Computer killed by insecticide; what compounds are likely?

A friend of mine sprayed "Black Flag Home Defense" insecticide under her
computer. It died immediately. I'm trying to figure out why, and how
fixable it might be.


I found an MSDS, but it only says what the active ingredient is,
deltamethrin, 0.02%. Apparently everything else is proprietary and/or
non-hazardous.


Deltamethrin is not water-soluble, so I'm thinking that this probably
doesn't contain any water; more like nonpolar hydrocarbon sorts of
compounds. I'm thinking there's some particular nonpolar solvent that
makes up the bulk of it.


So, my questions:


1. Information or informed speculation as to the likely solvent
involved.
2. For those with knowledge of electronics, information or informed
speculation about the effect of such solvents on PC boards and
electronic components.


Answers to 1 alone are also useful, as I can then ask on
electronics.se what those compounds would do.


UPDATE: I don't have access to the computer myself. I passed on some of
the suggestions to my friend, and she will bring it in to a shop and see
how repairable the damage seems to be. Thanks for all your thoughts.


UPDATE 2: I spoke with the tech who looked at it. Apparently the
computer was very dirty inside; years of dust, cigarette smoke residue,
and insects. She's not sure exactly what happened, but there seems to be
a short somewhere on the motherboard, and that may have fried the power
supply as well. Given the dirt, it was probably not in good shape even
before the incident; the heat sinks were thoroughly clogged.


Overall conclusion: keep your computer clean! Keeping unknown chemicals
away from it is a good idea too.




Ingredients
-----------


So we could probably guess what's in the insecticide based on what's used in some of their other products.


[Black Flag Flying Insect Killer](http://whatsinproducts.com//brands/show_msds/1/10766)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tetramethrin - Sounds like the "active ingredient" here. By "active ingredient", I mean poison. 


D-phenothrin - Another poison. This product sounds like it kills more than one insect.


Petroleum Distilates - Likely a solvent. Unspecified


Liquefied Petroleum Gas - Propane or butane. An aerosol propellant. Was your product from a bucket or can? If a can, then it probably has this stuff.


So what happened?
-----------------


My guess is that one of the products created a [short circuit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_circuit)



> 
> A short circuit is an abnormal connection between two nodes of an electric circuit intended to be at different voltages. This results in an excessive electric current limited only by the Thévenin equivalent resistance of the rest of the network and potentially causes **circuit damage, overheating, fire or explosion**. 
> 
> 
> 


Typically, when something like a computer experiences a short circuit, it will stop functioning, "die", once the irreversible damage is done. As specified in the above text, circuit damage is likely done, and the circuits will need to be rewired. If there was no damage, then removing any remaining substances through a solvent, followed by thoroughly drying the computer, would remove the short circuit and allow it to function normally. It's possible that if the short circuit was created by a solvent, that the solvent has already been removed by evaporation, due to common organic solvents' melting points.


 3

The only reason for a short could be that by spraying a lot 
of that can some moisture from air condensed due to the 
refrigerating action of the spray. 
But: Does the computer start again after some time has passed now? 
Usually all supply voltages in Computers are short-Proof 
and shut down on a short. 
After dryinfg the computer should start again.


 1

From the answer of John Snow I saw that it contained `Petroleum Distilates`


From my years as IT tech it was absolutely forbidden to use any Petrolium/oil based product for cleaning out the computer parts, because they cause corrosion/react with the compounds.


The acidity of crude oil based products is just too high. It's also a damn good rust remover(try it, it makes your bike all sparkly new again). Even when refined it's still highly reactive(cleaning petrol, lamp oil, etc...)


So spraying it in your computer where there are heaps of soft, easely corrodable metals is generally a bad idea.


[For your reading enjoyment](https://books.google.nl/books?id=ZDPOBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA254&lpg=PA254&dq=how%20does%20crude%20oil%20react%20to%20metals&source=bl&ots=4z5q6PRZTW&sig=LEU07viZC5QfRLe_Zb0gL42Mvzc&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=pkkaVceRFMrgaKqigMAM&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=how%20does%20crude%20oil%20react%20to%20metals&f=false)


How to fix it? Depends, if pieces have melted I have bad hopes for you being to fix it. You might try dousing it in IsoPropyl Alcohol to flush away any solvents, but i'm afraid the damage has been done and the chips and resistors are dead.


You might be able to replace resistors if they are damaged. You can recognise those by them bulging out instead of having a flat top.
Damaged chips are recognisable by being burnt. Might need a magnifying glass to see it.


But usually in these cases the damage is nigh invisible.


 0