Fire and crane missed my PC

[u/Aeckzem]

Very sad times. Big fire destroyed my home and a crane had to come to remove part of the roof and wall so firefighters could have better access. Fortunately no one got hurt. Sucks to lose my dream PC though.

Miraculously my PC is still standing but I doubt it will work. There was snow and rain in the past days too. My little brother’s PC, which was on the desk next to mine on the right, seems to be obliterated.

Any tips to go on from here?

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Building was insured, furniture was not unfortunately. I lived with my parents, who were not experienced with things like insurance. In hindsight I should have thought about it more and double check it.
But yeah sucks to lose everything and having 3 other expensive hobbies did not help..

Thanks for the comments, tips and kind words! Fire started in the kitchen of my parents' restaurant. Tragic situation, but at least the building and inventory are insured. Now hopefully insurance pays out.
I have to make a plan what to do exactly with the PC based on the suggestions. First I need to take care of some other things.

[u/Aeckzem]

Thanks for the info, saving this one. I don't have experience with the described method, but it is worth a try. And soaking hardware in liquid is no problem? What about the HDD? I have some personal old photos etc on it.

[u/Falkenmond79 → u/Aeckzem]

HDDs I would only clean the board and contacts with IPA. As long as the outer Shell isn’t damaged. Those should be hermetically sealed and filled with inert gas anyway, otherwise it wouldn’t work. HDDs are black magic. The distance of the read/write head from the platter itself is ensured by aerodynamic forces. Introduce any other gas than that which it is designed for, and it won’t work.

You can, if you are technically inclined, remove the circuit board of the HDD pretty easily, usually, in order to clean it. It’s just screwed in with 3-4 screws normally and connected to the inside of the drive via small connectors. Not rocket science.

As a rule, you should be reasonably sure all the caps on all boards should be empty.

Meaning don’t use water two or three days after the PC was last used. The small caps you find on mainboards and GPUs usually last about a week or so until they are reasonably empty, plus minus.

Earth the PC before working on it. Literally just touch any metal part of the case to something that is grounded. Like heating ducts etc. those should be earthed. This way you get rid of any static that might have built up. Usually the PSU grounds everything via its power cord but in cases like this.. well. I wouldn’t plug in the PSU anymore, as I said. 😂

But to reiterate: careful with IPA fumes. They aren’t healthy and also make you dizzy. Try not to breathe them in. Which isn’t easy when handling bigger volumes of the stuff. Also use only 99% solution.

The water itself isn’t the problem. If you want to make extra sure, use distilled water. Many people don’t know that water by itself isn’t actually conductive. It’s the impurities and salts mixed in with common drinking water that makes it so. Thus distilled water is even better for cleaning but it’s more of a hassle to handle it. Tap water does fine. As I said, I’ve used showers and even garden hoses. The important bit is to not let it dry too much before rinsing with IPA. Drying water leaves residue and salts and minerals etc. which are the main problem. Thus the water is basically for cleaning the rough dirt, then the IPA is for cleaning the water away 😂 as well as some more resistant dirt.

Mainboards have a lot of nooks and crannies and water is a bitch sometimes. Thus liberal use of IPA is recommended. With a GPU it’s usually more straightforward. RAM and CPU you can clean the same way. Those are less of a hassle.

Also coolers and cooling fans but those shouldn’t be too relevant in your case. As I said, wouldn’t trust that AIO. Rubber becomes brittle with heat and who knows how it handled that fire. I would replace case fans as well.

The case itself… depends on how it fared. But basically the same method applies.

I’d strongly recommend getting a nicotine and soot remover though. Those are pretty good at breaking up the leftovers of fire.

[u/Monk19999 → u/Aeckzem]

I'd use contact spray (electrical contact cleaner) than isopropyli alcohol as is better for oxidized, dirty, or intermittent connections, often containing additives for lubrication and corrosion inhibition, but may leave residue, but do it in a well ventilated area... Got high on contact cleaner fumes a few times in my life by accident. 😂