Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

[ckrtech]

I didn't get one, but suppose you did. What is your approach?

The general consensus that I have seen is that it should be thrown out and one shouldn't bother.

But let's say that there is no residual charge in the PSU (that's a big if), and it hasn't really be out there that long. What would you do?

[stj]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

been there,
open it, shake out any water and use a fan heater or hair dryer to bake it dry.

then treat it as faulty and give it a very close inspection before connecting it.

[petehall347]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

throw it into the pile of other unknown ones ready for selling to the recyclers

[retiredcaps]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

Depends on the brand and model. If it is a no-name, I don't bother.

If it is a brand name, then I carefully inspect it for damage and what type of corrosion is on the pcb.

If there is any corrosion, I would probably recycle it and not bother. My house, my life is worth more than a PSU found in the rain.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

been there,
open it, shake out any water and use a fan heater or hair dryer to bake it dry.

then treat it as faulty and give it a very close inspection before connecting it.

This what I have done before leave it in the hot sun for a few days and then
Look over very carefully and you see any white water marks take flux cleaner and wash the board and leave in the sun again for a few hours

Then use the lamp as a fuse and see how bright the 100 watt light is very bright to start with and then dims you might be ok to give try with out the lamp and use a fuse

Now if the lamp stays bright use it for parts

[retiredcaps]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

What would you do?

A more colorful answer from Louis, don't put it in rice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPeITOz2_YM

[Dan81]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

Best way to fix an wet power supply is by using a hair dryer that is powerful enough and slowly going over the whole power supply, one square at a time.

I have successfully fixed a wet power supply that was thrown away in the garbage. Yes, maybe it wasn't something worth doing (it was a cheap Premier LC-C400ATX from 2007) with a power supply that was cheap but I needed one quick and I like fixing things.

[stj]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

psu's often arent worth it, but whole pc's can be.
i found a dell once that had been in rain all night with the side open - rain AND black mud in it from car wheels.

so i took the mobo & cpu/heatsink out, washed them in the sink, dried them.

and.... - they run fine!

[momaka]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

psu's often arent worth it, but whole pc's can be.

Depends on the PSU.

If it's a no-name cheapo, yeah, probably not worth it.
If it's an OEM unit (Delta, HiPro, LiteON, Bestec), it might be worth it to have a spare if you don't have one already.
If it's something fancier, it's definitely worth it, especially when you need a PSU on the spot sometimes. I live very close to Micro Center, so I can technically go out and get any PSU instantly. But the cheapest decent PSU they have is Antec Basiq for $35 or so. Not sure if it was a 350W or 400W version of that (or even 500W?). But still, if I can save me that $35, why not.

After all, a wet PSU just needs to be dried thoroughly. The easiest and laziest way to do it is to leave it in the sun for a few days. Or, as it is now during the winter with shorter days and not much sun, then just leave the PSU next to a fan or AC/heating vent, preferably with the top off. After 2-3 days it should be dry enough. Then just disassemble and check for water corrosion. If not, it should be good to plug in and test.

i found a dell once that had been in rain all night with the side open - rain AND black mud in it from car wheels.

Yeah, I found a computer like that before as well. Wasn't much mud in there, but there was a bit of dirt and lots of wet dust everywhere.

Also, my Gateway GT-5656 came from an industrial dumpster and had some metal shavings in it it, besides being a bit wet from rain/mist. I let the PC dry and took out the mobo for a wash. I don't recall doing anything with the PSU, other than blowing the dust out of it. The whole PC still works 3 years later.

[xelectech]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

I acquired my present 'daily-driver' PC, a T5234 Emachine, from a (formerly) drug-scum residence, it had been sitting out with all covers off in the weather for several months, there was even pill-bugs and dirt heaped up along one section of motherboard - took it home, totally disassembled and cleaned it.

Turned out to have a bad memory stick, bad PSU, an over-heating southbridge (I think
that's what it is called) and a bad memory slot. It's been running more or less Ok for a bit over 7 months now with a 2 gig stick of ram in it's one good slot and a little fan rigged to blow constantly on the SB, the screw visible in the first pic is now the mounting-screw for the fan. Considering where it came from, def' ghetto...

