Spots on motherboard from "substance" leaked from liquid cooler

[itsakjt]

A few days ago, I was cleaning my computer when I found the following spots:

The liquid cooler had a crack in the top plastic since last year. So something came out of it after which I put on the tape as you can see and am planning to replace it.
Thing is how do I get rid of those spots? Luckily, no component got affected. It is just like adhesive in the board, very hard to remove but definitely possible. In the yellow encircled area, I have managed to remove almost all of it with the help of my nails but the red ones are still untouched. I have tried IPA but it doesn't do anything. It doesn't affect performance or anything but just for the look of it and that it bothers me.

Anyone have any ideas or have a similar experience?

 

[jboydgolfer]

if alcohol wont remove it, maybe Acetone will? but be cautious to check if it would damage your board. otherwise, you could cover it instead of remove it, maybe a nail polish that matches your motherboard? or a car paint touch up kit? I have used the autobody to get Very exact colors, for uses other than on cars in the past, it is the best way to get color matches.

btw, apparently the liquid inside a AIO is propylene glycol and distilled water, fwiw, something similar to antifreeze mixed with DW, id guess. Sometimes, gunk can grow/build up in AIO loops, that might be what is sticking/staining the board.

 

[OneMoar]

the last thing you wanna be doing is scraping traces with your nails or for that matter taping a known leaking water block and continuing to run the system are you trying to kill hardware ?
use denatured alcohol(not isopropyl) if that doesn't take it off leave it be
do not use acetone it COULD eat the protective enamel off the board

 

[itsakjt]

I have sealed the portion from where it came out and I don't have a spare cooler at the moment to run the system. The i5 7600K I have did not come with a cooler.
About scraping the traces, that is exactly what I am afraid of. But removing one of them, I am kinda confident that it can be done if careful. Just looking for easier methods.

 

[OneMoar]

if you nick a trace the entire board is junk and potentially frying other stuff, it doesn't take much on these multilayer boards , you don't wanna use anything more abrasive than a soft toothbrush and some denatured alcohol
and I wouldn't trust tape to seal the cooler on my 300 dollar cpu if it leaks and sprays coolant everywhere you will kill the system dead, over a penny's worth of tape

 

[jboydgolfer]

Out of curiosity ,did those stains happen recently ,or are they from when the water block cover originally cracked?

The reason I ask is if they've sat there long enough you may be stuck with them if rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush won't remove them. And also if they are new stains, I'd highly recommend you retire that cooler. I understand you're just trying to make do with what you have but you're going to have a lot less if it's springs another leak

 

[itsakjt]

Will get a new cooler soon. This one is almost 4 years old too. I have asked a friend to lend me spare cooler till I get a new one.
The stains are new and happened right in front of me. I was cleaning the radiator (the system position was being adjusted here and there for convenience) and suddenly saw water droplets on top the pump just beside the crack as if someone has spit on it. Then as I was inspecting the board, saw the drops. Grabbed a lint free cloth at the speed of light and wiped some off while some stayed like in the picture.
Well, good news. I managed to remove the stains.

All that was needed was a soldering iron (blunt tip) along with some IPA and lint free cloth. On heating the iron, I very carefully touched one of the residues with the tip of the iron and very gently rubbed until it went away. Initially, I was afraid as that area was turning white but on rubbing it with IPA eventually made it good as new. And extremely steady hands required.

The traces were all coming to the first PCIE x16 slot and basically are few of the 16 lanes. I am using the Sapphire R9 270X as stated in specs and it operates in x16 3.0 mode.

Good thing is that I cleaned the board in the process as well. The backside had quite a lot of dust.

So, suggest me a good cooler. The one I have now is a Seidon 120V from Cooler Master and it served me well for the time. Will overclock CPU after getting new GPU on Q4 this year.

 

[jboydgolfer]

So, suggest me a good cooler. The one I have now is a Seidon 120V from Cooler Master and it served me well for the time. Will overclock CPU after getting new GPU on Q4 this year.

If you're looking to go with water cooling again I'm sort of out of the loop but from personal experience I know that the Corsair H110iGTX is a beast. Im sure you will have no issues finding a good replacement. For air coolers, hyper212, Mugen, Noctua are nice, but i like scythes coolers

I'm glad you were able to get the stains off

 

[Vya Domus]

if alcohol wont remove it, maybe Acetone will?

Never use acetone on PCBs , I learned that the hard way.

 

[OneMoar]

my level of concerned that you used a soldering iron to clean your board is extremely high
also if you want a AIO you don't want anything with a asetek pump
get a swifttech or something

 

[itsakjt]

I will be buying a water cooler again mainly for two reasons:
1: The ambient temperature of Kolkata in summer shoots to as high as 37 to 40 degree C. Even an entry level water cooler such as the one I have gives an edge over air cooler
2: Motherboard remains clean especially the VRM area and RAM slots since the fans do not sit exactly on top of the board.
I took the risk. Applied common sense that what is the worst that could happen? Ripping out a few traces? Would have fixed it even if it came to that.
Apart from that, had to be careful with all the components in the vicinity and the slots as well to prevent them from melting.
End result: A good as new looking board and works good as new too. Played COD WW2 for 4 hrs this evening.

 

[Vayra86]

I will be buying a water cooler again mainly for two reasons:
1: The ambient temperature of Kolkata in summer shoots to as high as 37 to 40 degree C. Even an entry level water cooler such as the one I have gives an edge over air cooler
2: Motherboard remains clean especially the VRM area and RAM slots since the fans do not sit exactly on top of the board.
I took the risk. Applied common sense that what is the worst that could happen? Ripping out a few traces? Would have fixed it even if it came to that.
Apart from that, had to be careful with all the components in the vicinity and the slots as well to prevent them from melting.
End result: A good as new looking board and works good as new too. Played COD WW2 for 4 hrs this evening.

Why would water be cooler over air with high ambient temps? In the end the water in your rad will not cool down to below ambient either. The only thing you gain is 'volume' which means it takes a tiny bit longer to hit the 'under load' temps you would have with air.

AIO's are AIO's and its 90% crap with lots of hassle for free. You get more components that can fail versus a simple fan on an air tower. Under heavy load, an AIO may shave off 1-3 C over a similar priced air tower. If that is worth it to you by all means, but realistically, it really doesn't make sense.

Also, cleaner look, sure, I can appreciate that, as long as you also consider the airflow for your VRMs... And that DOES really matter with higher ambient.

 

[itsakjt]

Latent heat capacity of water is much less than aluminum/copper and hence heat can escape from water much quickly than it would in case of aluminum + copper. Also VRM does not heat up much at least on my board.
I have been using a water cooler since June 2014 and my old rig (Phenom II X4 980 overclocked to 4.1 GHz with M5A97 R2.0) never had any issues with VRM overheating even on a CPU with 125 W TDP rated at stock. It was significantly overclocked even with the IMC at 2.8 GHz from 2.0 GHz.
Also, a water cooler is not affected from the heat of other components like the GPU if you can manage your cooling efficiently (negative air pressure).

 

[jboydgolfer]

Never use acetone on PCBs , I learned that the hard way.

yea, I covered that in the same post.

maybe Acetone will? but be cautious to check if it would damage your board