Amiga stuff possibly ruined.

[DoogUK]

I'm not a happy chappy, at 6am this morning we awoke to water pouring from our bedroom ceiling....a pipe had burst in the loft....and yes you guessed it.....all my amiga stuff is up there sat on the boards that the tank is on.
I have spent the morning stripping sodden insulation out of the loft and taking stuff out, all my boxes storing the stuff soaked up the water like a sponge and everything is soaked.
My 2 1200's and a 600 were in one box and 2 a500's in their own box...still soaked as well as all my big box games.

I know Amigas can be pretty durable and after drying out may still work so here's hoping but i think i can safely write off my games collection.

Also the 500's original boxing will have to be thrown.


In a word....gutted.

hey ho...back to repairs.

[TheCorfiot]

OMG

Doogster what a serious tragedy....

Strip those machines down and remove all the sheilding too, Dy them gently with a Hairdryer if necessary( less static produced but not on full heat!!!). Quick before they rust..
If I lived locally I would be around now to help you out (and with the plumbing)

Let us know and I hope they all survive...

BTW thats a RUDE awakening.

Good luck mate and all the best.

[Fingerlickin_B]

Fuck me! That's horrible man!!!!

Hopefully most of it will survive...mobos probably will be okay if dried quick (and with a soft touch).

Sorry to hear man, this would really suck! I've not much to offer, but any small parts affected, PM me in case I can help out.

Shit, shit, horrible luck!

PZ.

[Zetr0]

@Dooguk

my friend, i share your pain, but to save your disks, if you let your disks dry in a warm area, (and you don't live in a lime scale heavy water area) your disks would be fine in a couple of days my friend.

I had my storage flood this year.... it wasn't pretty, a bit of a horror story in truth.... lost a bit of stuff....

chin up m8y... looking at it this way... you get to lovingly caress and dry your Amiga's ..... yes.... you can talk to them too....

[alexh]

If you have insurance, then pump them for 5 * computers. See if you can get a couple of grand out of them at least.

[Ironclaw]

Terrible loss, sorry to hear.

But that's what happens when you insist on having the "real" thing instead of WinUAE.... with winuae, nothing would have been lost .

[Ed Cruse]

Take your computers completely apart, including shielding, and rinse thoroughly with de-ionized water (distilled water) and then dry. It's the minerals in regular water that will cause the problems. It's best to rinse the boards with DI water before the regular water dries, otherwise it will be difficult to get any dried-on film off. If the boards are already dry then rinse with DI water and scrub with a clean soft brush, rinse again, and then dry. Do not power up the computers until this has been done, the dried minerals on the boards may or may not cause problems.

Good luck.

P.S. I've done this several times successfully on electrical test equipment.

[Bloodwych]

I'd cry a little now, but more water is not what you need.

Hope the clean up goes ok. Not a nice way to spend the weekend.

[kriz]

AHh damn.. Hope eveyrithing works out...

[Graham Humphrey]

Yeah that's bad luck man... fingers crossed for you.

[musashi5150]

That's really bad luck Doug, hope your beasts can be brought back to life ok

[DoogUK]

Ok crisis over, new bedroom ceiling in as it collapsed and all new insulation as it was sodden....got to get the plasterer in now grr.

Sorry to say the amigas had to take a back seat whilst this was going on but now are laid out drying in the front room much to the mrs's dismay lol.

Casulties are 2 boxed a500's, my 2 1200's including my prized 1240 accelerator , several boxes of disks,1 cardboard box with big box games in, acorn archemedes a3000 not to fussed as it didnt work correctly.

My A600 didnt get wet as i first thought so lucky there....just glad i kept my 2000 out as my main use amiga.

Will have to wait til they have dried out now to see whats working and whats not.

Thanks for the kind messages.

edit: another casualty is my supradrive 500xp external drive for the a500....gutted.

[Kristian95]

Drats you have my sympathies for sure!! I keep my fingers crossed you can save these puppies!!

[mfletcher]

Originally Posted by DoogUK

Ok crisis over, new bedroom ceiling in as it collapsed and all new insulation as it was sodden....got to get the plasterer in now grr.

Sorry to say the amigas had to take a back seat whilst this was going on but now are laid out drying in the front room much to the mrs's dismay lol.

Casulties are 2 boxed a500's, my 2 1200's including my prized 1240 accelerator , several boxes of disks,1 cardboard box with big box games in, acorn archemedes a3000 not to fussed as it didnt work correctly.

My A600 didnt get wet as i first thought so lucky there....just glad i kept my 2000 out as my main use amiga.

Will have to wait til they have dried out now to see whats working and whats not.

Thanks for the kind messages.

edit: another casualty is my supradrive 500xp external drive for the a500....gutted.

Sorry to hear about your loss Doog, just keep drying that stuff out for a couple of days, might still be recoverable.

Let us know how you get on!

Mark

[Merlin]

@ Doog

Get the WD-40 going - stat! It will stop any of the legs of the components from rusting. Take the motherboards, floppies, etc. out and spray them liberally to displace as much water as possible. Hard drives are airtight, it's only the controller board you need to treat.

When you have more time, place each component inside an old pillowcase, fasten the open end of the pillowcase to a hair dryer nozzle with a rubber band and put the dryer on low heat. This way you aren't trying to heat the whole room up, but the heat and moisture can still escape.

You may be pleasantly surprised what comes out of this still alive, speed is the key.

Merlin

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Merlin

@ Doog
Hard drives are airtight, it's only the controller board you need to treat.

Common assumption, but incorrect.

Harddrives have breather holes in the cover with micro filters in place to keep the dust out.

There's a reason why HD datasheets have a maximum operating altitude, as the heads need a cushion of air to ride on. If the air pressure is too low, the cushion can't lift the head.

[chiark]

sheesh, you're not having much luck squire! That's terrible news

Drying out should find most things being fine... Fingers really are crossed for you! I guess your airing cupboard will be full of plenty of stuff, but a few days in there wouldn't harm at all.

[DoogUK]

I have gone with the wd40 idea...seems like good logic to me, the 1200's mobos are sat on the radiators on a low heat.....the house smells like a garage lol.

my 1240 has had a spray too and is wrapped in a clean towel in the airing cupboard.....fingers crossed.

[musojon74]

Good luck getting everything sorted! What an absolute nightmare! I hope most stuff dries out ok.

[Merlin]

I knew of an A500 that was thrown out in a back garden and got rained on for months, that one came back to life after a bit of cleaning and fettling.

Merlin