so...when the snow started to melt friday after the 24 inch snow fall and all that, the sump pump couldnt work b/c we were out of power...was going to move the computer after we got back from our jaunt to target. came home to two inches of water in the basement. the pc was on the floor. it is a tower. looks like the water barely touched the bottom slot of the motherboard where the IDE card is and maybe touched the bottom hard drive...
my thought was to boot up the computer without anything in the motherboard and see what happens. then do single parts at a time and see what happens....
any thoughts?
DCoop
15-10-2006 10:04:52
A few years ago we had major flooding at the paper mill where I worked. It wasn't just water it was a thick mud sludge. About 9 computers were affected, some had nearly 4 inches of water in them.
All in all, I think we only lost 1 motherboard and one network card. It appears that all of the cards we had that were above the waterline were still fine, even some that were below were still good. None of the drive were wet though.
Some of the pci/isa slots that were in the water didn't work afterwards, but that may have been more because of the mud and inability to clean them fully, but the rest of the computer was fine.
So yeah, from my experience it should still work. Make sure it's completely dry first (not just surface, but under any components too) and hook up the least important/expensive parts first just to be safe. I wouldn't do the hard drives until the very end though, just in case.
Tholek
15-10-2006 10:12:30
I've never been in a situation in which I had to try it, but I always hear that if you can't be certain of getting all the water out of an electrical component, you can soak it in alcohol (91%?) so that it washes out all the water. Supposedly the alcohol will evaporate what water is left. It might work for the mobo.
Could be an old wives tale though...
thanks guys, likely gonna do it tomorrow )