Wifi card - Washed but still working

[Stephen Beesley]

Well I gave myself a bit of a scare yesterday. I just could not find my Zonet ZCF1100 wifi card anywhere and then a sinking feeling set in: the last time I could remember having it was when I put it in the pocket of those grey combats that I washed last night.... :(. With a heavy heart I searched the pocket and sure enough there was the card. So that was that I thought - yet another reason to get a new PPC with built in wifi. Still I might has well give it a go and see what happens....

Well I could not believe my luck the card is still working! The combats had been sitting on the radiator all night drying so I guess the any water that had gotten in had plenty of chance to dry out andlooking a the card afterwards it does seem pretty much sealed agains the elements except for the pin sockets.

All I can say is boy am I lucky :D

[Ryan Joseph]

Yeah, I've done things like this too. :roll: Many electronic devices seem to work fine after getting wet as long as you let them dry before running power through them.

It's a very long story about how it got there in the first place, but I once left an inkjet printer out in the rain. I let it sit on a towel for a day or two in a heated garage and once it looked dry, I plugged it in. It worked perfectly.

I think the moral here is to always try things after they've been damaged.

[PetiteFlower]

Unless it's salt water. I had a keyboard fried recently because I had a little cup of salt water sitting by my computer(don't ask why) and my cats knocked it over. Total bummer too, the only comperable keyboard that the store had that day was a set from MS(I hadn't needed a new mouse, but they didn't have any wireless keyboards alone) and I don't like it nearly as much as my old Logitech--Best Buy had to be out of stock in the logitech set too didn't they! Circuitry can handle lots of things, water, soda, whatever, and be fine after it's washed out(unplugged of course) but not saltwater. Bzzt

[Aerestis]

Doesn't salt water conduct electricity far more than fresh water? I'm not sure. That's not the reason it would break it I'm sure, unless it made it more vulnerable to static outside... I don't know. Salt water also leaves a residue of salt, a pretty good amount of it too.

I fed my little usb storage thing some grape juice about a month ago (by accident, I don't think it really wanted grape juice anyways), but it seems fine so far : ) I'm glad our electronics can actually handle getting abused, we pay a lot for them. My old palm could have been stomped on a few times before it quit, I bet. I never put it in with my laundry though : )