electronics and spills

[thegoatman]

So I spilled some pepsi on my video card today, while my computer was running. I got no fizzle-pop effect, the movie I was watching kept running, but I immediately unplugged my machine, and pulled out my card.

As there was no obvious electrical shorting, is it safe to say I can clean this up with some 91% isopropyl alcohol?

[dairyFarmer]

Get some Contact Cleaner and give it a good blast. Mainly for piece of mind, but you dont want those sugars drying up on your pcb.

[NEOAethyr]

If it's just a few small spots, use a 'damp' washcloth to wipe it off, then a dry one if need be to dry it.

If you need to clean it better then new..., ie it's a big mess...
Then you'll need to take the heatsink off, clean off the tim as best as you can.
Put it in a tub of some sort, fill it up a 1/4 of the way or something with warm water, spray the water with mean green/simple green a few times.
Spray the card it's self a few times too, and place the card into the tub of water/green.
Leave it sit for 10-15 mins.
After that take it out and dry it.

I use a blow dryer at 1st, make sure it doesn't get to hot, you'll have to switch between hot and cold.
Then I place the part in ? in front of a fan for a few hours.
After a few hours of drying it should be good to go, better then new, which I'm not kidding about, it gets cleaner then new...

The trick is to make sure it's 100% dry though.
Water can sit under pins and other misc parts.

I call it dipping...

Edit:
Err one more note.
Blow dryer's use around 1kw/hr of power...
Just a heads up , perhaps it would be best to ensure most other things are off at the time when using the blow dryer to try to ensure the power bill stays normal...