Booting issue after liquid spill

[dlloyd1025]

I'm having an issue with my PC, I recently spilled some liquid which fell inside the case through the top fan vents. I quickly opened the case and started taking apart any components that I could see that appeared wet. I cleaned as best I could with a lint free paper towel anywhere I could see wet spots. I took apart many affected parts, including CPU heatsink, GPU, RAM, etc. I got everything as best wiped off as I could and set them all out overnight infront of a desktop fan to air dry over night. In the morning I inspected everything and it looked fine, didn't appear wet anymore and no visible damage or marks like anything had shorted.

I began to reassemble everything at this point, then upon powering on it appears to power on fine. I can access the bios, windows starts to load but then crashes before windows starts. I tried many options, last known good config, start up repair, chkdsk. Then I try safe mode, it loads under safe mode. So I try to do a repair from my windows 7 disc, I go into safe mode and do a selective boot with no windows services or drivers loading on startup. But nothing will allow it to load under normal start only safemode, and even then sometimes it doesn't load on safe mode.

I then decide to format that drive and install win 7 fresh, install goes fine, it boots up perfect to windows. Everything is running, then I start doing updates and install needed drivers. Then upon reboot it starts doing the same thing, won't allow windows to start. I do a system restore back to the point before I installed any updates, and this allows it to start up again. I try to selectively run small batches of updates at a time to see what is causing it to suddenly break again. But it is inconsistant, and I can't really determine what is going on.

So my question is, why would spilling a liquid on my PC allow it to work perfectly fine with safe mode, and after having a fresh windows install, but it doesn't work upon loading certain updates or drivers?

 

[Lutfij]

Does it reboot soon after the 4 bubbles for the splash screen come about? If so try and get into BIOS and see if the storage controller is set to AHCI. If it's in IDE, change it to AHCI. Sad thing is that if the system booted to the GUI while in IDE and you now set it to AHCI, you should be seeing the BSOD.

The best thing you can do is,
a| make sure your BIOS is up to date
b| reinstall the OS after making sure your OS isn't corrupt

Come to think of it, can you please pass on your full system's specs, like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
Chassis:
OS: Windows 7

 

[dlloyd1025]

Does it reboot soon after the 4 bubbles for the splash screen come about? If so try and get into BIOS and see if the storage controller is set to AHCI. If it's in IDE, change it to AHCI. Sad thing is that if the system booted to the GUI while in IDE and you now set it to AHCI, you should be seeing the BSOD.

The best thing you can do is,
a| make sure your BIOS is up to date
b| reinstall the OS after making sure your OS isn't corrupt

Come to think of it, can you please pass on your full system's specs, like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
Chassis:
OS: Windows 7

Lutfij, thanks for your response, I will definitely check AHCI/IDE setting when I get home tonight to see if that is a resolution. But I did see a BSOD once but it flashed by very quickly so didn't get a look at what it said. I will do a firmware update on the BIOS also, and reinstall OS again if needed.

Here is the info on the system if that helps to troubleshoot it further:
CPU:Intel Core i5-2400 3.10 GHz 6 MB Cache Socket LGA1155 Processor
Motherboard:Gigabyte Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2133 LGA 1155 Motherboard GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
Ram: 4 X 4gb ram
SSD/HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200 500 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s 16 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST500DM002
GPU: EVGA GeForce GT 520 2048 MB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 DVI/HDMI/VGA Graphics Card, 02G-P3-1529-KR
Chassis: Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower ATX Case (RC-912-KKN1)
OS: Windows 7

 

[geofelt]

What was the liquid??
Water should have been no problem.
Other things, I don't know.
A martini might be OK, orange juice not so much.

Try booting memtest86.
You should be able to complete a full pass with NO errors.

Try removing the graphics card and using only the integrated graphics adapter.

Booting in safe mode successfully is a good sign.
Your problem is likely driver related.

I would not try to do a bios update while the functioning of the pc is still in question.
But, if you see a fix on one of the updates that seems to address your problem, then perhaps.

 

[dlloyd1025]

What was the liquid??
Water should have been no problem.
Other things, I don't know.
A martini might be OK, orange juice not so much.

Try booting memtest86.
You should be able to complete a full pass with NO errors.

Try removing the graphics card and using only the integrated graphics adapter.

Booting in safe mode successfully is a good sign.
Your problem is likely driver related.

I would not try to do a bios update while the functioning of the pc is still in question.
But, if you see a fix on one of the updates that seems to address your problem, then perhaps.

Geofelt, the liquid came from a cup of soda and ice that I had sitting there. It wasn't a terrible amount left, maybe less then 1 or 2 ounces. It should have been mostly water, cause it was a cup of that I put ice and soda in. So mostly it was just the melted ice with residual soda mixed in. I cleaned it out of the PC is best as I could find.

I think I already did the memory diagnostic function built into the BIOS and didn't find anything. And I have removed the video card and am using the integrated, but still presenting the problem.

But yes the fact that confuses me the most is that I didn't have this issue until I spilled the liquid, the computer ran fine for years. But after cleaning and put everything back together, I am having this weird issue. So how would this suddenly make a driver not work? But I will continue trying to load updates one at a time to try and determine which one is causing the issue I guess.

I'm just kind of at a lose for how the two issues can be related.

 

[dlloyd1025]

So it turns out that the problem seems to be related to the intergrated video card, because I isolated the problem by installing one windows update at a time. It was an intel graphics update that was causing it to crash, I suppose the liquid I spilled damaged that onboard video somehow. But why it worked perfectly fine after installing windows fresh, yet broke after installing that update I have no idea. But my computer is working again now, and I didn't have to buy a new motherboard, so I am happy.

Thanks to those who responded.