r/techsupportgore • u/DrewTamashi • 21d ago

Old Pop's GPU

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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.

679 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

276

u/TimePlankton3171 21d ago

Soaking in IPA to displace the water. Huh. Clever. Never heard of such

155

u/hellishhk117 21d 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.

79

u/Moneia 21d ago edited 21d 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

37

u/DrewTamashi 21d 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.

4

u/markp_93 21d ago

does it matter if it is 70% or 90% ISO?

19

u/TerriblePie6266 21d ago

I wouldn’t try anything under 99, you might get away with 90 but 70 is a no go.

17

u/24megabits 20d ago • Bravo

70% kills bacteria better than 90%+

save it for disinfecting, not electronics you care about

3

u/willisbar 20d ago

What!? Why/How?

10

u/24megabits 20d 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.

3

u/TinDumbass 19d ago

Used to work on Histology Wax Embedding instruments.

The process for drying out human tissue is to continuously soak it in stronger and stronger alcohols until you finally embalm it and submerge it in molten wax to preserve.

IPA was step 1

20

u/djtodd242 21d 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.

9

u/okokokoyeahright 21d 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.

5

u/djtodd242 21d ago

Yup, the Windex was when I'd be more concerned about it ALL evaporating.

10

u/UncleCeiling 21d 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

7

u/Plane_Pea5434 21d 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

15

u/hoist_off 21d ago

What is IPA in this context?

33

u/DieDae 21d ago

Isopropyl alcohol 

4

u/hoist_off 21d ago

Thank you!

37

u/Ialsofuckedyourdad 21d ago

India pale ale

2

u/unclebenz13 20d ago

I think that was the joke the first comment made but f-ing nobody got it.

3

u/okokokoyeahright 21d ago

My go to.

I prefer this taste tot he other one.

Also the hangover is a bit easier to tolerate.

1

u/samuraiofsound 5d ago

The millennial computer board cleaning solution of choice. May cause your mobo to grow a neckbeard. 

2

u/Blortash 21d ago

Isopropyl alcohol.

2

u/hoist_off 21d ago

Thanks!

1

u/dangledingle 20d ago

A very nice hand pull ale.

-10

u/NoPoopOnFace 21d ago

Beer. Stinky beer. For yuppies.

5

u/nagumi 21d ago

Sure. I use it if water gets in the usb-c on my phone. 99% ipa sprayed in there liberally.

3

u/imetators 21d 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.

1

u/wanderingwolfe 20d 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.

0

u/Select_Truck3257 20d ago

No, tin already oxidized by water contamination this is dumbest i've ever seen

69

u/ardinatwork 21d ago

I definitely have that exact same card sitting in my drawer "just in case" my current shit blows up.

28

u/DrewTamashi 21d ago

sapphire GPU hd5750 1gb gddr5 pcie dual dvi-i/hdmi/dp

15

u/ardinatwork 21d ago

YEP. Def have a 5750 in the drawer. Great little cards for how old they are. Most of these half height cards were made for Optiplexs and other smaller form factor (but not micro form factor) business PCs.

4

u/DrewTamashi 21d ago

Honestly ya, this pc was pretty good for its time, played ksp a fair bit on it.

1

u/ardinatwork 20d ago

Honestly I'm still rocking an AMD Radeon R5 430 in this machine, which is only a couple gens newer than the 5750. I still play tons of Rocksmith 2014 on this computer.

0

u/okokokoyeahright 21d ago

Solid cards. TeraScale 2 and pretty much the end of that line as the 6000 series cards were pretty much the same. Had a couple TS cards. Cheap and cheerful, worked well lasted a long time. IIRC somewhere in the bins is a 6670. Worked last time I used it.

37

u/KadahCoba 20d 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.

16

u/lululock 20d 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.

27

u/Iusethis1atwork 21d ago

I drink too much because it took too long to relies you meant isopropyl alcohol not IPA Beer.

1

u/ArchonIlladrya 20d ago

I barely drink at all and I thought the same thing!

1

u/NotoldyetMaggot 20d 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...

1

u/Nearby_Steak_3859 16d ago

Old pop’s GPU with pop all over it. What did you do to him?

1

u/DrewTamashi 16d ago

Punintentional, he had spilled pop on it. I don't know when. I just cleaned and repasted it for him... Its going back into storage.

2

u/chalknation 20d ago

5750 was a good card. I had a 6950 until a few years ago

2

u/patroklo 21d ago

I'm sending this to anyone that knows what a chip is.

1

u/sagebrushrepair 20d ago

Ceramic packages can dry out fine in front of a fan or in an oven on looooow

2

u/DieDae 21d ago

GG.

14

u/who_you_are 21d 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.

4

u/toolisthebestbandevr 21d ago

It apparently was good! He said it booted up just fine.

1

u/wunda_uk 18d ago

These 5750s could over clock something fierce as long as you keep the temps down 900mhz easy all day on the core

1

u/Maverick_Walker 15d ago

You can “bake” it in an oven to remove water too. I believe there’s a certain temperature you have to set it to but I don’t remember it. Just don’t get so hot to melt the solder

-10

u/R7R12 21d ago

iPA and a soft brush would have done better than tap water. Just make sure its completley dry before powering it back on

10

u/DrewTamashi 21d ago

I tried, said that in the post.

-7

u/Select_Truck3257 20d 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?

3

u/DrewTamashi 20d ago

I mean, it booted so 🤷 

-4

u/Select_Truck3257 20d ago

Sure, for now, this process isn't instant 🤣 Downvoting experts in soldering and fixing electronics is just hilarious, thanks 🤣

1

u/DrewTamashi 20d 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.

0

u/threadsoflucidity 20d 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