office flooded any chance I can clean/restart these desktop/monitor/ups?

ok, my place is in coney island and Hurricane sandy flooded the building and all the equipment went under water.

got some desktop PC, LCD monitors, UPS submerged when the tides went up. now it's wet and oily (from the local gas startions and auto repair shops across the street and next door)

is there any way I can recover the use of it by cleaning and drying it?

all those stuff was unplugged prior to me evacuating.

problem is there is an oily/gas smell to the equipment and the stuff are slippery. What do you guys think I should do to clean it and get it to start? I don't want to junk them since it is about a year old and fully functional and configured.

best recommendation: wash it all with distilled water as best as you can to remove the oil. Dry it of gently and let it dry as much as possible. Then use the highest % isopropyl alcohol (99% if you can) to wash what got wet and let it air dry. The first wash with distilled water hopefully will remove the oil. The isopropyl will help remove the residual dampness. Don't use a hair dryer to get the alcohol to evaporate as you will prob burn your mobo with the heat. Wait a day in a dry environment to let it completely evaporate the alcohol. Anything with liquid encased, you may have to open.

Kujoe's advice is very good although for me the risk of fire is far more important than restoring some damaged equipment. Should your UPS or one of those PC's cause a fire while you're sleeping or out, what's the impact of that? Would your insurance cover that? You sure as hell know they would be looking at that (I would).

To each his own though.

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Originally Posted by Adisharr

Kujoe's advice is very good although for me the risk of fire is far more important than restoring some damaged equipment. Should your UPS or one of those PC's cause a fire while you're sleeping or out, what's the impact of that? Would your insurance cover that? You sure as hell know they would be looking at that (I would).

To each his own though.

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thats a good point I didn't think of. I thought it would work or not work.

anyway I didn't have the time to read this thread and was already dirty today from cleaning.

I took a plastic bin and fill it with dishwashing liquid and water and soak/rinse two workstations. then I hose it down (had it opened up so I sprayed the interior also) and then wipe the exterior with a sponge to remove any sticky oil.

it' sitting in my room now next to a heater. going to wait a day or two before trying to power it on.

the isoporpyl will help ensure that the water does evaporate from the crevices...

damn it. it dried up some and now there are random salt crystals all over :(

did I mention it was flooded in salt water? it's by the creek

The hard drives and ram chips are probably about the only things that you can re-use...

I for sure would not attempt to re-use the power supplies....

eeek.. salt is a serious corrosive.... anything sealed may be recoverable.......

is there anything "dangerous" if I plug it in and have it boot up?

I can't just removed the HD and slap it onto another HD to get the data out. the HD encryption is tied to the motherboard (or at least the bios) of it.

both the workstation is identical in hardware.

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Originally Posted by rimmerchant

is there anything "dangerous" if I plug it in and have it boot up?

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Probably the worst that could happen is that it catches fire. If you're standing there, you should be able to put the fire out;)

You might only get one chance at trying to boot it up... Make sure you've givein it your best shot at cleaning it up first.

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Originally Posted by rimmerchant

I can't just removed the HD and slap it onto another HD to get the data out. the HD encryption is tied to the motherboard (or at least the bios) of it.

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Doesn't help now, but this is why you should be careful about encryption and make sure you save the recovery keys/info (and good backups for that matter). Granted, being good about these things is easier said than done.