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From: Toolpackinmama on 11 Jan 2010 01:15
Thanks everybody for your interest and comments.

Incredibly, despite everything my husband and I did to try to fix the
problem, the machine survived the ordeal and is running perfectly.

I NEVER would have believed that was possible. I didn't have to replace
a single component. Everything is running fine.

Wow, I know I dodged a bullet.

I am grateful for your remarks and I did learn some things from you
wonderful folks, as usual.

It may please you to know that I had copies of all my personal documents
and files on a external hard drive AND on my laptop before all this
happened. If I woke in the middle of the night to a house afire, I
could grab one bag that had my whole online life in it, and jump out a
window.

I'd toss my dog out first. My husband would be on his own. ;)


From: Dave C. on 10 Jan 2010 12:45
On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:15:26 -0500
Toolpackinmama <philnblanc(a)comcast.net> wrote:

> Thanks everybody for your interest and comments.
>
> Incredibly, despite everything my husband and I did to try to fix the
> problem, the machine survived the ordeal and is running perfectly.
>
> I NEVER would have believed that was possible. I didn't have to
> replace a single component. Everything is running fine.
>
> Wow, I know I dodged a bullet.

For the moment. Don't expect the power supply to last long. But even
at worst, if all that dies is the power supply, that's not a big deal.


>
> I am grateful for your remarks and I did learn some things from you
> wonderful folks, as usual.
>
> It may please you to know that I had copies of all my personal
> documents and files on a external hard drive AND on my laptop before
> all this happened. If I woke in the middle of the night to a house
> afire, I could grab one bag that had my whole online life in it, and
> jump out a window.
>
> I'd toss my dog out first. My husband would be on his own. ;)
>

If it happens again, unplug it, disassemble it, dry it with a hair
dryer, leave it dissassembled for a couple of days to further dry, and
then reassemble and hope for the best. -Dave
From: Toolpackinmama on 11 Jan 2010 01:58
On 1/10/2010 12:45 PM, Dave C. wrote:

> If it happens again, unplug it, disassemble it, dry it with a hair
> dryer, leave it dissassembled for a couple of days to further dry, and
> then reassemble and hope for the best. -Dave

Thanks Dave, but...

I gotta say, about using a hair dryer to dry it... I respectfully
disagree about that.

For one thing, I don't have a hand-held hairdryer (a blow-dryer), and I
am not going to go buy one for something like this.

More importantly, those hair dryers are not intended to be left running
for any extended period of time, and you certainly don't dare leave them
unattended for any length of time. Would you really sit and aim a hair
dryer into your computer, and just sit there with it for who knows how long?

What I did do is something that I think is a better idea: I used a
regular household fan, set at a proper angle and kept at some distance
away. I just left both sides of the case open and allowed the fan to
move the air around to facilitate evaporation.

You see, with my method, I could safely leave it unattended, even go to
bed without a single care. Which is what I did. I left it open and
drying overnight, and the next day it seemed perfectly dry. I booted
it, it worked, I left it open as it ran for a while.

I closed the case hours later when it was evident that it was running
well. Air continues to circulate, because like almost everybody else's,
my PC has fans inside!

:)

I have a theory about the sizzling sound... I believe it was just water
turning to steam.

I have one remaining question: The PC shut itself down instantly when
the water splashed inside - I'm not sure why. Of course it's good that
it did... but what caused that behavior? A short?

From: Dave C. on 10 Jan 2010 14:17
On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:58:55 -0500
Toolpackinmama <philnblanc(a)comcast.net> wrote:

> On 1/10/2010 12:45 PM, Dave C. wrote:
>
> > If it happens again, unplug it, disassemble it, dry it with a hair
> > dryer, leave it dissassembled for a couple of days to further dry,
> > and then reassemble and hope for the best. -Dave
>
> Thanks Dave, but...
>
> I gotta say, about using a hair dryer to dry it... I respectfully
> disagree about that.
>
> For one thing, I don't have a hand-held hairdryer (a blow-dryer), and
> I am not going to go buy one for something like this.
>
> More importantly, those hair dryers are not intended to be left
> running for any extended period of time, and you certainly don't dare
> leave them unattended for any length of time. Would you really sit
> and aim a hair dryer into your computer, and just sit there with it
> for who knows how long?

Well the question is moot if you don't have one. But it shouldn't
really take more than about 10 minutes, I would imagine. Just
disassembling everything will probably dislodge much of the water
before you even plug a hair dryer in.

>
> What I did do is something that I think is a better idea: I used a
> regular household fan, set at a proper angle and kept at some
> distance away. I just left both sides of the case open and allowed
> the fan to move the air around to facilitate evaporation.
>
> You see, with my method, I could safely leave it unattended, even go
> to bed without a single care. Which is what I did. I left it open
> and drying overnight, and the next day it seemed perfectly dry. I
> booted it, it worked, I left it open as it ran for a while.
>
> I closed the case hours later when it was evident that it was running
> well. Air continues to circulate, because like almost everybody
> else's, my PC has fans inside!
>
> :)
>
> I have a theory about the sizzling sound... I believe it was just
> water turning to steam.
>
> I have one remaining question: The PC shut itself down instantly
> when the water splashed inside - I'm not sure why. Of course it's
> good that it did... but what caused that behavior? A short?

A good power supply has protection circuits built in. One of them is
over-current. Another is under-voltage. Those two (both of them)
would have been tripped by water just about anywhere in a power
supply. These are protections that SHOULD be in a power supply,
but are often skimped on in cheaper power supplies. The fact that your
power supply shut down immediately when wet is actually a good sign.
It shows that it does have some protection circuits of some kind in
it. Shutting down is what a PROPERLY ENGINEERED power supply SHOULD DO
in that particular scenario. Not all will though. (unfortunately)

To be clear, the engineers don't design the power supply to shut itself
down when WET. They factor in normal electronics faults that might
cause certain conditions like too much current or not enough voltage.
And the protections are not really for the power supply itself, but for
the connected components. And to protect connected components they
design the power supply to fault to a powered OFF condition if all parts
of the power supply are not operating as designed. It is coincidence
that these protection circuits would be activated by water. -Dave
From: SteveH on 11 Jan 2010 05:26
Toolpackinmama wrote:
> On 1/10/2010 12:45 PM, Dave C. wrote:
>
>> If it happens again, unplug it, disassemble it, dry it with a hair
>> dryer, leave it dissassembled for a couple of days to further dry,
>> and then reassemble and hope for the best. -Dave
>
> Thanks Dave, but...
>
> I gotta say, about using a hair dryer to dry it... I respectfully
> disagree about that.
>
> For one thing, I don't have a hand-held hairdryer (a blow-dryer), and
> I am not going to go buy one for something like this.
>
> More importantly, those hair dryers are not intended to be left
> running for any extended period of time, and you certainly don't dare
> leave
> them unattended for any length of time. Would you really sit and aim
> a hair dryer into your computer, and just sit there with it for who
> knows how long?
Who said anything about leaving it running. You just keep hold of it, and
keep it moving, so as not to heat up any one part for too long, and just for
a few minutes (no longer than it would take to dry your hair).
I can't imagine anyone here (except maybe Skybuck!) would set up a hairdrier
pointed into a PC and leave it running for any great length of time, but
then again, I didn't believe anyone would dab a bit of water out of a PC and
then immediately tun it on..
--
SteveH


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