CyberDruid

This answer comes from some recent personal experience. While changing around some fans and ducts in my Rig I must have loosened a connection on the waterblock. Over the course of half a day maybe an eyedropper of antifreeze dripped from the waterblock onto the Vcard directly below it. A black screen soon alerted me to the problem.

After inspecting the card it was clear a thin film of antifreeze laced coolant had spread over the entire top of the card and had saturated the thermal pad on the backside of the GPU.

Some antifreeze had also seeped into the AGP slot but otherwise had left the mobo unscathed.

I rode down to the Auto parts and bought a spray can of Electromotive Cleaner and Degreaser. It claimed to be nonconductive and to dry leaving no residue.

Outdoors I saturated the Vcard, even removing the thermal pad to really hose down the back of the GPU and the pad. It is some foul toxic stuff and will probably give you a headache even outdoors.

I then sparingly squirted the AGP slot and swabbed up any residue from the case bottom.

I let the card dry for a good while and reapplied the thermal pad. I also blew out the case as best I could with compressed air--paying the AGP slot some special attention.

After reinstalling the card I still had no signal to the monitor. I let it sit for a few more hours and tried again--I got a brief signal to the monitor during boot but then it pooped out again.

The next morning the Vcard was working--for a while. After letting it sit between crashes I was able to get longer and longer periods of signal to the monitor.

After two full days the Vcard was restored to normal.

I hope this helps any water-coolers out there who spring a leak on their expansion cards....A $3.50 can of elctromotive spray cleaner can save you hundreds of dollars--it just might take a few days.

CyberDruid

Update--Vcard is still functioning normally....

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Xeijin

Interesting FAQ nice work mate.

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CyberDruid

Hope no one needs this info...lol. A good dielectric sealer woulod have prevented that in the first place.

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Burn

Yeah, probably. If I sprayed sealer onto the back of my Vcard, would it heat up everything on the back?

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Chozart

Haven't gotten into watercooling (yet) but a good FAQ!! Kinda reserved toward the use of heave chemicals though (I am an environmental management major in college), but hey, at least it works :)

Good one my friend!

CyberDruid

It was chlorinated biphenols by the smell of it--similar to brake parts cleaner. A real gagger.

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CyberDruid

Tha is a good question--I think if you use the stuff I have seen it is mixed liked epoxy and poured or brushed onto the card or board...I haven't used it--just seen shots of it--I think if yhou had the ramsinks on and just pooled it up onto the bottoms of them it would be fine.

CyberDruid

I want to thank tuchan for pointing out that regular old silicon spray will do the trick.

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