Oh Boy... Washed my CF card on accident...

[Chris Nuzzaco]

Ok, I admit it, I just went to my washer and found - GASP - my 2 GB Lexar CF card staring up at me :umm:

I managed to get a lot of water out of the ports, now my big question is this, how long should I wait before using it? I'm thinking about using a blow dryer to make sure its all good and dry before I try reading/writing to it.

Any tips?

[Steve Murray]

Usually the car window for a few days or in front of an AC will dry it out. Dry it twice as long as you think because if any water is still in there you are toast when you fire it up. Also mark it with a big x on gthe back so you know to not use it for really improtant stuff. Usually they are OK I just hope you did not use bleach....

[Chris Nuzzaco]

Maybe straight up air drying is best, for quite a while.

[Chris Nuzzaco]

Well, I used Xtra detergent, and I can't find bleach mentioned anywhere. Does that kill CF cards? As for the data on the card, as best I remember, its all been downloaded and backed up. I just want my perfectly good CF card to still work.

[Nathan Garofalos]

I dropped my iphone in the lake... I was crushed I had only had it for about a week, and there was water in the screen like a fish tank. I didn't turn it on, and my friend told me to put it in a bag of rice for a week. I did that, waited 9 days, then plugged it in, and turned it on. It works fine.

[Chris Nuzzaco]

A bag of rice? Wow. I'll give that a shot.

[Nathan Garofalos]

Rice is supposed to absorb the moisture.

[ayarbro]

If you're really hard up you could hose it down with an electrical lubricant. I would use something a little more technical looking than WD-40(even though WD stands for water displacing), like corrosion block or the like. The rice method is a sure bet though.

[PaulClements]

Alternative to rice is those windows dehumidifier things (A plastic box with slits in the top and loads of crystals inside). They cost very little and have a shedload of those crystals similar to silica gel. Stick the card in a sealed bag along with a tonne of the crystals and it'll do the same as the rice but maybe a little better/quicker. Though of course you don't have a meal at the end of it :)

Paul

[Steve Sanacore]

Alternative to rice is those windows dehumidifier things (A plastic box with slits in the top and loads of crystals inside). They cost very little and have a shedload of those crystals similar to silica gel. Stick the card in a sealed bag along with a tonne of the crystals and it'll do the same as the rice but maybe a little better/quicker. Though of course you don't have a meal at the end of it :)

Paul

A 2 GIG CF card? I don't think it's worth the trouble....

[Chris Nuzzaco]

Thanks for tips guys, its taking a $2.00 rice bath for a few days. Great info for any other electronic gadget accidental drownings LOL.

I still can't figure out how in the world it took a washer trip either, I never keep loose CF cards in my pockets... maybe that old roll of film on the desk next my CF card had something to do with this...

:p

[KETCH ROSSi]

The rice is your best choice, got several 8GB cards under the rain of South Beach for an hour before my assistant realized that the CF Pelican casing was missing from the bag, and found it on the beach open and full of rain water and sand.


Left it on a bag of rice for a week, then downloaded successfully all the pics.


BTW. I find it Ironic that this has happened to you as your user name is "Card"maverick???:)

Ciao