Bay 12 Games Forum

Finally... => Life Advice => Topic started by: StrawBarrel on January 25, 2016, 09:28:12 pm

Title: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: StrawBarrel on January 25, 2016, 09:28:12 pm
I dropped my mouse in some water and it got wet. I quickly unplugged it from my computer and placed it a very old couch to dry. How long should I wait before using the mouse again? Are there ways to speed up the process? Thanks in advance for any advice.
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: ~Neri on January 25, 2016, 09:33:13 pm
Put it in a bowl of dry, uncooked rice. As in, cover it with the rice inside the bowl.

The rice will help leech the water from it.
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: wierd on January 25, 2016, 10:24:19 pm
a blow dryer set on COLD-HIGH (avoid warm or hot!) at point blank range into the gaps between the mouse buttons for 15 to 20 minutes will resolve nearly all water contamination.

a mouse does not really contain that many damagable components inside. The most sensitive to water (pure water that is) will be the tiny contact button switches underneath the mouse button plastic pads. The rice trick will resolve any remaining issue there overnight.

 
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: Orange Wizard on January 25, 2016, 11:11:41 pm
Spoiler: obligatory xkcd (click to show/hide)

The rice thing is a myth, rice doesn't work like that. Just leave the mouse somewhere warm and dry for a day or so and the water will evaporate. Blow dryer will get the worst off.
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: Shadowlord on January 26, 2016, 12:47:45 am
I've only taken apart (and put back together) two mice, and both were (laser/optical) logitechs, but they both had little circuitboards inside.
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: Orange Wizard on January 26, 2016, 12:49:38 am
The circuitry in mice is pretty basic. Dunking them in water probably won't damage it at all.
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: Shadowlord on January 26, 2016, 12:58:01 am
Good to know!
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: i2amroy on January 26, 2016, 10:31:25 am
Quote from: Orange Wizard on January 25, 2016, 11:11:41 pm
Spoiler: obligatory xkcd (click to show/hide)

The rice thing is a myth, rice doesn't work like that. Just leave the mouse somewhere warm and dry for a day or so and the water will evaporate. Blow dryer will get the worst off.
Indeed. The best things are instead (in descending order IIRC):
those silica gel packets that say do not eat for drying stuff
uncooked cous-cous
instant rice
cat litter (careful with this one, it can damage hardware)
Opening the object up as much as possible and letting it dry
.
.
.
.
uncooked rice
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: Shazbot on January 26, 2016, 04:00:47 pm
Open it, paper-towel off the circuit board, realize how much gunk is in there, swab it all with Q-tips and rubbing alcohol with a hypochondriac's manic fury, reassemble, plug in.

Hell its probably dry already, why am I posting.
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: Starver on January 26, 2016, 04:29:47 pm
The main problems you might have had (components getting fried by unexpected currents arcing through the liquid) probably won't have happened due to a) quickly having unplugged it and, b) being a low voltage/amperage device in the first place, and it not have particularly complicated electronics.  (In fact you're more likely to have temporarily shorted the computer's own USB port(s), or at least caused its short-protection circuitry to kick in and deny the basic 5V supply for the duration, which should rectify in a modern device.)

If it hasn't yet dried then you want to make sure (including a droplet/meniscus of water within the optical component, which you should be able to check visually by gently shaking and looking for a 'spirit level'-like bubble moving around), but when equipment has dried the problem is usually the gunk left behind.  e.g. coffee (especially very sweet coffee, colas, etc) that's not quickly drained out can leave behind a gunk that can cause you problems when you power on, or at least create mechanically inconvenient detritus when it fully dries and crumbles out to rattle around the rest of the device.  (I've 'washed' laptop circuit-boards with various liquids from distilled water1 through to various 'smear free' glass cleaning liquids that evaporate once the visible coffee/etc stains... but it can be a delicate process involving cotton-buds rather than 'dunk and scrub and drain'...)

But if it was a quick dunk into water, you've examined it to make sure it's dry (including opening it up) then you're probably Ok by now.  Plug it back in and if it doesn't work then you probably have ruined a component irreparably, despite what I said, so get a new mouse and try that.  If that doesn't work, in the same USB port, then the protection circuits on the USB output board obviously didn't work, and you might just have to now permanently forget that USB slot (and possibly its companion, and find a different spare port or get a new USB interface module in the worst case scenario), but I'd say that the chances are against it going that far.

1 Has its own problems...
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: BigD145 on January 30, 2016, 11:11:43 am
Your best bet is to get deionized water, dunk and swirl it in that, then do the drying process. The issue with plain water is electrical conductivity. The water isn't conducting, the ions in solution are. Distilled water (low ions/minerals) is about all you can buy in a grocery store. Deionized is found in laboratories.

Taking your mouse apart entirely will keep trapped moisture to a minimum.
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: Sonlirain on February 08, 2016, 09:18:31 am
I hear putting it in an oven in 40 degrees celsius should do the trick.

Someone supposedly did that after a PSU fire and dousing his PC with water (after disconnecting it from the grid naturally) and managed to save most components by drying them in an oven.

Considering that 40C is not a temperature that would melt plastic i'm inclined to believe the story is true.
After all warmth helps remove the moisture right?

But even then... i would only use that method if i were desperate.
Title: Re: Computer Mouse Drying
Post by: Starver on February 08, 2016, 02:46:14 pm
Quote from: Sonlirain on February 08, 2016, 09:18:31 am
Someone supposedly did that after a PSU fire

I've only had one PSU actually 'catch fire' on me, rather than fail (as several others have, to varying degrees), and it wasn't even so I needed to grab the nearest extinguisher.  (Which, it being at the offices I was working at, would have been CO2 anyway.)

Something far more drastic than normal went wrong, however, and when I heard the bang/fizzle and saw the Magic Blue Smoke escaping from the rear vent I lunged over the back of it to remove the kettle-lead from it.  (Probably inhaling some of the MBS, hence why I'm now part human, part computer.  Unfortunately it's the least useful bits of each.)