Coffee + PC = Baaaaaad

Ok so i've finally done it. Swore I never would, but tonight I spilt a full, hot cup of coffee all over my desk.

Most of it went on the desk (luckily), but some of it spilled over my computer, and through the stupid blow hole in the top,into the case. Not not much went in, and within 5 seconds of the cup being spilt I had yanked the power cables out of the wall...but i;m still worried :S

There was a little liquid on the bottom of the case, and a fair amount on the top (outside), and i have noticed some splashed on the GFX card (that is almost directly below the blowhole). I cleaned it off sharpish, and then removed the 'stains' left by the coffee with a dab of normal water, so hopefully there is nothing shorting it out.

I have taken the PC totally apart and it all looks ok, few splashes on the hard disk case but I don't think any is inside.

I plan to leave it for 24hrs to all dry out before even attempting to turn it on (typing this on my iBook, thank god for macs eh), but is there anything else anyone reccomends to do?

[edit for spelling]

Hi,

Just to be safe i would leave it for at least 2-3 days. Airing cupboard is problably the best place.

If you wanted to speed the process up maybe use a hair dryer for a short time.

Dont rush to turn the thing back on.

Good luck!!!

Id suggest dont use a hair dryer due to the static it may create.


as suggested leave it for a day or two.

Sounds silly - but did the coffee have sugar in it? If so, make sure you do remove it properly (tap water wil do, better to use distilled) otherwise the coffee will dry and leave a sugary deposit that attracts moisture. Otherwise if it only splashed on a couple f active components, (like the graphics card) just wiping it off with a damp lint free cloth, and wiping the inside of the case where it spilt, again with a damp cloth, will be OK - and then leave it in a warm room with the side off for 6 hours to dry off and it should be fine.

Keyboards are the things that suffer - mainly because it is so darned hard to get them apart to clean and dry them - especially laptops...

pfft I don't put sugar in my hot drinks thank god, want to enjoy the taste of the drink not a sickly mixture :P

Good point though thanks, the thing that worries me is that coffee can leave a residue heh, going to have to check though the bits tonight when i get home from work and give it a try. Keyboard should be a ok at least, was a wireless one and it was on the floor as i was watching my lost dvds :)

Gah, wussy man, i doused the gpu in water wil putting my cooling in the first time, 5 minutes with a hairdryer and it was back up and running again

Quote:

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Originally Posted by herulach

Gah, wussy man, i doused the gpu in water wil putting my cooling in the first time, 5 minutes with a hairdryer and it was back up and running again

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Bet you chew 6" nails too!:bowdown: :p

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Originally Posted by peterb

Bet you chew 6" nails too!:bowdown: :p

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To be fair i payed for it when i didnt notice the tv card had some on and put that in with no drying. The magic smoke came out big style

heh fair enough, but I don't want to take the risk :) I need that PC up and running, and if this gfx card turns out not to work its going to cost me 150quid to replace it...and that's a lot of money to just effectivly throw away because I was careless :(

Well it works :) Just about, was a bit fiddly getting it all talking again for some reason..took a while to get it to boot ?!? but it seems to be running ok now, at least until it crashes eh :)

coffee + PC = good :)

see it all worked out in the end - I have my pc on a shelf next to my desk, so even if I did spill coffee, my PC would be okay...

the laptop is a different story but I'd rather not think about that :) (there's no way of using it, without it being on the desk - unless I built a stand to raise it from the desk?)

but building a stand would just make it a pain in the ass (or rather arms, wrists and hands) trying to use it :)

I've decided that it was almost a good thing me spilling coffee on my pc, as a) it now has a lovely coffee smell to it (mmm, thank god it wasnt instant) and b) it gave me an excuse (or rather forced me) to rebuild the damn thing, so it's a lot cleaner/tidier again now

I have a very nice usb hub which incorporates a hot pad to keep my coffee warm!! It plugs into the USB port and keeps the coffee out of the way.. :)

I would also back up any essential data by putting the hd in another machine just to be on the ultra safe side. If there was an electrical short and it did take out your hd atleast your data would be safe.