Spilled water on tower

randomuser2013

If I could get some advice on how to proceed?

Kid 1 must have tipped a cup of water off the desk. An hour or so later kid 2 went to use the computer and informs me the computer will not turn on (he later said it did nothing at all, not even for a second but when it was plugged in we could hear a very faint high pitched whine so unplugged it). I popped off the side panel. It was very dusty but I noticed immediately everything was also cold except the PSU which was very warm (took another half hour to cool down).

I believe the computer was on when the spill happened and turned itself off. I found about 1/2 a teaspoon of water on top of the case near the vent hole for the PSU so that must have been the point of entry. This is the case if anyone is familiar with it:

I found about a teaspoon of water beside the tower and some damp paper. The cable to attach the monitor to the back of the tower was also damp where you hold it to tighten the screws. I'd estimate a 2-3 oz spill of tap water, at most. Unless more is inside the PSU casing. The only other water I found inside the tower case (I didn't find any on the PSU casing) was well above the motherboard and right below the PSU. There is a sort of ledge/track that runs horizontally across the entire upper back wall and the dust on the lower ledge was damp. There is a small slot and a couple of open screw holes on the top rail of the ledge/track and maybe that is how the water got there. I didn't see any sign of any water below above the ledge other than what I has seen on the outside of the tower case's top by the PSU vent.

No unusual smells at all. No sign of water below the horizontal ledge. No bulging capacitors or any scorch marks. There was a lot of dust so I think dripped/fan sprayed water would have been visible? I left the side open and put a fan on it overnight. It has been nearly 24 hours.

My questions are:

a) is it worth trying to turn it on or should I replace the PSU first? To be honest I have never done anything like it but I was up till 3 AM reading and have done a lot of poking inside the case and i think I could probably get it out myself with a little guidance from this board.

This is the exact PSU:
http://www.adverts.ie/desktop-hardware/evo-labs-700-watt-pc-power-supply-psu/1367691

In my reading last night many people seem to have a negative opinion about it but until someone poured a cup of water into it we never had any trouble.

b) is it safe to plug the monitor into another computer or could the cord that had been damp do damage after 24 hours? The monitor's power light was on as normal until I unplugged everything.

This is my system spec (purchased Nov 2009 from custompc.ie)

Processor upgrade 3705e
Mobo Asus m2a74-am se
4 GB DDR 1333mhz
250 GB Seagate
DVD 20x RW
Nvidia GTS 250
PSU Evo Labs 700u (700 w)

Hoping someone has some good news for me. Thank you for reading.

frozenfrozen

Good news is that you get to have a new pc, bad news is that you have to pay for it.

Monitor should be okay to test now, water won't have seeped through the cable and any that did would be no more than what a humid day would do. Are you absolutely there are no signs of damage on the inside other than the little puddle you saw? I don't know what that high pitched sound could have been so that's a bit worrying, transistors have screamed when I've seen them blow before so that could be the cause, where it occurred is going to be your challenge though. They won't necessarily look burned, but there will be just a tiny opening somewhere around the top of them if it has blown. This point is made a little weaker than the rest so it will just "fail" rather than exploding... Don't know what to say as I can't examine it, if it was mine i'd chance waiting for it to fully dry out then turn it on again, but I'm not very clever most of the time

randomuser2013

Thank you for your reply. I just tested the monitor and as you suggested it is fine.

I can take a picture if that would help? I'll need to charge my camera first. I have been crawling around looking at it from every angle (and sniffing it too) since this happened and other than having seen the little water outside of the case, and the damp dust on the inside ledge I would have had no idea what had happened. I have the time frame right as I was able to check the last Facebook post by Kid 1, so that gives at maximum an hour and a half time before the problem was noticed. If the machine was warm maybe that would have dried some of it but again, in all the dust I didn't see any evidence of splashing. That said, I've never done any kind of repair other than cleaning the fans so I could be missing something obvious?

Concerning the whine, I have to really strain to hear it (it was Kid 2 that pointed it out). We aren't sure if that is how it always was and we never noticed it over the normal running sounds of fans, etc.

The only thing glaringly obvious is that it is embarrassingly dusty.

SickBoy

Get a hand full of rice and rap it in a piece of kitchen towel and place it inside the case and leave it for a day or two. The rice should absorb the moisture from the case but there's no guarantee it will fire up

randomuser2013

Thanks for the additional replies. I threw some rice into a paper bag and placed it in the case. I also got the fire going which can only help. I won't turn it on before Wednesday.

In the first, the vent is directly above the PSU. The puddle was directly to the vent's left. The water I found on the floor/paper was directly on the other side of the vent to the right of the PSU. The 'ledge' I have been talking about is the thing the wires are wrapped around.



This was the best shot I could get, sorry. It probably isn't clear enough to help much, other than to say it looks like it always does (as in needs a good cleaning but I'm afraid to touch it and mess something else up). If any water dribbled down it was dry by the time I got there an hour or so later.