[SOLVED] PSU exploded!! need help.

[shreyas133719]

Okay guys, here is what happened some guys were working on a new current line in front of my house they screwed up the phase wires which caused an over voltage flow which in turn blew up my PSU smoke started to come out I immediately turned off my computer and opened it I saw the some sort of acid come out of the capacitor which was in the PSU and it poured right onto my GPU (and some on my Mobo) but there was a back plate protecting most of the GPU's internal circuit but there were holes for the airflow in the back plate which let some of the liquid pass through which fell on the circuit board, the GPU is fairly new I can't open the gpu's back plate to clean which will void my warranty so kept it in front of a fan to help with the evaporation the question is that do I wait for a few days for the acid to dry up and check the GPU or open the GPU back plate voiding the warranty to clean it or just give it to the company itself for replacement without checking it?

And I don't see any damage to the GPU or the Mobo.

MY PC SPECS -
Ryzen 5 1600
Galax GTX 1660
Gigabyte A320-S2H motherboard
Cooler Master 500W PSU (The one which blew up)
8GB DDR4 3000mhz RAM
1TB HDD

I built it on 2019, September.

Need help guys I am freaked out !!🤢😟😥

 

[CountMike]

Okay guys, here is what happened some guys were working on a new current line in front of my house they f* up the phase wires which caused an over voltage flow which in turn blew up my PSU smoke started to come out I immediately turned off my computer and opened it I saw the some sort of acid come out of the capacitor which was in the PSU and it poured right onto my GPU (and some on my Mobo) but there was a back plate protecting most of the GPU's internal circuit but there were holes for the airflow in the back plate which let some of the liquid pass through which fell on the circuit board, the GPU is fairly new I can't open the gpu's back plate to clean which will void my warranty so kept it in front of a fan to help with the evaporation the question is that do I wait for a few days for the acid to dry up and check the GPU or open the GPU back plate voiding the warranty to clean it or just give it to the company itself for replacement without checking it?

And I don't see any damage to the GPU or the Mobo.

MY PC SPECS -
Ryzen 5 1600
Galax GTX 1660
Gigabyte A320-S2H motherboard
Cooler Master 500W PSU (The one which blew up)
8GB DDR4 3000mhz RAM
1TB HDD

I built it on 2019, September.

Need help guys I am freaked out !!🤢😟😥

Even dried out acid is electrically conductive, you need to clean it off as soon as possible.Before turning anything on. Distilled water with some alcohol should wash it off with help of Q-tips or a brush. Concentrated alcohol after that and let dry.

 

[RARRAF]

not what you want to hear but Probably the best reason to take it to a good repair shop reasonably close to you and find out what is broken and what is not.

 

[GrinTheComputerNoob]

why not try to give it for replacement first then if they replace good, if they dont, then you try what the others say in this forum.

Opening it will void the warranty, might as well try the warranty first.
or nah, your choice

 

[BogdanH]

Alcohol doesn't remove acid. You need some alkali product for that, i.e. baking soda or soap -which neutralizes acid. After that alcohol can be used to clean the surface.

 

[jasonf2]

why not try to give it for replacement first then if they replace good, if they dont, then you try what the others say in this forum.

Opening it will void the warranty, might as well try the warranty first.
or nah, your choice

"Act of God" stuff like this is not going to be covered under a typical warranty. Warranties are designed to cover errors in workmanship, not freak electrical surges or chemicals being ejected into the case. Depending on the capacitor design that you had pop there can be some really nasty stuff in there (sulfuric acid). I would definitely not let it sit on anything it has gotten onto. Not only will it potentially short traces but the corrosive nature can chemically cut them as well. I am with CountMike on process, but make sure to use distilled water, not tap water. One thing that I might also suggest is call your local electronics repair shop (not Best Buy) that does board level work and see if they know anyone local that does ultrasonic board cleaning. The process is relatively simple using distilled water and a form of low heat oven to dry it out and is used for flux removal on PCBs. Your biggest issue is going to be damage already done. PCBs are so packed in today that specialized equipment and experience are necessary to make any repairs. These repairs are done by the hour with minimums and are not guaranteed. In my experience they can also take forever to get done. It is really easy for repair costs to add up and if the boards are damaged replacement may be the better option.

 

[shreyas133719]

Even dried out acid is electrically conductive, you need to clean it off as soon as possible.Before turning anything on. Distilled water with some alcohol should wash it off with help of Q-tips or a brush. Concentrated alcohol after that and let dry.

If I remove the back plate the warranty will be void.

 

[CountMike]

If I remove the back plate the warranty will be void.

If you don't clean it up properly there are great chances it will short something and burn so your warranty will still be voided anyway as it was damaged by external causes.

 

[jasonf2]

If I remove the back plate the warranty will be void.

More than likely your warranty is already void. Short of a no questions asked return policy at a retailer if anyone worth their salt looks at a part in that condition they are going to call it like they see it and deny the warranty claim. Water and corrosive damage are really easy to spot by the trained eye.

 

[thepersonwithaface45]

I would've gone outside and got the guy to buy me a new PC.

 

[Mtop]

From my understanding they don't put acid in capacitors - it is a dielectric!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric
It's non conductive and can be cleaned with a spray can of circuit clean.
Here in the states the contractors would be paying for the damage. They are the liable ones.

