r/techsupportgore • u/DrewTamashi • 1d ago
Old Pop's GPU
My father asked me to clean up his old pc from 2010. There was what seemed to be pop spilled all over the back of the GPU. IPA didn't touch it so I ran it under the sink to clean it.
I did after running it under the tap soak it in IPA to try and push out all the water. Then dried it with a hair dryer on low. Threw it back into the pc and booted up fine.
The amount of dust was also nasty but that's not relavent for this sub.
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u/TimePlankton3171 1d ago
Soaking in IPA to displace the water. Huh. Clever. Never heard of such
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u/hellishhk117 1d ago
I remember that was a tip from early LTT, right around the time they were doing mineral oil rigs, pizza rigs, and a few other random ass rigs.
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u/Moneia 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's a trick that's used in lots of other jobs\hobbies. Chris Fix has a video cleaning out a fuel system and it's pretty common in cleaning lab equipment, although Pharmacists often finish up with formaldehyde for that extra shine.
It's also not displacing the water, they're miscible, it's just diluting it with enough IPA that it evaporates much more readily
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u/DrewTamashi 1d ago
It was 99% which definitely helped. Apparently it lowers the surface tension of the water it mixed with as well to help it come out easier.
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u/markp_93 1d ago
does it matter if it is 70% or 90% ISO?
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u/TerriblePie6266 1d ago
I wouldn’t try anything under 99, you might get away with 90 but 70 is a no go.
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u/24megabits 1d ago
70% kills bacteria better than 90%+
save it for disinfecting, not electronics you care about
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u/willisbar 10h ago
What!? Why/How?
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u/24megabits 10h ago
High concentrations can seal the outside of the bacteria's cell wall before much can get inside. Then it just evaporates and the bacteria recover later.
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u/djtodd242 1d ago
Old electronics trick. I used to wash 80s arcade PCBs under the tap, then liberally spray with 90% IPA to help evaporate it. Windex instead of water works too.
Would I do it to known working boards? No.
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u/okokokoyeahright 1d ago
FYI, Windex and really any of the alcohol and/or ammonia based window sprays work the same. Also works on car seats where children have had an 'accident'. Source for the last one is me from personal experience driving taxi.
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u/UncleCeiling 1d ago
We do this to remove water from parts before putting them in a vacuum chamber. Aluminum is essentially a sponge and will keep releasing water into the chamber as we pump air out so we put the parts in an ultrasonic bath with anhydrous ethanol to force the water out
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u/Plane_Pea5434 1d ago
It’s fairly common, sugar doesn’t dissolve in alcohol so you use water, preferably distilled at least bottled and then a bath of isopropyl alcohol
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u/hoist_off 1d ago
What is IPA in this context?
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u/Ialsofuckedyourdad 1d ago
India pale ale
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u/okokokoyeahright 1d ago
My go to.
I prefer this taste tot he other one.
Also the hangover is a bit easier to tolerate.
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u/imetators 1d ago
On one of jobs I've done we did PCB board soldering. Some boards had to be soaked in a special solvent in an ultra sound basin. Then they he washed with hot water, dried with compressed air and put in a 80°C hot oven for an hour or so. Watwr during was would be just tap water.
Boards won't die to water if it has evaporates without making things rusty. It is counter I tuitice to do tho.
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u/wanderingwolfe 22h ago
IPA to remove water seems pretty common in science and engineering.
I first learned about it from the movie October Skies, but we also used it a lot in lab environments where we were working with materials that might be water reactive, to prevent incident.
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u/Select_Truck3257 1d ago
No, tin already oxidized by water contamination this is dumbest i've ever seen
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u/KadahCoba 1d ago
IPA cannot dissolve a lot of water soluble things, which it seems food and drink often are. So water was the correct option.
If you wanted to be safer, distilled water is usually at most $1 a gallon.
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u/lululock 21h ago
Not using distilled water isn't a big issue, as long as you rinse the board with alcohol and dry it well. I use a combination of hair dryer and compressed air to blow the bubbles under the chips out.
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u/Iusethis1atwork 1d ago
I drink too much because it took too long to relies you meant isopropyl alcohol not IPA Beer.
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u/NotoldyetMaggot 12h ago
I thought the same until I read your comment, it makes so much more sense now. I was wondering if IPA was the new rice hack...
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u/DieDae 1d ago
GG.
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u/who_you_are 1d ago
The issue with water if only if you power the device.
IPA will move away anything that remind (water mineral that is causing issues if you power the device). If it stop working they were another hidden issues.
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u/patroklo 1d ago
I'm sending this to anyone that knows what a chip is.
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u/sagebrushrepair 10h ago
Ceramic packages can dry out fine in front of a fan or in an oven on looooow
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u/Select_Truck3257 1d ago
The problem is in ca, k, fe, nitrates and other salts, ions that now on pcb. And now lets talk about 95%+ tin +water... Are you still sure it was good idea?
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u/DrewTamashi 1d ago
I mean, it booted so 🤷
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u/Select_Truck3257 1d ago
Sure, for now, this process isn't instant 🤣 Downvoting experts in soldering and fixing electronics is just hilarious, thanks 🤣
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u/DrewTamashi 1d ago
Honestly the pc will probably never be used again anyways. The important stuff was pulled off it. And I gave it a good bath with IPA and soft toothbrush after not giving it time to dry until I was fairly confident that it was clean.
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u/threadsoflucidity 8h ago
Falls under the "you can lead a horse to water "... Category -> sorry you got vote bombed. Also, it IS the little things, but I digress
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u/ardinatwork 1d ago
I definitely have that exact same card sitting in my drawer "just in case" my current shit blows up.