Re: Waterlogged monitor

[bo snyder <bobo_snyder@hotmail.com>]

> From: "william strutts" <wrstrutts1@nospam.home.com>
> Organization: Excite@Home - The Leader in Broadband http://home.com/faster
> Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
> Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:44:26 GMT
> Subject: Waterlogged monitor
> 
> Hey guys,
> 
> Today I found some Apple equipment in the garbage but it has
> been raining today. The equipment looks a bit water logged. The
> Apple IIe has a couple of cards: 80 column, super serial, and a
> I/O controller.  The cards looked fine but the motherboard looks
> wet and dirty.  Can it be salvaged or is it hosed? The keyboard
> is junk since it is missing many keys.  I also found an AppleColor
> Composite Monitor M6020 which was filty. I took it home and
> cleaned the case. I removed the back cover and cleaned it up.
> However, it looks like water seeped into the monitor. If I let it
> dry, is it okay to plug it in? Or is it trash since it got wet?  I would
> love to get a color monitor for my IIe's.  I don't currently have
> one so it would be a cool find. The cards I have removed and put
> into my other IIe unenhanced. If the motherboard is trash, can
> I salvage the IIe enhanced parts and upgrade my other motherboard?
> If so, what would I need to remove. Thanks for any suggestions.
> 

in regards to waterlogged electronic equipment, i would venture to say that
you MIGHT be able to salvage some of it.  the biggest thing you might need
to get is a strong aircompressor for blowing out all the boards.

second step would be to TOTALLY disassemble the system (remove the
motherboard from the case).  then wash it off with water (i will clean
keybaords in this manner, take the keyboard apart then bring it into the
shower with me and wash me 'n the keyboard at the same time).  then blow dry
the heck out of the boards with the powerful aircompressor.  personally i
would not use compressed air in a can because i don't think it would have
enough "ooomph" to really get the water out of the crevices (such as under
the chips between the pins).

then once it is all blow dried out, then let the components sit for about a
week or so to airdry then assemble and test the system.

this will usually only work if the system got water in it while it was OFF
and NOT plugged in such as in your situation, william.  if it was powered up
and someone poured water on it, i would say don't even bother.

as for the monitor, i would have to say you could do the same things with
dissembling it and washing it in water HOWEVER!!!!!! a monitor will store up
to something like 100,000 volts in the tube which might decide to follow the
path of least resistance which just might happen to be the water that you
decide to wash it out with.  honestly i would just keep looking for a good
old composite monitor such as one of the commodore composite monitors or a
magnavox rgb 80 (i found 3 of them in the wild for 3 bux a piece).

probably the voltage has drained out of the monitor with the water that has
gotten into it so far, but still i don't think i would attempt it.