Brown gunk on gpu after spilling tea on computer

[JoeThePro856]

Last night I accidently spilled tea on my desk which dripped down on to my pc, through my fan grate and onto the back of my gpu through a whole in the backplate. The fans in my computer started spinning faster and the whole thing turned off. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to turn it back on again and upon doing so I heard a spark, my pc turned off and I could smell smoke. After verifying that my card it the only thing damaged (by using my old card in the pc) I took it apart and found the source of the burning smell which also had some browm stuff on it. I'm not sure what it is and don't know if my gpu can be saved, some help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

pictures below:
http://imgur.com/a/YzqFC

 

[Eximo]

Well, you can try cleaning it. But I would not be hopeful that it will work again if it shorted out while drawing current.

 

[Superkoopatrooper]

I really hope your card is the only thing damaged. Your pc turned off to protect itself, when you turned it back on, it shorted and it could of damaged anything from the psu to the ram. even if it appears normal and in working order, In all honesty, you could wash the card in water haha seems counter productive and ironic but it's true. just make sure it's completely dry before you plug it in.

 

[Eximo]

A light cleaning with isopropyl alcohol would be better. It evaporates and the water content has been distilled. Cleaning with tap water would not be advisable. I would suggest a new toothbrush.

Electrical contact cleaner might be best, but that seems an expense for something that probably won't work again.

I suspect some of those capacitors on the back exploded and left the residue behind.

 

[JoeThePro856]

I'll try leaving my computer on with the other gpu inside for an hour or two just to make sure. Really? Water? I was thinking of getting some isopropyl alcohol and cleaning up the card with cotton swabs. Wouldn't that be better?

Thanks for the quick reply

 

[JoeThePro856]

I think so too as that's where the smell is coming from and also there's a black mark on the heat sink across from it. Do you think it could still work if I clean it up?

 

[Eximo]

Possibly, some capacitors are only there as buffers. They increase stability or prevent excess wear on voltage regulation components. However, if the traces on the board are no longer creating a circuit, and it is vital to operation, it won't work.

It could be that one that exploded was in parallel with another and broke the short by exploding, preserving the remaining capacitor which is still good enough for operation.

For testing this, if you happen to have another PCIe computer you don't care about, that would be best. Otherwise you risk damage to the power supply or motherboard if the card has a dead short in it.

 

[JoeThePro856]

I only have one computer so I couldn't safe test it, is there a way to tell if the capacitor was a buffer? I might just try it out anyway after cleaning it.

 

[JoeThePro856]

If it helps I can post a picture of the capacitors, there are 3 in a line and the one in the middle is the one that exploded (although it's not obvious from how it looks)

 

[Eximo]

If you want to post a picture after cleaning, sure.

Those capacitors are usually too small to be labeled in a significant way. And soldering new ones on is somewhat difficult, so repairs would require some expertise. Unless by chance we can see the traces all sitting there. Most boards are multi-layer and it isn't easy to see what is going on without a schematic, and those pretty much don't exist.

This is one of the reasons I keep my computers on the desk/table or sitting on top of my old poweredge 4200 (about the size of a small fridge)

 

[JoeThePro856]

Ohh, appologies, I thought the large cylindrical things were capacitors. Shows my knowledge of this stuff I guess. Once the alcohol arrives in a few days I'll post a picture but I'm most likely going to try and get it running anyway. If by chance you're still around then and have any last tips it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Eximo]

Solid capacitors, commonly seen on motherboards and GPUs, are just short metal cans. Used pretty much everywhere but the audio section of most motherboards, where electrolytic capacitors are used instead. These usually have a metal top, but the rest of the capacitor is wrapped in a protective layer/label. So the capacitors will blow at the top rather than into the circuit board.

On the back of the card there are many small brown/yellow squares. Those are thin film surface mount capacitors.

Not often seen on computer hardware these days, except in power supplies, are ceramic capacitors which are usually disc shaped, and ploy film that are like two wires dipped in paint.

If one of the larger solid caps has blown, well, those are usually associated with power delivery and would be necessary for operation.