 

[shreyas133719]

From my understanding they don't put acid in capacitors - it is a dielectric!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric
It's non conductive and can be cleaned with a spray can of circuit clean.
Here in the states the contractors would be paying for the damage. They aren the liable ones.

That's what I thought too but there is a possibility of it being the electrolyte solution too, right?

 

[shreyas133719]

I would've gone outside and got the guy to buy me a new PC.

It was a government operation I posted a ticket but they didn't give a <Mod Edit>, many houses which were on the same line also got some sort of elctronic appliance damage and they didn't seem to care about it.

 

[thepersonwithaface45]

It was a government operation I posted a ticket but they didn't give a <Mod Edit>, many houses which were on the same line also got some sort of elctronic appliance damage and they didn't seem to care about it.

That's really scummy. Hopefully enough people make a ruckus out of it and you get some sort of compensation!

 

[Paperdoc]

I SEVERELY doubt that the problem material is acid. So do NOT try to remove with an alkalai! As Mtop says above, that fluid inside a capacitor is a dielectric specifically chosen to have VERY low conductivity, so it cannot be a solution containing ions of any type. VERY likely it also is NOT water-based, so trying to remove it with clean water probably also will not work. I doubt that it will corrode the metals on your circuit board, but it might, I suppose. I don't know exactly what dielectric material is used in this capacitor.

However, the effect of this contaminating material on the circuit board I also cannot predict. Here's where it gets complicated. The effective conductivity of a dielectric material between plates of a capacitor changes with frequency of the signal, and that part is determined by the molecular structure of the dielectric. (I did graduate research work years ago in this field.) So although its conductivity is quite low at 60 and 120 Hz (the frequencies involved in a filter capacitor in a PSU), it will be quite different at very high frequencies (as in the signal on a video card). So I really do not know whether this contaminant will cause real problems on the video card, even it it does not corrode any metal.

My guess is that very few computer repair shops would know the answers to this. I also suspect very few would even try to disassemble a video card for cleaning and re-assembly with a guarantee that it will work when finished. The labour cost would be large, and the guarantee would be really risky for them. By far their most likely answer would be for you to scrap the card and replace it. And that's my advice, too.

 

[shreyas133719]

I SEVERELY doubt that the problem material is acid. So do NOT try to remove with an alkalai! As Mtop says above, that fluid inside a capacitor is a dielectric specifically chosen to have VERY low conductivity, so it cannot be a solution containing ions of any type. VERY likely it also is NOT water-based, so trying to remove it with clean water probably also will not work. I doubt that it will corrode the metals on your circuit board, but it might, I suppose. I don't know exactly what dielectric material is used in this capacitor.

However, the effect of this contaminating material on the circuit board I also cannot predict. Here's where it gets complicated. The effective conductivity of a dielectric material between plates of a capacitor changes with frequency of the signal, and that part is determined by the molecular structure of the dielectric. (I did graduate research work years ago in this field.) So although its conductivity is quite low at 60 and 120 Hz (the frequencies involved in a filter capacitor in a PSU), it will be quite different at very high frequencies (as in the signal on a video card). So I really do not know whether this contaminant will cause real problems on the video card, even it it does not corrode any metal.

My guess is that very few computer repair ships would know the answers to this. I also suspect very few would even try to disassemble a video card for cleaning and re-assembly with a guarantee that it will work when finished. The labour cost would be large, and the guarantee would be really risky for them. By far their most likely answer would be for you to scrap the card and replace it. And that's my advice, too.

If i were to scrap the GPU I might as well open the back plate and try cleaning it with Isopropyl alcohol?

 

[Paperdoc]

Good point. If it's junk anyway, and you actually can fix it, you get a real freebie out of the deal!

When you get it apart, before you apply alcohol, see how much you can wipe away with just a dry cloth or paper towel. That will not spread the stuff around the way a solvent can. Then the solvent (water or alcohol in modest amounts are safe) can be used to try to dissolve and remove the small remaining amount. Ensure the item is VERY dry (leave exposed a couple days) before re-assembling.

 

[shreyas133719]

Good point. If it's junk anyway, and you actually can fix it, you get a real freebie out of the deal!

When you get it apart, before you apply alcohol, see how much you can wipe away with just a dry cloth or paper towel. That will not spread the stuff around the way a solvent can. Then the solvent (water or alcohol in modest amounts are safe) can be used to try to dissolve and remove the small remaining amount. Ensure the item is VERY dry (leave exposed a couple days) before re-assembling.

Okay I will try this, because I cant just scrap the GPU cuz buying a GPU in my country is very costly, I bought this GPU by working very hard.

 

[jasonf2]

Alcohol doesn't remove acid. You need some alkali product for that, i.e. baking soda or soap -which neutralizes acid. After that alcohol can be used to clean the surface.

The alcohol will help dissolve any organic material for the cleanup. As far as the acid goes the water itself will pick that up in solution and while it won't neutralize it repeated application will pick up of the material in the swabbing process to reduce it to almost non existent levels. Application of baking soda or soap will just make even more of a mess that you will have to clean. The goal in a cleanup like this is to get all of the conductive material off of the board not apply more.