Modding Apple G5 **PICS ROUND 2 - added at 10/18 11 EST**

So my friend's business was recently flooded and he had 5 Apple G5 (dual process 2.5ghz) And I've acquired one. This was under water for approximately 5 hours during a flood thanks to a recent hurricane here in Virginia. So obviously it's muddy and etc. However it's power was pulled (from the surge box) before any water hit it, my question is what's the best way to clean, I'll post pics tomorrow of the carnage, it's depressing but I think it's salvagable. Can I use distilled water to clean? or should i try an air compressor? I got this thing for free so it's not a big loss if it's dead.

 

Cool, I hope your buddy is all set with his insurance though.

you can salvage the case and the motherboard. the hard drive is gone. no platter could survive that much dirt. cd rom is prob more work then its worth. Power supply might not be worth keeping because if its bad or messed up it could kill everything else.

To clean I would use 99% rub alc and compressed air. some electronic stores actually carry a special liquid cleaner also. but I havent seen the stuff for a long time.

Id like to see pics if you have em. I also hope your buddy, friends and family are alright from the storm.

If there is any extra machine or cases id be interested in em. i love tinkering. Good luck with it.

 

if the HDD was above the water then it would be fine, but if it got subermgered then it's gone, on the other hand if you clean it out really good and let it dry etc, then you got a G5 for a cheap (i assume) and would be worth the effort cause those G5's are great for movie's and editing and such, but i'll stop now and wish you good luck with the restoration of it

 

Yepo basically the G5 was under 5 feet of water (so 3 ft above it) I got it 100% free which is sweet.

I was also told using just a hose with distilled water and then soaking it in the isopropanoyl would work as well? Or should I stick to the isopropanoyl/air compressor.

I actually used the air compressor today on it and the majority of the dirt is gone now, just need to tidy up and clean the case. Do you think soaking the heatsinks in the alcohol overnight would clean them enough?

 

you should soak all the electronics in 99% alcohol, including mobo, ram, and processor. this will remove any residue of salt and dirt that may cause a short. after soaking it let it dry for a day or two.

 

¿þŘΩĐĮĢΫ? 's right if the hard drive was submerged you'll prolly need a new one but hard drives are cheap these days so as youve said just clean it as good as you can and let it sit for a week or two ta be sure its dryed out completely before you try plugin it in and firein it up

BTW great deal if it works after it drys

 

Excellent. Basically I just finished some pics after i've cleaned it a bit, should've taken them before I started (since there's 5 of these, i'll have my friend take pics of his) I've only got one small place where the case bent where it flopped over, but besides that it's beautiful, and as posted earlier, I've always been a pc user so this'll be fun to play with.

Specs on it

1 gb DDR ram
160 Serial ATA hdd
DVD rom/CDRW
Dual 2.5 Ghz Processor
Dual video output (the crazy apple kinda, like dvi)
Dunno much beyond that since i just got it 2 days ago or what not. I'll hopefully end up with Panther on it and it'll be my music/video fun time machine

 

FYI, that "crazy" thing is called an ADC (Apple Display Connector). it carries video signal, power, and usb signal through one cable/connection.

BTW, i now hate you. you know how long ive wanted to get my hands on one of these, and now i see you got one for free.

 

I would take the time to unseat processors, ram etc, to clean out any dirt that might have settled in the sockets. Also I would go over the board looking for rotting connectors and such. I've never used 99% alcohol to clean computers, Wouldn't the acohol weaken plastics like Acrylics? and things like heat shrink on capacitors and the likes?

 

bathe the motherboard in distilled water and put it in an oven on low heat (ie, 40-50 degrees C) for 20 minutes.

 

Yeh my processors/heat sinks are off the mb and basically everything is off that I can get really easily. I just got the PSU out last night (risers for the mb were in the way). And does anyone know how to remove the third top section of the case? This is the one with the HDD bay, fan, and the cd drive on it. Everything else is out but I'm clueless as to this one. Do I need to get the size 8/9 torx and undo all the screws around the edges to remove the other panel? I'm going out to buy the highest concentration alcohol I can find. And distilled water won't be a prob, my school has a ton of it So I think i'll wash it with the distilled then either air dry/towel off/blow dry/bake to get all that off, then use the alcohol to make sure the rest of the dirt is cleaned.

Then I'll try to clean the drive, though they're not too expensive so if it's beyond like $50 worth of work I'll probably just buy a new one

 

As i said to a other perosn thet got his apple equipment wet.. (an IPod)

a mix of 70% whitesprite and 30% freshwater
The water takes the most of salt and other stuff, and the whitesprite takes the rest, alcohol as many others have mentioned does not disolve the salt, but the water does (after all 70% of the earths surface is covered in water that has disolved salt, and if infact one ot the best dissolvants (?) out there, TRUE!)

and after you have washed it a couple of times in the mix, put it in a oven (suggest taking the case appart and cleaning it "fart for fart", with all removable parts removed) set the oven at about 50-75 deg C, don't whipe off any of the water on it (as it evaporates and takes some pollution with it) when the part has been in there for about 2 hours, take it out, an blow the ramaining (if any) dust and pollution away from the part.. and hopefully you can seve the most of it.

good luck

 

Thanks for the replies. I'll have to go hunting for the watersprite that you mentioned. I'll be working on it later today and this weekend. I have a bad habit of trying to rush things through (paint jobs) but I'm gonna try to constrain myself to get this one working again. I sanded a bit of the case on the inside to remove rusted splotches. That turned out excellent and the outside looks fine

 

White spirit as maby what it's called outside Norway.. I'm not shure... Its normally used to remove wet oilbased-paint...

OH, and you have to mix it yourself...
ps. remember to leave the part in the oven for 2-3 hours.. this to get out ALL moisture (eg. undernith chips, ports, ram-slots.....)

 

The building that got messed up. It wasnt where mythic holds thier servers is it? I saw a photo of where mythic entertainment keeps thier servers in virginia and the whole side of the building was destroyed. it sounds very similar.

 

no white spirit! white spirit is death to plastic! NO!!!!!

and it leaves an oily residue. which is also mank.

 

remember.. that is why the water is in it.. to remove the residue.. and actually.. Look at the "Ultrasonic PCB Bath"
that is what pro's use to repair waterdamaged electronics...

AND BTW.. The oily residue of the whitesprite is a non-conuctiv, but protective layer, and WHY do they sell whitesprite in PLASTIC containers?... so SHHHHHH!

 

I dont know where Mythic's servers are located but they were probably downtown richmond we had about 10 ft of water all over the bottom part (Shockoe Bottom area) and basically totalled everything down there. They lost their car as well and took pictures, not very fun the beetle (car they had) apparently floated for a bit, then sunk to the bottom, and is now filled with mud and other fun stuff, it's totalled. Most of the downtown is trashed.

Water Spirit sounds more familar i'll check it out

 

It's times like these you wish your glad there is something called insurance..

OH, and i think it's WHITE spirit

 

well, they also sell acetone in PLASTIC containers.....

you've made me doubt my previous statements, but since phone PCBs don't contain any moulded plastic components, and i dunno anymore, i don't know what to believe.