Watery Monitor?

[verbatim]

The following text is a stupid question. Please excuse verbatim's momentary lapse of reason as he is tired and he would like to get this off his chest.


I have an old monitor (NEC multisync 3fge if anybody cares) that spends most of the time unplugged and sitting underneath a minifridge. I use it very rarely, but my problem is that I unplugged the fridge today, and as it warmed up, ice in the cooling box melted and ran out. Thats right folks, into the monitor.

So I pick up the monitor to move it, and water flows out of the bottom vent holes. There's obviously a puddle of water in there. My limited knowledge of everything tells me that if I plug it in, it'll blow up, right?

Assuming the answer is yes, is there any easy, cheap and/or simple way to get this water out without causing any pain to myself or the circuit breakers?


-End of stupid question-

[MaggieL]

Well, I would get the thing out, and open up the case, being careful to be gentle with the CRT tube.

Allow everything to dry out, and then put it back together. It's entirely possible that it will be OK once it's dry. (Another possiblility is that some debis may have been deposited that sets up a low-resistance path where one shouldn't be.)

I would let it dry carefully, put it back together and test it out...standing in a position where I could quickly cut the power at a powerstrip if it fails the "smoke test".

Be careful when handling the opened case; there may be capacitors that are still holding a high-voltage charge (although that is unlikely). The results of encountering one of these high-voltage zaps will likely be no more serious than a minor skin burn, but they can startle you into dropping the tube, whereupon you can be injured by flying glass if the tube implodes.

[Tobiasly]

I agree with Maggie, there's still a good chance that everything is OK if you wait until it's completely dry before you try to plug it in.

I've read from some reputable sources that you can actually rinse your computer's motherboard under running water; all of today's solid-state circuitry components are sealed. So as long as there's no electricity trying to find its way around, it should be OK.

[tw]

Originally posted by verbatim
Assuming the answer is yes, is there any easy, cheap and/or simple way to get this water out without causing any pain to myself or the circuit breakers?

For at least a decade, how do we clean new PC boards? Put them in a dishwasher to clean water soluable resins off. Then let it air dry. Why would the monitor's electronics be any different? Give it a day in normal humidity - maybe two or three considering how humid it is this week.

[Nic Name]

Put them in a dishwasher to clean water soluable resins off. Then let it air dry. Why would the monitor's electronics be any different?

I can't wait to see how that dishwasher trick works for him.

[MaggieL]

I'm not sure I'd wanna put a CRT in a dishwasher. Definately I wouldn't want to let any electronics ride through the "dry" or "platre warmer" cycles.