an adventure with water cooling.....

[KoG]^weaZel

Last night I was going to take my radiator out to turn the fans around so that they pulled air into the case. I wanted to do this with the minimum amount of hassle. So I left everything in the case such as the mobo vid card and other pci cards. The only things that would need to be removed was the CD-RW, two of the front 5.25" bay covers and the Aerogate. The hoses were detached from the radiator and the screws were removed next. Well at this point the wires that were tucked up next to the fan and radiator assembly were binding it up but with a little finese the assembly dropped down and was ready to come out. This is when tragedy struck! The fitting end dropped down spilling water all down the memory, motherboard, and video card.
My heart sunk, my frustation grew, and determination grew. I quickly removed the mobo tray and got the vid card out and sprayed it off with some canned air. i also got my girlfriend to get her hair drier and start on the video card. I took all the pci cards out of the mobo. The only card affected was the sound card and just a little water on that, blew it off and moved on. The memory was next, thank the Lord very little water got in just one of the DIMMs and just a few drops. Next was the mobo this had the most water on it by far. I used about a can and a half on this alone. The hair drier was going like a trooper, the video card was done, now all she had to do was the mobo and memory.
After about two hours of blow drying I had the system back ready to install. The re-installation went by with out much tension. The priming and "burping" of the water cooling system was done with out a hitch. Now all the cables and power wires were connected, everything was back and ready to run. I c re-attached the monitor, mouse and KB. All that was left to be done was hit the power button. "CLICK" nothing!!! oh I forgot to flip the power switch on the PSU to "ON". With that done I hit the power button again the video card biosed info flashed on the screen (things are going normally). The logo screen comes up and it hangs there. I remember then that I need to install the SATA cable on the HDD. I shut the machine down I install said cable. The switch was punched again. The PC powers up normally, no glitches, nothing abnormal. I then ran 3Dmark03, no problems noted there either. Bullet dodged!!
Lesson learned: When dealing with a water cooling system take the time and do things right. And dont be impatient or hasty. The consequences can be costly! Fortunately I didnt have to find out that price tag this time.
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JayDubya · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 4:04 pm Post subject:

you are one lucky SOB. hope we can all learn from your mistakes.

great story.
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JayDubya aka JW Jay JD ^> ﺵ

[TN] Nathan · ALMIGHTY PWNER! Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Posts: 7406

Very very lucky man. I am really glad for you.

The PSU switch gets me everytime. Think something is pooched when it's just a little thing like that.

Oh man, the TENSION.

BTW, you must have an awesome girlfriend to help you out like that.

No real damage can come about with water if there isn't any power to the components.
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JayDubya · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 7:46 pm Post subject:

[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 9:19 pm Post subject:

Yes she is a wonderful wonderful woman. She is very understanding about all this computer stuff.

I am thanking my lucky stars that everything turned out ok. I am just glad that I didnt have anti-freeze in the system at that time. Otherwise I think that I would have been screwed!
_________________
I tweaked and it tweaked back! So I Tweaked some more!

"Barney is like the Michael Jackson of PBS." - James Tybeerious