[jazzie366]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

I got my daily driver PSU outside, and in the rain!

My DD PSU is a Corsair HX750. I know, not something you find every day.

What was wrong with it? Well, it's problems didn't show until 2 years later! I made a post once about it, the damned thing had dry solder joints. The PC hadn't moved much in those 2 years, so I was surprised at there being any problems like that. Looked as if someone had pulled on the non-modular cables this thing has. Needless to say 60W of soldering iron fixed it. No problems since. It also has ALL of it's cables with it, score!

However, when I first got it, it had only begun raining, so I dried it really well with a hair dryer, plugged it in and it worked. I stress tested it on a bitcoin miner, 300W constant draw for 7 days straight. When it didn't blow, I put it in my main rig.

And that's it.

[Dan81]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

Yeah, I found a computer like that before as well. Wasn't much mud in there, but there was a bit of dirt and lots of wet dust everywhere.

Not a full computer but the last PSU I got (an ANS LC-B350ATX) from an flea market was literally caked with dirt inside.

I spent a good hour or two cleaning it up. I know it's a pretty gutless L&C that I normally shouldn't waste good tier caps on (hence why it's probably going to end up with OST or Samwha RD caps - I actually used the latter kind to recap another Deer and they're fine for the purpose) but I needed a PSU with a rocker switch and nearly none of my PSUs that are good have one. Thankfully it's built around 2004, when they redesigned the PCB and added more spaces for the PI coils (I'll explain that in a new thread - and with pictures, now that I fixed my Galaxy S4.).


Now that I look over my PSU stash, I seriously should make a thread about all my Deers

[momaka]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

I acquired my present 'daily-driver' PC, a T5234 Emachine, from a (formerly) drug-scum residence, it had been sitting out with all covers off in the weather for several months, there was even pill-bugs and dirt heaped up along one section of motherboard - took it home, totally disassembled and cleaned it.

Cool!

What I find even more amusing is that your eMachine T5234 appears to use the same motherboard as my Gateway GT-5656: an ECS MCP61PM-AM v1.0 (with the only difference that mine came equipped with all 4 RAM slots). Good thing you added the fan on the chipset there! Those motherboards have a GeForce 6150/6200 chipset, which is known to fail at elevated temperatures due to nVidia's bumpgate issue. So the fan should definitely keep it going. However, what you also need to be beware about that motherboard is: BADCAPS! Mine came mostly with Sanyo WG or WX (I forget which), but it also has a few TK and OST. Some come completely with TK, and some (particularly the purple SM-GM versions) come with all-OST. Either one of those would be bad news, as both OST and TK caps are known to fail on these motherboards.
So if you start getting crashes and other goofy issues on a cold boot, you may need to recap yours if it has TK or OST caps.

[xelectech]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

Cool!

What I find even more amusing is that your eMachine T5234 appears to use the same motherboard as my Gateway GT-5656: an ECS MCP61PM-AM v1.0 (with the only difference that mine came equipped with all 4 RAM slots). Good thing you added the fan on the chipset there! Those motherboards have a GeForce 6150/6200 chipset, which is known to fail at elevated temperatures due to nVidia's bumpgate issue. So the fan should definitely keep it going. However, what you also need to be beware about that motherboard is: BADCAPS! Mine came mostly with Sanyo WG or WX (I forget which), but it also has a few TK and OST. Some come completely with TK, and some (particularly the purple SM-GM versions) come with all-OST. Either one of those would be bad news, as both OST and TK caps are known to fail on these motherboards.
So if you start getting crashes and other goofy issues on a cold boot, you may need to recap yours if it has TK or OST caps.

Very cool, thanks for the info! I owe many thanks to Badcaps.net in general for the numerous clues I've been able to accumulate since I started reading here of adventures in electronic repairs about 3 years ago; I had to replace 2 bulged 1000uF caps in the upper right quadrant of the board before it would start up, I think it was all OST to begin with.

I originally tried to get away with just propping the fan up (kind of haphazardly) but soon learned about random freezes when the fan moved out of position...thanks 8-)

[Wester547]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

Mine came mostly with Sanyo WG or WX (I forget which)

If they were in the CPU VRM input, they were WG. Otherwise, they would have been WF (on the MCP61PM-AM). WF is similar to many bad caps: sometimes they last, sometimes they don't. They are still better than TK ATWB and OST RLZ (both of which are generally terrible).

