Spilled Water on my beloved Amiga

[souls]

Hi,

a few days ago i spilled a glas of water all over the Keyboard of my A600. It was not switched on at the time and i immediately unplugged everything and put it on a towel (rotated in order to let the water run out).

I did not use a blow-dryer or anything similar. I simply let the Amiga dry for a couple of days at room temperature.

Today i tried if the thing still works.. no luck The power LED is on and you can hear a short noise from the floppy but thats it. Screen stays black and i noticed that the caps lock LED is not active after you press the key. Additionally, the warm-start sequence does not work.. so i guess there is a problem with the keyboard now.

I decided to take the amiga apart, i took out the mainboard, plugged off floppy and keyboard and hooked it up to the power unit. However, same result, no boot screen or any other indication that something changed. Simply a black screen..

Using a multimeter i measured the voltage of power connector on the mainboard. This seems to be fine. Floppy voltage is also ok i think. I noticed that the keyboard voltage stays at 0.00 - i guess thats not good.

Any ideas what i could do?

thanks

[FOL]

Originally Posted by souls

Hi,

a few days ago i spilled a glas of water all over the Keyboard of my A600. It was not switched on at the time and i immediately unplugged everything and put it on a towel (rotated in order to let the water run out).

I did not use a blow-dryer or anything similar. I simply let the Amiga dry for a couple of days at room temperature.

Today i tried if the thing still works.. no luck The power LED is on and you can hear a short noise from the floppy but thats it. Screen stays black and i noticed that the caps lock LED is not active after you press the key. Additionally, the warm-start sequence does not work.. so i guess there is a problem with the keyboard now.

I decided to take the amiga apart, i took out the mainboard, plugged off floppy and keyboard and hooked it up to the power unit. However, same result, no boot screen or any other indication that something changed. Simply a black screen..

Using a multimeter i measured the voltage of power connector on the mainboard. This seems to be fine. Floppy voltage is also ok i think. I noticed that the keyboard voltage stays at 0.00 - i guess thats not good.

Any ideas what i could do?

thanks

If you haven't taken it apart, it proberly still has water in it.

Had a laptop come in for an insurance job (at my last job), it was sat at room temp for over a year. Yet it would not power on, stripped it completely down, no signs of water. However I removed the Processor, there was water under it. Cleaned it all out, let it dry and it fired up first time and worked, .

Think what Im trying to say, is just because its been sat there for a couple of days, doesn't mean it will dry out completely.

[souls]

Originally Posted by FOL

Think what Im trying to say, is just because its been sat there for a couple of days, doesn't mean it will dry out completely.

ok, there might still be hope then i'll take it apart further to check if there is still water. Do you have any hints what to check out in case of a short circuit or any other suggestions what i could/should do?

thanks!

*edit

one more question: currently i only have a power supply unit for an amiga 500 - this should work with an a600, right?

[roy bates]

you would have to strip it down completely including the keyboard if its got in there water can stay in the plastic for ages.

yes a 500 supply will work.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by roy bates

you would have to strip it down completely including the keyboard if its got in there water can stay in the plastic for ages.

yes a 500 supply will work.

Aye and the shielding, as the plastic sheet between the mobo and bottom shield could be covered in water still.

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by FOL

Aye and the shielding, as the plastic sheet between the mobo and bottom shield could be covered in water still.

+1

ive actually seen this in a 500 i saved from a skip once damn it was wet inside.got it working though.
maybe a hairdryer could help with the drying process,and leaving it in a airing cupboard or something for a couple of days.
its probably not a good idea to power up the 600 while its still wet though.

[souls]

One strange thing though: Shouldnt the device at least show some sort of picture on the screen if the keyboard is removed from the motherboard? I have disconnected everything from the board (floppy, keyboard) - black screen. I this the "right" behavior?

