Clean SD card, washed and dried!
Nov 7, 2017 05:41:39 #
James Slick
Loc: Pittsburgh,PA
romanmel7 wrote:
I removed my SD card from my camera and on the way... (show quote)
Nah,keep it. I washed an 8gb micro SD card a couple of YEARS ago, It's in my Samsung point and shoot right now, Still working!
Nov 8, 2017 01:12:03 #
As an electronic technician, I have dealt with a lot of wet electronics over the years. If your card is thoroughly dry internally, you have nothing to worry about. If it is not, then failure is almost a certainty. Personally, I would have no fear whatsoever in keeping and using the card, but I would make absolutely certain that it is completely dry internally. If you'd rather not trust it, do a low level format to clear your data, and pitch the card.
I worked for eight years in a factory where finely powdered baking soda from soda blasting operations routinely clouded the air. Steam and very high humidity from hot wash operations was also a routine occurrence. It was not an environment which was friendly to electronics, especially digital. Part of my job there was to keep over a hundred PC workstations operating reliably in this damp, and somewhat corrosive, environment. By necessity, each PC was on a six month rotational schedule for cleaning, sometimes a machine would have to be bumped forward on the schedule if it didn't make it the full six months.
The motherboard, fully populated, all expansion cards, and the power supply, all of which were encrusted with a white layer of re-crystallized baking soda, would get washed in ordinary tap water. If you don't think I got some funny looks, think again! The crucial part was making sure everything was totally dry before reassembly and powering back up. It sounds drastic, I know, but water was the best solvent for the corrosive and conductive baking soda, and the success rate was well over 95 percent. The failure rate without the washing was 100 percent!
People get in a panic about things they don't understand. About 30 years ago I walked into the Atlantic ocean while wearing my pager, I immediately removed the battery, and when I got back to the house I rinsed it out with fresh water. My uncle was chuckling, because he thought, like most people, that it was history. After thorough drying, I replaced the battery and never had another problem with it. About 15 years ago I bent over the edge of a wash tank and my PDA slid out of my pocket and went to the bottom of the tank. Same process, and same success. I've had several USB thumb drives go through the washer and dryer with no problems to date, so would I worry about the SD card? Absolutely not!
I worked for eight years in a factory where finely powdered baking soda from soda blasting operations routinely clouded the air. Steam and very high humidity from hot wash operations was also a routine occurrence. It was not an environment which was friendly to electronics, especially digital. Part of my job there was to keep over a hundred PC workstations operating reliably in this damp, and somewhat corrosive, environment. By necessity, each PC was on a six month rotational schedule for cleaning, sometimes a machine would have to be bumped forward on the schedule if it didn't make it the full six months.
The motherboard, fully populated, all expansion cards, and the power supply, all of which were encrusted with a white layer of re-crystallized baking soda, would get washed in ordinary tap water. If you don't think I got some funny looks, think again! The crucial part was making sure everything was totally dry before reassembly and powering back up. It sounds drastic, I know, but water was the best solvent for the corrosive and conductive baking soda, and the success rate was well over 95 percent. The failure rate without the washing was 100 percent!
People get in a panic about things they don't understand. About 30 years ago I walked into the Atlantic ocean while wearing my pager, I immediately removed the battery, and when I got back to the house I rinsed it out with fresh water. My uncle was chuckling, because he thought, like most people, that it was history. After thorough drying, I replaced the battery and never had another problem with it. About 15 years ago I bent over the edge of a wash tank and my PDA slid out of my pocket and went to the bottom of the tank. Same process, and same success. I've had several USB thumb drives go through the washer and dryer with no problems to date, so would I worry about the SD card? Absolutely not!
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