Regarding the original question, I'd echo some of the sentiments of the other members here. If the PSU is from a good OEM and isn't damaged beyond repair, it's probably worth salvaging and cleaning or drying if necessary. If it's a cheapo, gutless PSU, best to leave it where you found it, unless you're really feeling “adventurous”.

[momaka]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

I had to replace 2 bulged 1000uF caps in the upper right quadrant of the board before it would start up, I think it was all OST to begin with.

Those would be the caps that filter the RAM buck regulator output (1.8V). Probably why the RAM was dead when you found the PC. And if you didn't use high quality caps, that's also a possibility why your board appears to have a dead slot. Another possibility is corroded/dirty contacts in the slot from all the rain/water. My system came with 3 GB of RAM (2x 1024 MB + 2x 512 MB), but sometimes one of the slots would not recognized a RAM module. I changed the two OST RLP caps responsible for filtering that with polymers, but that didn't fix the problem. Re-seating the RAM enough times finally fixed it. So you may be able to get that "dead" slot working again if you work a RAM stick in and out of it enough times. (oops, that's starting to sound dirty, so I better stop here. )

Otherwise, they would have been WF (on the MCP61PM-AM).

Oh yeah, Sanyo WF, I completely forgot about them. That's the series I was thinking of, actually. I knew WG and WX didn't sound right. But I will double-check my MCP61PM-AM again, as my pictures don't show the cap series.

[xelectech]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

Those would be the caps that filter the RAM buck regulator output (1.8V). Probably why the RAM was dead when you found the PC. And if you didn't use high quality caps, that's also a possibility why your board appears to have a dead slot.
Another possibility is corroded/dirty contacts in the slot from all the rain/water. My system came with 3 GB of RAM (2x 1024 MB + 2x 512 MB), but sometimes one of the slots would not recognized a RAM module. I changed the two OST RLP caps responsible for filtering that with polymers, but that didn't fix the problem. Re-seating the RAM enough times finally fixed it. So you may be able to get that "dead" slot working again if you work a RAM stick in and out of it enough times. (oops, that's starting to sound dirty, so I better stop here. )

That's interesting about the replacement of caps taking care of an intermittent memory problem, another clue to add to my collection. I almost always learn something new reading your posts 8-)

As to the replacement caps I used, they're used and tested ok on an esr tester, and, since the board then would start up I left it at that. After a few cycles of different diagnostics (and errors) on various memory-sticks I took a closer look at the memory slots and realized that on the bad slot one of the contacts is no longer sticking out enough to make contact with the DDR module - so I depopulated that slot and then memory testing passed. I tried to see if the little contact could be repositioned in the slot, but don't see anyway, at least not without knowing how they're made.

I suspect the bad memory slot is responsible for not being able to clone any HDDs successfully the several times I tried to use clonezilla on this machine, but I could be wrong and some other quirk is responsible for the lack of success.

I'll have to try using my one other, non-crippled pc that has both pata and sata, been a couple years since I made any backup drives.

Anyway, thanks!

[Quaddro]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

i've just "save" a few old acbel 470 series from someone junkyard.
And it's raining season in my country.

After dry it with heat gun and open the case for a few days, it's time for the truth..
The funny thing is, all of these is working fully functionally.
No sound, no smell, no drop voltage etc.

I bet, the ex owner of these think the psu is broken.
Because when he/she tried to jump green and black cable, the fan doesn't spin.

Well, this one is need minimum load for 5v and 12v rail to run...

And yes, it's full of rust before..
After some painting job, all of these is ready to work.

[kc8adu]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

no big deal.i often wash nasty ones in the sink and dry in the oven at 250f.
but these are either high quality or special ones not easily replaced thus worth my time.

[Compgeke]

Re: Say you got a free PSU from outside... and it was raining

If there's no rust\corrosion, just let it dry out and it'll probably be fine. Electronics get washed in the manufacturing process (albeit, cleaner water than rain) but there's not a lot that'll go "bad" from some moisture.