*edit

also took out the motherboard. at the moment the board is connected to power and video (rgb scart) -> to tv. No picture

[demolition]

If it was just pure water, it should not damage the Amiga. Just don't turn it on (any more) until you're completely sure all the water is gone.

I suggest that you take it apart completely and dry the pieces separately. Set your oven to 100 deg. C and let it heat up. When it is ready, put the motherboard in there, and after ½-1 hour you can turn off the heat and then leave it inside the closed oven until it has cooled down (will take a while, but the longer, the better). If your oven temperature does not go that low, you can do like me and set it as low as it can go (150 deg. for me) and when it is ready, turn it off, leave it open for half a minute, put in the MB, close the oven and wait until it has cooled. This takes a couple of hours for me. All the water should now be gone, even from any small cavities.

Connect the PSU to the MB without floppy and check if you get a picture. If not, then your first boot attempt with water might have damaged something.

The floppy drive should probably not go in the oven, so hopefully it didn't receive any water. Same goes for the cabinet, but that'll dry easily.

I have had 10 Amiga and C64 motherboards in the dishwasher and then the oven for drying, so I know for a fact that water won't do any harm as long as it is being removed as quickly as possible and not powered on until completely dry.

Edit: The Amiga should boot fine without KB, so do not connect it until it is working without it. Notice that it can take a little while for the kickstart screen to appear if you have not connected the FDD. It will stay a while at a white screen.

[Predseda]

Amiga parts into oven and dishwasher?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Amiga parts into oven and dishwasher?

In the reverse order, but yes, it works great and the boards almost look like new after this treatment.

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by demolition

In the reverse order, but yes, it works great and the boards almost look like new after this treatment.

yeah,its great for cleaning up motherboards,thats if you have a dishwasher

[souls]

ok now i took everything apart and cleaned it thoroughly. i have put the non plastic parts in the oven on medium heat. ill let it sit there for a while.

however, it seemed that no water touched the mainboard. there was still some moisture in the keyboard but due to the metal plate below the keyboard, no water spilled onto the mainboard.

if thats true, the only thing that could be damaged is the keyboard... i still dont understand why the damn thing wont boot without keyboard and floppy attached to it :/

[demolition]

Originally Posted by souls

ok now i took everything apart and cleaned it thoroughly. i have put the non plastic parts in the oven on medium heat. ill let it sit there for a while.

I hope that it is actually low heat, because if you exceed 150 deg. C I think it could take damage. There are some plastic parts on the connectors on the MB which can melt, which is why the temperature should be as low as possible. 75-100 deg should be fine for an extended period (several hours).

[souls]

Originally Posted by demolition

I hope that it is actually low heat, because if you exceed 150 deg. C I think it could take damage. There are some plastic parts on the connectors on the MB which can melt, which is why the temperature should be as low as possible. 75-100 deg should be fine for an extended period (several hours).

yes, its around 65, i lowered it now to 50. so far everything looks good.

thanks

[roy bates]

the keyboard wont work if its wet.

[souls]

Success #1

after putting the board in the dishwasher and in the oven afterwards: system boots, floppy works

@demolition: you are an absolute legend! thanks!

now ill wait until the keyboard is absolutely dry.

[demolition]

Have you taken the keyboard apart? That is, removed the ½ million (almost) screws on the back to reveal the membrane? You will not get the water out otherwise. You can wipe off the membrane carefully, but be careful not to rub it as the carbon pads could rub off and you'll have non-working keys..

[souls]

Originally Posted by demolition

Have you taken the keyboard apart? That is, removed the ½ million (almost) screws on the back to reveal the membrane? You will not get the water out otherwise. You can wipe off the membrane carefully, but be careful not to rub it as the carbon pads could rub off and you'll have non-working keys..

Yep, completely disassembled, cleaned and dried it.

Success #2 everything is working again!

Thanks for your help/suggestions guys! Really appreciate it!

[NovaCoder]

Cool you saved it

[demolition]

Great to hear that everything is working again.