Instant Corrosion ... Wish Me Good Luck

[Soulwind]

So, I spent the weekend putting the new machine together (I7-930, Rampage III MB, GTX 480, EK RE3 MB Block, EK Supreme HF, EK FC480)

Unfortunately, it turns out I had a slow leak at the motherboard block over the voltage regs.

Didn't show up during leak testing, so I must of been just tight enough to prevent the leak during testing and ended up loosening it a bit during final installations.

So, Sunday I'm installing everything and suddenly the machine starts rebooting randomly. I'm looking around, but don't see any signs of water anywhere. Then I notice brownish, bubbly/foamy looking gunk squeezing out from underneath the board at the voltage regs.....

Took the system apart and under the board, surrounding the little backplate over the backside of the voltage regs is this big pile of goop. It seems that the water was running down the side of the block, crossing over a few of the voltage regs, getting down underneath and causing some kind of reaction between the anodized aluminum of the mb tray and the backplate on the board.

I have no idea what it was, but it ate the anodizing off of the mb tray and pitted/corroded the backplate some. All within a few hours...

I cleaned the board and the voltage regs with 91% isopropyl, and they look to be OK (none of them look burned or anything), and the board seems to be undamaged (I hope!).

Everything has been dried and reassembled and new (and MORE) leaktesting is now proceeding. Wish me luck! I really hope I haven't fried that $400 board....

[On a side note - anyone know a good, safe, easy way to remove stripped out hex-hole screws? I've got a couple that stripped on an old VGA Backplate that I'd like to remove without destroying the VGA Card if possible]

[Alexandr0s]

Took the system apart and under the board, surrounding the little backplate over the backside of the voltage regs is this big pile of goop. It seems that the water was running down the side of the block, crossing over a few of the voltage regs, getting down underneath and causing some kind of reaction between the anodized aluminum of the mb tray and the backplate on the board.

I have no idea what it was, but it ate the anodizing off of the mb tray and pitted/corroded the backplate some. All within a few hours...

Sounds like someone didn't use distilled with a killcoil .

Sorry to hear though. I really hope your motherboard is okay.

[Soulwind]

Actually that's what really threw me for a loop.

I was running just pure distilled during initial leaktesting and bleeding.

I had just added a couple of drops of PT Nuke Sunday morning before I powered the system and started installing all my apps.

I'm supposing it had to be some strange reaction between the backplate and the motherboard tray. I suppose the Nuke could have
had some effect, but at less than 2 pmm (3 small drops and nearly a gallon of distilled) . . .

[Alexandr0s]

Wow, I've never heard something like that happening with distilled, and I don't think PT Nuke had any real influence on that.

[NaeKuh]

I7-930, Rampage III MB, GTX 480, EK RE3 MB Block, EK Supreme HF, EK FC480

Where is the alu or steel used for corrosion?
What corroded?

Something needs to eat something for corrosion to occur and if that is all your EQ i dont see what ate what.
Eddy isnt stupid to trick us by throwing in ALU, so i highly doubt its from the EK blocks.

You have a much larger problem, im guessing u had a TON of gunk in your rad that you didnt clean out.
Or something else... but i dont see how u got corrosion without mixing metals in the presence of an electrolyte.


OK I AM GONNA SAY IT ONCE AND I HOPE YOU GUYS ALL REPEAT IT:
the best way to ask for help is to show us a picture of what u need help with.
A picture represents 1000 words in scenery... in debuging help its worth more then 10000.

[Soulwind]

NaeKuh, it was definately NOT from eddy's blocks. I certainly didn't want to give that impression.

I'm not actually certain what the bubbly/foamy stuff was (other than obviously the residue of some chemical reaction).

I should of taken a photo, but I freaked out so much that I wanted whatever it was off of my board asap...

I don't know if corrosion is actually the right word to be using. Maybe electrolysis or something would be more appropriate.

What I'm guessing happened is that the water leaked down over the voltage regs causing a short (and maybe leeching something out of the thermal pad? don't know what those are even made of), then got down and made a circuit between the anodized aluminum of the mb tray and the steel backplate....

I'm certainly hoping that whatever it was remains a mystery...ie it never happens again!!!!

Anyway, I'm going to let this one drop, I think I just wanted to whine a little about it

[NaeKuh]

NaeKuh, it was definately NOT from eddy's blocks. I certainly didn't want to give that impression.

I'm not actually certain what the bubbly/foamy stuff was (other than obviously the residue of some chemical reaction).

I should of taken a photo, but I freaked out so much that I wanted whatever it was off of my board asap...

I don't know if corrosion is actually the right word to be using. Maybe electrolysis or something would be more appropriate.

What I'm guessing happened is that the water leaked down over the voltage regs causing a short (and maybe leeching something out of the thermal pad? don't know what those are even made of), then got down and made a circuit between the anodized aluminum of the mb tray and the steel backplate....

I'm certainly hoping that whatever it was remains a mystery...ie it never happens again!!!!

Anyway, I'm going to let this one drop, I think I just wanted to whine a little about it

NEVER FREAK OUT!
That is what makes the guys who watered a lot longer different from the newbies.

The fact We dont panic when something happens..

That is the key thing...

If you notice something is wrong.. STOP... take pictures... And come on the forums and ASK.

Its best to ask a dumb question and get laughed at with correct advice... then you try to create disneyland by mickey mousing and crying when something unfixable happens.

I would really need to see pictures... gunk is explained by a lot of problems.. and should be dubug'd really quickly.

[Kurz]

Could it be Flux?

[bomberboysk]

Was this a new board or an older one that had some dust collecting on it? If it had some surface dust on it, that could have mixed with the leaking water to make the distilled water conductive, causing it to short out or something on the voltage regulators...Pictures would definately help.

As far as the hex head screws, you mean like the kind used for dsub/dvi/rs-232 connectors to screw into? If so, a nut driver or pair of pliers work.

[Conumdrum]

Boiling water (from the short and the 80C reg temps) mixing with the TIM pad, chemicals on the board etc. Thats what the odd colors etc are.

I think it's dead 'Jim'.

[Johnny87au]

how'd you go mate, take some pictures let us see