine since it is vacuum sealed, unless it is SSD in which case take it to someone to get it checked out.

the majority would be just a case of wait until every last droplet has dried and test individually to see what still works

straight up, buy a new computer case if you plan to make the computer work again.

give the room a good clean, if possible, as well as it will help if you plan on using a computer in that room again.

hope this helps at least a little bit :)

12 years ago
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My whole house is quite damp. I live somewhere near the sea. Sea view is great, but apparently not so good for your computer health. It didn't cross my mind at that time to wait for the computer to dry up, I just plug it in an turn it on. I guess something must have short circuit then.

12 years ago
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it is still worth checking everything though because even when it short circuits, it doesn't always destroy the parts (i was one of the lucky few who have had their computer short circuit, but nothing get damaged)

12 years ago
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+1

12 years ago
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like most said, remove all components first. then I would go to each part cleaning them all off with rubbing alcohol, including the thermal paste under the processor (will need to get some more when you reinstall the heatsink onto the processor, but its pretty cheap at radio shack)

12 years ago
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I'd clean the parts with distilled water, pure, no alcohol, much faster and cheaper. But, don't think anything can be saved, to be honest, maybe one or two parts.

12 years ago
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This made me think about what could have happened to the PC I left in another country, for over a year now.

12 years ago
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try installing linux, i hear it solves everything

12 years ago
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If there is mold growing inside the computer, I recommend you keep feeding it to create a biomechanical entity which will ultimately enslave the human race.

12 years ago
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You'll have to replace most parts. If you left it to rust, there's nothing you can do! Hard drive should be fine. But when you mean humidity... you mean you left it in a damp place. Not like in a house with 70% humidity or something.

12 years ago
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Really damp room. I left a standing fan in the room, and there's some thick rust juice dripping of from the fan's metal cage thingy.

12 years ago
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try to restart your pc

12 years ago
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Chances are if you check all connectors, clean stuff a bit and dry everything up it will work okay, although salty water definitely doesn't sound good. Doesn't your machine start at all? Normally your motherboard should boot and then give some diagnostic beeps or some diode flashing (depends on model) if it doesn't like something.. I'd actually start with checking power adapter and BIOS battery. Of course, AFTER everything is dried up and cleaned.

12 years ago
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Closed 12 years ago by BiskutMentega.