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swordfish86 · Nov 17, 2006, 06:46 PM

hi, i was moving my brand new mac pro across my office to another desk earlier, yesterday i cleaned my carpet with carpet cleaning liquid and the floor was still a little damp. during seting it up i accidently let the wires from my apple cinema display fall on the carpet, i gave them a wipe and carryed on setting up, im just a littled worryed about it now, its working fine and everything, but just wondered if this could have have had any damage to the machine, im sure it will be fine as i have heard peoples computers work after being submerged in flood water and dried out, and this is just a drop on a couple of connectors

im prob just bein paranoid, its just i have saved for ages for this machine and really dont want anything to go wrong

i think i just wanna hear some assurance

anyway i love the machine and shall be taking photos for the pictures thread
many thanks

Captain Curt · Nov 17, 2006, 07:23 PM

Computers working after being sumbmerged in flood water? I don't think so. A couple of drops of water (or any conducting liquid) is enough to do major damage. Electronic devices do not like water. In your case, most likely you would have already done the damage if you did. I would imagine your safe now. Ideally, you would have wiped off the the connectors on any wire that attaches to your computer and then let it dry for a few hours before reattaching it . I think your OK now.

brokenjago · Nov 18, 2006, 04:00 AM

Actually, purified water is a very bad electrical conductor. It's the impurities in the water that make it such an excellent electrical conductor.

Just some random info.

swordfish86 · Nov 18, 2006, 07:25 AM

thaks for the info, to be honest i think it should be ok, i wiped it pretty well and it was barely moist at all anyway, so any fluid that reained would be very very minimal indeed! and like i said, its working like a dream

swordfish86 · Nov 19, 2006, 03:14 PM

Ok, iv had it on all day doing my work, and its been perfect, does this mean im in the safe zone now, ie it aint gona break

ps. my god i love this computer its sooo fast, even under rosetta on cs2 its beating my co workers quad most the time

14 seconds for the ps benchmark

Lateralus · Nov 19, 2006, 03:25 PM

Water doesn't kill electronics. Water + current kills electronics.

I've put motherboards in the dishwasher before (vintage comp stuff I was restoring) and provided enough time to try, they work fine.

Captain Curt · Nov 19, 2006, 08:53 PM

You guys are right. I didn't articulate very well. One drop of water in the wrong spot with power applied can kill electronics. The disagreement I have is computers working after being submerged in flood waters. The hard disks in any computer would be clogged with muck and dirt left by flood waters. I find it hard to believe any hard disk could survive the flood waters. The operating distance between the magnetic head and platter would be about a half the width of a human hair right? Another reason. Eventually particles of rust would start to cause problems as well. Sorry guys, I have to doubt hard disks surviving flood waters.

Captain Curt · 09:46 PM

Lateralus, I respect your opinion a great deal. Have you washed a motherboard with IC chips? The cpu? Wow thats why I come to this forum. To learn.

Lateralus · Nov 19, 2006, 10:36 PM

Yeah, I wouldn't bank on a hard drive surviving flood water too well. And optical drives certainly not.

I have done boards with ICs. I usually remove them first, but sometimes just leave them on and then after allowing the entire board to air dry for a while, I'll hit the IC with some compressed air to make sure there isn't any water under them. Then more dry time.

I usually give my stuff upwards of a week to try, much of which is outside where the air is moving constantly. Probably why I've never had any issues.