Does water damage your computer?

scourgewarper

If you completed drenched your computer with water (its turned off) or submerged your laptop and then let it completely dry out before turning it back on, is there any reason why it wouldn't work?

Is the main risk here rust or corrosion to the components after its been exposed to water? I ask as I spilled an entire mug of coffee on my laptop when it was on and thankfully nothing happened, it got in everywhere and I was amazed it was still running, i turned it off, dried it and mopped up the liquid and when I turnded it back on it worked fine and has done for a coiuple of months. Just wonder if anyones ever had a bad experience with computer+water?

JohnnyRaptor

i spillt half a beer on top of my tower case a few months back while it was on, still works fine, so im counting my fortunes. but it could just as easily shortcircuited the damn lot...as beer conducts electricity as well as water...

pior

Kindof seems unsafe to me hehe

But I cannot crit - I used to run a box built around a case that a neighbor donated to me years ago. The back panel was totally rusty for the box had been left on a balcony for weeks. Great machine!

Microneezia

notice PSU and HDD outside... PSU is the sore spot mainly... I think HDD is out because of spin-speed not terminal wetness...

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jrs100000

Id think your main risk would be the contaminants and salts in the water, not the water itself. If your computer is clean, you could probably submerge it in a tank of distilled water while its running and not have a problem.

scourgewarper

That is mental, submerging your pc in oil. Wonder if you could use the oil afterwards ?

claydough

I use to work in video production at a cable company.. There I use to watch the technicians cleaning piles of cable box circuit boards with two hoses ( 1 water , and 1 air vacuum dryer )

AT my liquor store the lottery machine technicians would do the same thing ( service the machine with water spray and air dry ) in both instances the technicians informed me that as long as the components were dried right away that there was little chance of damage.

Still made me queasy jes to watch tho

Ruz

you could deep fry your pc and it would be surrounded by a coat of crunchy batter. mmm delicious.
It would save on trips to the vending machine

t4paN

A friend of mine had the laptop+coffee incident a couple of years ago, the devastation was quick and hopefully painless for the poor pc. I think it got the mobo shortcircuited so the whole laptop was more or less worthless after that.

Farfarer

So long as it's turned off and there's no power going into the PSU, it shouldn't affect it. You would need to really thoroughly dry it out before turning it back on, though. I think technically if you used distilled water, you could even leave it turned on... but that's unlikely to last distilled.

I managed to put my USB drive into the washing machine the other day - left it in my pocket - and it's still fine. My PC at home's watercooled, too (although I've never had it leak).

CrazyButcher

the problem is probably the fact that this wasnt pure water, but coffee, ie lots of stuff that is left behind after drying off (coffee particles). Depending on where the stuff sunk in, it can still kill the machine, I guess...

The Flying Monk

If it works after you cleaned it up you should be Ok. The main problem is rust and corrosion forming on the PCB and shorting something out. I've repaired PC's that have been in bars that have had numerous beer spills on them, in most of those cases it wasn't the drink spill that caused the problem. It salt water you have to be careful of, that stuff will kill anything electronic it gets close to.

Firebert

I used to go dumpster diving at this AMP Electronics facility (before they got wise and installed video cameras and requested routine police surveillance). They would throw out all sorts of stuff... RAM, Motherboards, any cable you would ever need, PSUs, you name it, it was probably in there. We would usually go right after it rained, because the logic was, throw it out in the rain and no one will want it... WRONG... so long as everything is completely dry, you're g2g.

Marnik

Ruz wrote: »

you could deep fry your pc and it would be surrounded by a coat of crunchy batter. mmm delicious.
It would save on trips to the vending machine

genius

scourgewarper

When I spilled my coffee it really soaked my laptop, it must have missed the psu then and I got lucky as it was still running and has done since although I let it air dry for two weeks before turning it back on. As it was coffeee I bet theres tonnes of dried crud on the components I guess i'll just wait n see what happens.

nkoste

Interesting... I often wondered about this, but left it pondering of course.

HAL

Fried a computer a few years ago by this way but I think that I just didn't let it dry properly

Vailias

you can of course take the plastic bezels and such off the laptop and clean it with the power off and the battery out, then you can re-assemble it and not have to worry.

Also as far as water goes, it isn't the water that is conductive, its the suspended micro-particulate. So distilled water is actually an insulator, however it doesn't stay that way for long. Toms Hardware tested this out.

Submersive cooling in mineral oil works just fine, as mineral oil is non conductive and also has a higher heat capacity than water. The only issue with that is you can't use standard pc fans to circulate the stuff because the motors will burn out. They aren't meant for liquid that viscous