I came home today to find the roof in my apartment had leaked during a thunderstorm.... mostly on my ps3. :( The standby light was still lit, but I unplugged the unit and when I tilted it, water came out. Building management will most certainly be funding a new purchase, but I'm thinking of opening the unit up and drying it out with a hair dryer just to see if I can get it to boot back up. (bedroom unit if it does) Anyone have any helpful advice? TIA

Pray a lot!!

Patience and hair dryer, tilting back and forth. Plug into GFCI wall socket after days of drying.

I had a tv that had water poured down the vents once and it stopped working. It took about 6 days, but once the insides dried out, it worked fine.

If you can get management to pay for it, you will be very lucky. Most leases state that you need to have renters insurance to cover you possessions.

Let me know if they do pay for it.

Michael

leave it unplugged, let it dry out (the longer you can hold out the better), plug it back in and cross your fingers...and maybe stand back, too ;)

I had a car that I kept an amp on the floor under the seat. The car was flooded out twice! The amp survived both floods! Once it is dried you should be able to start it up. The big question mark would be the hard drive, but that can be replaced pretty easily.

There is a good chance it will still work. Like the others said, just be very patient and make sure all the water is gone and everything is dried up before starting it back up. Even if you use a hairdryer, I'd wait at least a week or 2 after, place it in a hot water closet(if it's the older sort which isn't well insulated), or use silicon mosture bags or damp and mildew products like damprid or even a dehumidifier.

I would honestly disassemble the ps3 and let it dry that way. If it was sitting in water, it's VERY likely it will take a VERY VERY long time to all evaporate, because there are plenty of tiny crevices in the device.

On that note, there are a couple instructional sites (via google) that say exactly how to disassemble it w/ nice pictures. I would go with these, take EVERYTHING apart, and wipe it down and let it dry for a few days. Like zBuff mentioned in the other thread.. this might be a good time to find out what kind of thermal paste Sony uses (if it's just plain silicon based or what) and replace it with some nice arctic silver. :)

The obvious concern is whether the ps3 is still even functional.. The power supply is built right into the device so who knows if it's still any good (that's probably the most worrisome), and the blu ray drive could get damaged (although if it was standing vertically you're probably ok). If the light was still on then it's worth the time to disassemble it and dry it.. Good Luck!

get a can of air, and spray it all out once it's apart...then let it air dry for about a month in a room that isn't very humid. If you have a de-humidifier, turn it on in the room it's in drying. I think the thing will live if you do this and are not impatient.

I have heard of alot of electronics surviving water so long as they are left to dry out COMPLETELY before running power through them again. If you turn it on and Water touches a critical part it will short out and be done. I had a pager somewhat survive a swimming pool toss (I was thrown in the pool clothed by dumbass friends) and everything worked on the pager except the speaker was a little crackly after the dryout period.

If you can get management to pay for it, you will be very lucky. Most leases state that you need to have renters insurance to cover you possessions.

Let me know if they do pay for it.

Michael

We own and the building is in the second week of roof repairs. We were assured in writing that all precautions for "the elements" would be taken during the repairs and this was the first time it rained, so they're paying one way or another.

Since I posted I found some videos of several guys taking apart a ps3. Tomorrow I'm going to haul it into the shop, (I'm a mixer at an audio post house) and carefully try to duplicate the procedure. I'll post back if I have any success. Thanks all.

I had a car that I kept an amp on the floor under the seat. The car was flooded out twice! The amp survived both floods! Once it is dried you should be able to start it up. The big question mark would be the hard drive, but that can be replaced pretty easily.

I had the same happen, and the amp was completely toasted. I opened it up and the board inside was all burnt up. Not repairable at all unless I wanted to replace all of the electronics. :(

Damn that sucks, Good luck man.

you want to dry that out ASAP.

water corrodes. Waiting for it to evaporate will introduce corrosion and the system may act strangely.

as with all electronics

if it got wet while it was turned off.

There is an extremly GOOD chance that nothing is wrong with the unit AS LONG as the PS3 is THOROUGHLY dried out. And by that I mean unassemble it and AIR DRY IT. Do not put it in an over or put a hair dryer to it. Let it air dry or at the most, direct sunlight dry. Rain water is not hard so you should not have mineral deposits to cause a short after it dries out thankfully.

I came home today to find the roof in my apartment had leaked during a thunderstorm.... mostly on my ps3. :( The standby light was still lit, but I unplugged the unit and when I tilted it, water came out. Building management will most certainly be funding a new purchase, but I'm thinking of opening the unit up and drying it out with a hair dryer just to see if I can get it to boot back up. (bedroom unit if it does) Anyone have any helpful advice? TIA

I don't have much hope for your box.

I work in the semiconductor industry. If a water with ionics gets onto a powered PCB dendritic growth can occur. This is like growing a finger of copper from a trace at one potential to a trace of a lower potential which will eventually cause a short circuit or worse yet ... near short circuit. The nearly short will cause bad signal integrity issues and you may have intermittent issues.

It is best to dry out as best you can BEFORE any power is applied.

ionics is any kind of contaminent in water that has extra electrons. Example is salt in water ... very bad for exposed copper traces on printed circuit boards. The PS3 being consumer electronics, there is surely no conformal coating to protect against such issues.

Good luck.

dont use a hair dryer let it set for a week and try it. if it was off there is a better chance it is ok than powered on

I know this is different but I have a Sony MP3 player that I've accidently put in the washer and dryer and then I washed on purpose once because the battery oozed all over it. The thing is indestructible. After a few days, it worked but was a little finicky and after a full week was working 100%.
Just be patient and make sure the thing is dry. Good luck!

Update...... It's Alive. Took the unit apart today and used a cool hair dryer to dry everything out. Reassembled and it booted w/o problem. Tested it out tonight and everything is in working order. I'm more than pleasantly surprised. :D :D

what happened to waiting for one week : b )

all waiting a week would have done is give the water time to corrode the PCB and/or components.. PCBs themselves usually have a solder mask, but not at every point. PCBs are also multi-layer and if water gets into one of those vias (or leaves a deposit there) the system is likely toast.

If it doesn't work out, I'd be willing to buy it from you. Been wanting that blu-violet laser pointer thing I read about. PM me if you're interested.

what happened to waiting for one week : b )


That was someone else. ;) Seriously, as kevivoe posted, it would not surprise me if there were long term issues with this unit. That's why I'm still pressing for a replacement, not to mention the warranty is now void since I opened the case.

Man...PS3 is a beast!

Wow, I'm really surprised that it worked completely; I would have guessed that it would simply boot up, but that some function would be crippled. Smart idea to hold out for the replacement, you never know.

Suddenly, I'm seeing the PS3 as the indestructible grizzly bear of my home electronics...

Electronics usually don't die from water unless they short (power is applied while water is inside). Also, many PCBs have a thin wax layer to help prevent corrosion, and this also protects agains water.

Almost always if the device is off when it gets wet you can put iut in a sealable bin with damp rid and in a day or so all will be well again. Almost all components inside an electronic device are given an alcohol bath when manufactured. Liquid and electronics are fine unless there is power applied.

Hey, I just backed over my PS3 with my truck.. 7 times. Think it'll still work? :D

I tried to fight my PS3 and it kicked my bum

Saw this too late but I was going to suggest putting it next to a dehumidifier. That would have sucked the water right out of it.