Wet PC

[se5a]

dayamn! I hope you get up and running again soon!
if you were close I would lend you one of mine, but being on the other side of the world makes that a little tricky...

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
It may not be toast - let it air out and dry and it just may come back to life.

Hopefully the HD is safe.

And I hope this isn't a ploy to get out of AUK after losing all those ships to my forces.

The HP is running now, but it is making some odd noises. I used a fan to blow air into the open side of both PC's. The AMD I have not fired up yet.

I will back up my data on my Portable, just in case. At any expense, my new office is the folding counter in the hall way. Very uncomfortable to sit at and type.

The inside of both PC's had water at the bottom of the case. The HP had water on the board. The AMD had water on the all of the drives dripping down.

I am just a very lucky man today. Of course the roof leaking, only six months after having it replaced, is a PITA. But the contractor lives behind us and thinks it was caused by pine needles working there way under a bridge section. He came right over, skipped his dinner to do it too. And cleaned them. The dripping has stopped, but the rain has not, so this might be a good sign.

At any point the computer is noticeably louder.

I am going to play my PBW turns and run the STM 1 turn off while the getting is good.

[ January 29, 2004, 10:15: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[David E. Gervais]

The HP is running now, but it is making some odd noises. I used a fan to blow air into the open side of both PC's. The AMD I have not fired up yet.

AT, it sounds like the various fans in the comp will need a bit of tlc. take the ones you can out, clean and dry them then give them a shot of DW40 or your prefered lube.

I also reccomend that you pull out a hair dryer not a fan, the warm air will greatly help to ensure that all the moisture is gone from your MB and other components. Make sure to pay special attention to your power supply when drying it out. This is the one thing that will surely be 'toasted' if it is water logged when you start up the computer.

FYI. The big danger of water and computers is only there when the power is on. if your computer was off when it got drenched then chances are all will bo ok. Just make good use of that hair dryer.

Cheers!

[gregebowman]

You have my sympathies, AT. It's been almost a year to the day that I lost my old computer due to a lightning strike. At least one of your computers is coming on. Mine wouldn't, and I had to wait a couple of months before I could gather the money to buy a new one. At least all of my peripheral equipment wasn't harmed, except for the external HD that had my SEIVG files on it. I hope you can salvage your files.

[rdouglass]

I have a ton of PC parts at my disposal (something in the neighborhood of 300+). You do so much for the SE community; is there anything I can do to help? If you need a part, let me know.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:
your prefered lube. I also reccomend that you pull out Cheers!

Sorry David, my wife has been gone for a month now and I could not resist. I did try to fight it, but as you see in the end I gave out.

Atrocities, on a serious note I am very sad to hear that, I hope you can fix the problem. The computer I am on now was damaged when we moved out here to TX, at least we got paid to fix it. If David’s idea does not work than I would suggest replacing the power supply, I had one go bad and just before it did it was making a strange sound that made me think it was the fan.

[Cipher7071]

Ack!!

Even if the power supply and the motherboard are foo-barred, you might still dry out the HD and retrieve info. I've even seen a guy take a HD with mechanical failure and shake it a bit, then put it into a good computer a get a least a partial data retrieve.

[PvK]

Argh! Poor Attrocities!

I would hold out hope for the hard drives. I'd take them out, let them dry off, and then try to put them into a never-flooded computer which has a disk burner in it, to back up your data. Even if that fails, a hard disk recovery service might be able to rescue your files, since the drive mechanisms and the magnetic disk are two separate parts, and the magnetic data on the disk is a bit less vulnerable than the drive motor etc.

Best of luck on the recovery!

PvK

[Thermodyne]

The hard drives should be fine, but the PC will need to be dried and then protected from corrosion. And even then, there may be problems down the road. A hair dryer will dry it fine, and a light spray of WD 40 will go a long way for minimizing corrosion. Be sure to pull everything out of the board and dry the slots well.

[Atrocities]

I spent the afternoon taking both apart and drying them. The AMD seems to be working like its old self, tempormental and buggy.

This was indeed a very very close call.