Watercooler gone bang....

[camalbitboy]

Hi All,

To add to my existing Z87 vs SSD issues my CoolIt all in one watercooler decided to self detruct and spray coolant all over the inside of my pc....

It must have shorted something as it decided to turn itself on (rather worryingly) and display a failed overclock message. As soon as i realised the coolant had leaked I powered it off, unplugged it, took all the components apart and used comressed air and kitchen towel to remove the worst. There is a lot in the pcie slots and I'm having trouble blowing it all out.

I was hoping that it was a non conductive coolant in the system, and it doesn't feel or smell like water, but the fact that it turned itself on from off (not sleep) makes me worry that at least 1 component has shorted.

There are also dark marks on the graphics cards pc slots on some of the fingers that make me worry about them. The sound card also has marks.

As the mobo drys the coolant is leaving a greyish white deposit where i couldn't get the kitchen towel to it, is this going to cause issues?

I'm off to Oz for 3 1/2 weeks so going to leave it to dry out and see whats what when i get back.

Anyone had any experience of this themselves? The unit is made by the same company that makes the Corsair units.

Any bets on whats fried and whats not?

Cam

[peterb]

If it turned itself on, then the coolant was conductive and may have leaked over the pins on the mobo that control power. The loss of overclocking may indicate that the bios settings have been reset - was the system clock time correct?

The marks on the slot connectors may just be surface corrosion caused by the coolant, or mild electrolytic corrosion if they are power pins.

You might want to get a can of iso-propyl alcohol (IPA) and give the components a good wash with that, it will wash off deposits and evaporste quite quickly. It is not an aggressive solvent, so plasric components shouldn't be affected.

The other option is to use fresh de-ionised water, but that takes longer to dry, and if it it isn't fresh, it carbon dioxide from the air will dissolve into it, causing it to become mildly acidic, which is undesirable.

Personally, I would use IPA, and keep my fingers crossed that all is OK.

[camalbitboy]

If it turned itself on, then the coolant was conductive and may have leaked over the pins on the mobo that control power. The loss of overclocking may indicate that the bios settings have been reset - was the system clock time correct?

The marks on the slot connectors may just be surface corrosion caused by the coolant, or mild electrolytic corrosion if they are power pins.

You might want to get a can of iso-propyl alcohol (IPA) and give the components a good wash with that, it will wash off deposits and evaporste quite quickly. It is not an aggressive solvent, so plasric components shouldn't be affected.

The other option is to use fresh de-ionised water, but that takes longer to dry, and if it it isn't fresh, it carbon dioxide from the air will dissolve into it, causing it to become mildly acidic, which is undesirable.

Personally, I would use IPA, and keep my fingers crossed that all is OK.

Thanks for the info. There was no overclock set and I'll check the system time etc once i get back from travelling. As i will have been away for 4 weeks by the time i get back I'm happy that everything will have dried out, but I'm liking your idea to wash the components in iso-propyl to get rid of the deposits that have formed.

I thought that the coolant was glycol, or at least some kind of non conducting liquid but the web page for my unit has been taken down and so I can't check.

Just got to pray that its not fried anything....

[camalbitboy]

Well I'll be dammed. Rebuilt the pc and it all works fine! Whatever they put in these Watercoolers sure isn't water any more.

[Noxvayl]

Good to hear there was no damage caused. I doubt they would have pure water in the sealed units because they need to guarantee them for a few years of use and the best way to be sure corrosion doesn't cause a loss of performance or leaks would be to have additives in the water.

[evisceratrix666]

good to hear everything was fine