Thought I'd share my story here for anyone who cares to read. Hopefully, it'll help someone in the future.
I recently had a bad experience with a cup of coffee, which unfortunately involved my gaming rig. A full cup was knocked off my desk due to poor placement and motor skills and fell directly into the top of my desktop gaming rig. My Thermaltake case has air intake fans on the top with the PSU at the bottom. It's exposed CPU and RAM below got drenched in Nescafe. The PC was on at the time. It instantly blank screened me and made a weird sound which I've never heard before. I pulled the cord from the PSU as fast as I could and cried.
It made a real mess. I tried cleaning it best I could with alcohol and a cotton bud, but you can't really get under the chips and into the slots etc... After spending a few hours googling the problem I found out it's possible to actually wash your mobo with soap and water. I **** you not. Warm water in the kitchen sink with a soft brush / cloth. NB! Make sure you remove the CMOS / BIOS battery first! The trick is to thoroughly rinse the board with distilled water afterwards. Distilled water washes off all the impurities normally found in tap water. You'll have to dry it for a day or two in the sun or stick it in the oven at about 60C for a few hours. Once it's completely dry can you power it back up. If you're lucky, your board will look brand new and it'll POST if no damage was done in the initial spill.
You can buy distilled water from most Mica's, Dischems and some petrol stations. Otherwise known as battery water.
I'm typing on the very same PC right now. If you don't believe me, just google it. Factories use the same process when manufacturing the boards to get rid of excess flux and goo from the boards.
*Edit: links to vids added - I didn't film the kitchen sink and soap scene cause my hands were wet!
Set up - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvF3YVNiQA0&feature=youtu.be
Oven drying - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfyncTo3DY&feature=youtu.be
Rinsing off - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqpy63UC3Dc&feature=youtu.be
I recently had a bad experience with a cup of coffee, which unfortunately involved my gaming rig. A full cup was knocked off my desk due to poor placement and motor skills and fell directly into the top of my desktop gaming rig. My Thermaltake case has air intake fans on the top with the PSU at the bottom. It's exposed CPU and RAM below got drenched in Nescafe. The PC was on at the time. It instantly blank screened me and made a weird sound which I've never heard before. I pulled the cord from the PSU as fast as I could and cried.
It made a real mess. I tried cleaning it best I could with alcohol and a cotton bud, but you can't really get under the chips and into the slots etc... After spending a few hours googling the problem I found out it's possible to actually wash your mobo with soap and water. I **** you not. Warm water in the kitchen sink with a soft brush / cloth. NB! Make sure you remove the CMOS / BIOS battery first! The trick is to thoroughly rinse the board with distilled water afterwards. Distilled water washes off all the impurities normally found in tap water. You'll have to dry it for a day or two in the sun or stick it in the oven at about 60C for a few hours. Once it's completely dry can you power it back up. If you're lucky, your board will look brand new and it'll POST if no damage was done in the initial spill.
You can buy distilled water from most Mica's, Dischems and some petrol stations. Otherwise known as battery water.
I'm typing on the very same PC right now. If you don't believe me, just google it. Factories use the same process when manufacturing the boards to get rid of excess flux and goo from the boards.
*Edit: links to vids added - I didn't film the kitchen sink and soap scene cause my hands were wet!
Set up - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvF3YVNiQA0&feature=youtu.be
Oven drying - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfyncTo3DY&feature=youtu.be
Rinsing off - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqpy63UC3Dc&feature=youtu.be
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