How Long To Let a GPU Dry After Washing It?

[jerubedo]

Hello,

So I'm not sure if anyone has any experience with this, but it's worth asking. My friend's house recently burned down. I rebuilt her machine with new parts and she gave me her GPU from the computer that was in the house. It was heavily smoke and soot damaged. I disassembled the entire card right down to the GPU itself. I then wiped down the entire PCB and the GPU with 90% isopropyl alcohol, which got rid of most of the soot and some of the corrosion on the screws. It overall looked very clean and with no corrosion on any of the components (just some leftover on the screws). Next, I dipped all of the parts into a 5 gallon jug of distilled water and let it sit for 8 hours. This was in an attempt to get rid of the heavy smoke smell that still plagued the card. After 8 hours, the smell was indeed gone, so that did work. So now I have the card disassembled on paper towels just drying. I ran a blow dryer over it to get it preliminarily dry. My plan is to leave it for 2 weeks to dry, but I feel like that might be overkill.


My next steps are going to be to plug the card into a cheap and dispensable test-bed, and see if I get video output. If I do, I plan to let the card run for a few hours at max fan speed (just to clear out any lingering smell, if any).


So, thoughts?

 

[kindangrysliceofpie]

ive never heard of someone washing a card this way, but id let the gpu idle at max fans for a few hours before testing.

 

[jerubedo]

ive never heard of someone washing a card this way, but id let the gpu idle at max fans for a few hours before testing.

Yep, that's what I meant above, that I would run it idle with max fans. What do you think about drying time, though? Is 2 weeks overkill, or just wait and play it safe?

 

[kindangrysliceofpie]

no need for that. A few hours is probably fine Id think. Perhaps leave the side of the case open for dust?

 

[jerubedo]

no need for that. A few hours is probably fine Id think. Perhaps leave the side of the case open for dust?

Oh, I would not be comfortable with just a few hours. There's too many places on the PCB where water can be hiding, like underneath the VRAM chips as just one example of many. I'm also not sure what you mean about leaving the side panel open for dust. To clarify, the card is still in pieces, it's not reassembled yet. I will leave it that way until I think it's 100% dry. Then once I reassemble it I'll plug it into my open-air test-bench.

 

[jerubedo]

ALTHOUGH, more food for thought, distilled water is technically not conductive. Or to state it more correctly, it is conductive, but not to any significant degree.

 

[nikoskostantopoulow]

You should had first wash it with water and then with alcohol.
Then it would had been dry in less than an hour.

 

[jerubedo]

You should had first wash it with water and then with alcohol.
Then it would had been dry in less than an hour.

So, then, would you suggest rinsing the entire card with alcohol? The reason I didn't do it the other way is because I don't have nearly enough to submerge the card in. I have plenty of distilled water, though.

 

[Corwin65]

Few days to a week will give you peace of mind.

 

[racksmith101]

We clean our PCBs at work by washing them in a warm pH neutral soap solution, rinsing the soap off with tap water then soaking the board for 10mins in Di water, pre-drying the boards with a dried air line and drying in the dryer for 20 mins @ 50c.

 

[King_V]

no need for that. A few hours is probably fine Id think. Perhaps leave the side of the case open for dust?

Oh, I would not be comfortable with just a few hours. There's too many places on the PCB where water can be hiding, like underneath the VRAM chips as just one example of many. I'm also not sure what you mean about leaving the side panel open for dust. To clarify, the card is still in pieces, it's not reassembled yet. I will leave it that way until I think it's 100% dry. Then once I reassemble it I'll plug it into my open-air test-bench.

Maybe also have a room fan blowing over the disassembled parts, just to help speed up the evaporation process.

 

[warpcrash]

water huh lmao. surprised that didnt lead to immediate corrosion. but might as well blow dry it at this point.

 

[jerubedo]

water huh lmao. surprised that didnt lead to immediate corrosion. but might as well blow dry it at this point.

Distilled water is just fine to use on components. It won't cause corrosion.

 

[jerubedo]

We clean our PCBs at work by washing them in a warm pH neutral soap solution, rinsing the soap off with tap water then soaking the board for 10mins in Di water, pre-drying the boards with a dried air line and drying in the dryer for 20 mins @ 50c.

This worked like a charm, thank you! I didn't use soap this time around (where do you find pH neutral soap by the way?) but the end result was that the soot and smoke is all gone. After drying it at 50 C I reassembled it, popped it in the test bench, and got video output. I ran the fans at full for an hour and then ran through several loops of 3DMark and the performance looks good and the card seems just fine.

 

[howtobeironic]

To make sure you can use rice, or rinse again on alcohol for 10 mins or so, its hypertonic nature will pull the water. Then let it off for at least a day.

 

[racksmith101]

Glad to be of help. I work for a PCB assembly company the soap we use is an environmental friendly industrial soap specially designed for PCB cleaning machines. 5 minutes in the soap then wash and dry.