Cooling Watercooling gone bad...WITH PICS!

Here's what I was using for watercooling liquid. It claims non-conductive.


Here's what the drive cage received from the small leak that occurred.


The SATA was RIGHT UNDER the elbow


The power connector got some love too...


The HDD received a bit of splooge as well. No word yet on the status, running Seatools on another computer.


Yikes.

So I turned the PC on a while back and it just screeched at me. I thought it might have been the pump, but I disconnected everything, turns out it was the motherboard. I have a new one now and tomorrow I find out just which parts are completely fried.

The question: since Feser claims the water is non-conductive, do you think the residue is? If so, do I have any grounds to go to them with? It was less than an ounce of water (gauging from the amount of corrosion).

 

I am confused. Are you saying the mobo is fried? but the leak was only on the drive cage?

The feser stuff is definatly not conductive, if it has caused any damage it will be by proxy, ie something else that was on there it has somehow moved into place to cause some contact. The residue probably has dust and other things from the air that are conductive, which could have caused any shorts.

 

Well, the motherboard itself is fried. Here's a simple diagram showing how it was laid out.

PSU_____Resevoir
________HDD
__Z_____--------
________--------
nnnnnnnn--------
________--------
________--------

Z = processor
___ = motherboard
nnn = video card

There is also residue on the backside of my video card. The water dripped from the resevoir onto the back edge of the hard drive, then hit the power connector, then slipped down and hit the video card.

The motherboard has been tested separately. It's most definitely fried. The HDD is still being tested. The processor is probably good. No way to test the video card (active PC is AGP).

So. I buy that there could have been *something* conductive that the water helped to bridge a connection, but that is awfully convenient (I use canned air religiously).

 

It's still conductive - it's water don't forget, combine that with dust and other particles once it got out of your loop (or even while it was still in there), and I'm afraid you've found out the consequences...

 

The water inside the loop was not conductive. Once it got outside the loop and contaminated by air and the other deposits on your video cards/HDD etc (finger prints from installation etc) then it would have picked up a very small amount of salts that would have enabled the water to conduct. It would only be non-conductive when it was in the loop and not contaminated.

Andy

 

Well that's misleading. I don't understand what the point is, I suppose, other than having water made specifically for watercooling. Anyways, undertaking RMA process, we'll see how well it goes given the circumstances...

 

If you read the lable on the Feser One Aqua it says it has to be mixed with non conductive and anti-algal stuff.

All this is double-distilled water that in the bottle is non conductive.

 

You're trying to rma parts you killed? RMA is for parts that are faulty from the manufacturer, not for parts that you destroyed. Watercooling involves risks, if you're not willing to cover the cost of the hardware I'd consider a different cooling solution. And for the record I have destroyed hardware through watercooling mistakes and no I have not tried to RMA it.

 

That sucks but I think your going to have to eat the cost of the new parts

 

OK, lesson one: distilled water (which in what this is) is NOT non-conductive. It has a low conductivity, but that means nothing in the context of delicate computer innards and voltages that, although low, are at eye watering currents. And distilled water in a PSU? Be prepared to pick the bits out of the ceiling. Even most non-conductive liquids don't quite manage.

Feser does make a non-conductive oil-based coolant but this is not it.

Lesson two: EVERY coolant, with the exception of Fluorinert, leaves residue. Fact of life, sorry.

Lesson three: as Rocket733 says, water cooling is not for the faint-hearted. You break it, you own it. you decided to take your hardware well outside manufacturer conditions, so if it goes wrong the price is yours to pay. Stunts like this make it harder for people to make legitimate RMA's.

" Be careful. Be very, very careful. This ride is not for the weak." --the Game Cat, in Vurt by Jeff Noon