New Motherboard got soaked in water for 4 hours

[JInsu88]

Update: It worked fine. I soaked the motherboard in isopropyl alcohol for an hour and once it was dry I powered it on. No issues at all.

I had bought Maximus Hero VII motherboard, Liqud cooler and Asus Graphic card. All these were on kept my floor and it was still not opened from the box. A pipe broke out and Flooded my room (3 feet water) which I came to realize after 4 hours. Later I contacted our seller and he said it can't be replaced. I've unboxed it and kept it under sun. I saw a lot of white residue when I opened MotherBoard, when I flipped it, i saw a lot of burn spots (8 to 10 maybe). It was caused by CMOS battery. Too much resiude under CMOS battery and near cmos button and few other places. I'm gonna keep it under sun for another day or two (6 hours a day maybe) and then test it. Do you think it might work? also any suggestions to clear the burn marks and the white residues?

ASUS graphic card had a static cover sealed so water did not get inside, still I kept it under sun for about 6 hours. Wish MOBO had a sealed cover too.

Also external 1 TB drive and VIOP Phone handset got wet too. It fell down while I was moving everything outside. Voip Phone was ON when this happened. External harddisk was plugged to my Old PC but I had removed the power cord few minutes before this happened.

If anyone have a Hero, please upload a pic so I can compare with my first Pic to see if I'm missing a IC.
Open the images in new tab to zoom
Pic 1 - IC BURNS - I see cocaine there 🙂

Pic 2 - CMOS - See that blue power?

Pic 3 - Burn spots behind the mobo

 

[Christopher1]

I doubt that it will work after this. If these were new items, not taken out of the box yet and purchased recently, I would contact the seller again and tell them "Yes, they will be replaced or my next call will be to a lawyer!"
I would also contact your homeowner's insurance if these were expensive items and see if they will cover the replacement of the items.

Lastly, if a pipe broke (they should not under normal circumstances), I would advise whoever owns the home or apartment in question to immediately have ALL pipes in the house inspected, because if one breaks like this? Others are probably on their way to doing that.

 

[madmatt30]

^ why in gods name would the seller be responsible for replacing anything??

 

[way2aware]

Hey,
Sorry to hear about your flood. Anyway, I'm an industrial machinery maint tech... many years working with PLC's and things of the like (basic processor boards which run factory machines) and I can tell you this much: every single time that I have seen a circuitboard of any kind get water on it, even drenched in water long enough to build scale and calcium deposits on it- as long as there was no operating voltage applied to it at the time of the water hitting it- it worked without any issues once the water was completely evaporated from it. This includes a board that has a 5 volt cmos battery on it
you have valid reason to hope here, as long as you've got the board dried before testing it

 

[PsyKhiqZero]

This type of damage should be covered by flood insurance. Before you do anything else to the board check with your insurances to see if this type of thing is covered. If you rent then ask your land lord about it.

 

[JInsu88]

I doubt that it will work after this. If these were new items, not taken out of the box yet and purchased recently, I would contact the seller again and tell them "Yes, they will be replaced or my next call will be to a lawyer!"
I would also contact your homeowner's insurance if these were expensive items and see if they will cover the replacement of the items.

Lastly, if a pipe broke (they should not under normal circumstances), I would advise whoever owns the home or apartment in question to immediately have ALL pipes in the house inspected, because if one breaks like this? Others are probably on their way to doing that.

Landlord won't do anything about it. I live in India and no lawsuit will help me in this case. LandLord blamed me for a 4 hour flood and i didn't know about it, later he found the cause was a rusty pipe. He is from a political background and a rich bastard. He does not give a shit about the issue. I'm moving out next week. If there was any wire short out, I could be dead as soon as I stepped in. And no I don't have any such insurance, never heard of it before. Have only medical insurance lol.

@Way2Aware, good to know that it might work. I'll update you'll in 2 days after I test it.
I wonder even it worked, would my PC hang due to IC issues? I've uploaded few pictures of the motherboard on my first post. I don't know if I'm missing a IC in the First pic. If anyone have a Hero, please upload a pic so I can compare. Does IC blast away in any case? I'm thinking to clean the residues with a small painting brush.

 

[gizzard1987]

I'm not going to swear to it but if you talk to Asus I'm sure they could work something out for you. I mean you did just buy a 500 dollar motherboard. I would just be completely honest with them.

 

[JInsu88]

Good news! Everything worked fine. I soaked the motherboard in isopropyl alcohol for an hour and once it was dry I powered it on. No issues at all.

 

[madmatt30]

Good news! Everything worked fine. I soaked the motherboard in isopropyl alcohol for an hour and once it was dry I powered it on. No issues at all.

lucky man - if theres such a thing as the indian lottery I would put a few dollars on it this week😀

seriously though mate,good for you