a disaster

[DoogUK]

I've copied and pasted this from my eab thread.

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.

[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

[bloodline]

Let everything dry out, disks and all... I expect most will be fine... but only if you give them plenty of time to dry before use...

[amiga_3k]

My idea. If possible, place the gear in plastic boxes and use 'moisture-eater' to get them dry. You could also decide to force air-flow around the machines (place them in front of a running fan).

[DoogUK]

Ok.....one 1200 works the other doesnt....and neither does my accelerator.

My a1200 with 3.0 roms is fine and reads disks so not a total loss.

The other 1200 with 3.1 roms has no life at all, black screen no led's.

I plug my accelerator into the 1200 with 3.0 roms and it just continualy cycles a black to grey to black screen.

Any ideas are gratefuly recieved.

both units and the accelerator are 100% dry.

[bloodline]

DoogUK wrote:
Ok.....one 1200 works the other doesnt....and neither does my accelerator.

My a1200 with 3.0 roms is fine and reads disks so not a total loss.

The other 1200 with 3.1 roms has no life at all, black screen no led's.

I plug my accelerator into the 1200 with 3.0 roms and it just continualy cycles a black to grey to black screen.

Any ideas are gratefuly recieved.

both units and the accelerator are 100% dry.

DUDE!!!!! It's only been a few hours since the water leak! I really meant that you should let the equipment dry out, I wasn't expecting you to try any of it for a week at least!!!

[Vlabguy1]

how long ago did this happen?  How long did you let them dry out?

Rich
ny

[DoogUK]

Yesterday morning, they have been on the radiator for over 24 hours and are dry as a bone.

[tokyoracer]

|IT should be ok, never worry if anything electrical gets wet, aslong as it isnt switched on at the time at contact with water or isnt switched on when still wet then it should be ok. Like the others said, let it dry completely, open up all the casing and take all the motherboards and other hardwares out and leave them out for a good few days.

[EDIT]
Didn't read all of the posts. I shouldn't worry too much, do you think you could take some scans of your broken 040?
To be honest you really should have laft them to dry for alot longer as theres loads of gaps water can get into that are not visable. Leaving them on the radiator is a BIG NONO. Near one maybe, that could have been crucial.

[bloodline]

DoogUK wrote:
Yesterday morning, they have been on the radiator for over 24 hours and are dry as a bone.

No they are not! You might have fried the equipment...

[Boot_WB]

Try cleaning the a1200 edge connector with a pencil eraser. Chances are the water may have caused mild oxidation on the goldfingers, or left a residue causing bad connectivity.

If you have anything suitable to clean the female connector on the accelerator you could try that too.

I'd recommend removing any ram from the accelerator whilst testing - it's just one more thing which could be wrong at the moment, and doesn't help you pinpoint the fault.

The fact that it is cycling through grey-black screens could be a good sign, rather than just being completely dead.

Is there any activity on the keyboard - try pressing the capslock key multiple times - does it "lock" on after around 8 presses?

Check the battery on the accelerator - any signs of leakage?

Don't get the soldering iron out just yet!

Hope it all works out



Rich

[Xamiche]

I'd give them at least a week. Water can seep into places you wouldn't imagine. 24 hours is definitely not enough time.

Also, cardboard boxes are terrible as storage devices. Not only can water get through them, so can moths and any other kind of bug which can cause unseen damage to your Amigas and accessories.



This is the sort of thing you want. Air tight. Throw some silica moisture absorbing packets in there and you're all set.

[melott]

DoogUK wrote:
Ok.....one 1200 works the other doesnt....and neither does my accelerator.

My a1200 with 3.0 roms is fine and reads disks so not a total loss.

The other 1200 with 3.1 roms has no life at all, black screen no led's.

I plug my accelerator into the 1200 with 3.0 roms and it just continualy cycles a black to grey to black screen.

Any ideas are gratefuly recieved.

both units and the accelerator are 100% dry.

A trick we used to do back in the day of 'Points distrubitor' cars when the distrubitor got wet and
wouldn't start.

Wash out distrubitor with 'Carbon tetracloride'.
It displaces and ubsorbs water.

If this were my disaster (your Amigas) I would dis-assemble
and wash down all hardware parts with Carbon tet.

Hope this will help ... (sorry for your problem)

Mel

[WotTheFook]

Er, carbon tetrachloride is carcinogenic, I don't think he would want to use that...

WD-40, Pocket Rocket. or another water displacing aerosol is a good thing to try, as it will penetrate under surface mounted chips, which is where water could still be trapped by capillary action.

WTF

[DoogUK]

I used wd40  :-)