crwdns2933423:0crwdne2933423:0

Cleaning up a very unique kind of spill

As the title suggests, i'm asking about a spill that happened yesterday. For context, my pc and components were in an open test bench so most of the components had exposure to the spill (storage drives, about 75% of the mobo, most connectors, power supply, cpu socket, ect.).

My guess is a little more than a pint of fluid was spilled. The system was off when it happened (PSU was switched off) but plugged in. The system was last used about 10 hours prior. My immediate reaction was to clear the vessel containing the liquid and unplug the system from the wall, then unplug all devices from the mobo. After this I unplugged the CMOS battery and removed the CPU. I do remember there being a bit of liquid (like a drop or two) near the CMOS battery but it was not drenched and as far as I could tell it had not contacted the battery or the socket.

By the time I got to the CMOS battery about 10 minutes had elapsed. Due to my setup, I could not remove it immediately because I couldn't reach it until I unplugged everything else and had enough space to manipulate the test bench freely. I then started to dry everything with separate fans for the components and the motherboard.

Now that I have provided the backround, the crux of my question and what makes it unique is concerning the liquid that was spilled. It was a quart of distilled water mixed with about 2 tablespoons of baking soda. As I mentioned above, I spilled a bit over half of it on the system and as it dried I could see the white residue and just how much stuff it got on.

My understanding is that baking soda is conductive and I have no idea how one would go about attempting to remedy this or what products and procedures to use so I was hoping to get some guidance from here.

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So it has been quite a while, but everything is back online and working fine so far. I ended up rinsing the mobo more than once and letting it dry for a long time. I also had to rinse and clean my PSU connectors several times because of the amount of residue. Fortunately nothing got inside the PSU or my storage drives. I rinsed my RAM (four sticks) without removing the heat spreaders and air/fan dried it for a week+.

I also want to correct my original post. I said that I spilled distilled water when it was in fact purified drinking water (mixed with baking soda). All the rinsing was done with distilled water (processed by steam distillation, micron filtration, and ozonation) with no added minerals.

Thanks for all the help guys.

crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0crwdne2934271:0

Don't go away, you are not done yet. Rate the answers. Thank you.

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crwdns2934051:0crwdne2934051:0

First of all a pint of liquid, in this context, is an enormous amount of liquid. Think about how tiny and thin electrical traces are on a circuit board. On to solution.

Just wash the board off with distilled water. That will safely remove any impurities. As far as I know baking soda does conduct electricity but not very well. Once cleaned, dry the electronics thoroughly before reassembling and powering up.

Distilled water doesn’t conduct electricity. Distilled water is a pure form of water that does not contain any dissolved impurities, due to which no free ions are present to conduct electricity.

Let us know how it goes

crwdns2934105:0crwdne2934105:0

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crwdns2947414:01crwdne2947414:0:

Yes it was a lot of water. I will try your suggestion about rinsing the board with distilled water and check back. It might be in a week or so due to an abundance of caution on my part to ensure everything dries out and the other components affected but im grateful for your advise and quick response.

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The fact that the system was off may be your savior. At worse, only the 5V needed to start the system was there. The CMOS battery is likely too low a voltage to do any harm. Baking soda it more conductive in liquid form. So, residue powder isn't much of a concern. BUT, I would do what Mike indicated and wash the board and THOROUGHLY dry it, for a couple days in the Sun.

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crwdns2947414:01crwdne2947414:0:

I certainly hope you are correct and your assessment along with Mike's gives me some optimism moving forward. My biggest concern was the residue so that is good to know. I will check back here with you guys in a week or so, thanks for your response.

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