Question Has my GPU fried my PSU?

[KrisKenesei]

Hi All,

This specific question has been raised a couple of times in the past but my situation is quite unique so I decided to still ask.

When I came home after several months spent abroad, I tried to turn on my PC and nothing happened as far as I can remember (this was already a few months back). I tried a couple of times, and because I noticed the mobo light wasn't on, I fault-checked the Corsair PSU by connecting the power switch cables and needless to say, it wouldn't turn on. I plugged the mobo into a different PSU and the power light came on. It thought it may have been the extensive strain on the PSU caused by the long-term use with my overclocked CPU that killed it, but it was of course suspicious that I came back and it just wouldn't turn on after having been turned off for months.

Now, I decided not to just replace the PSU, it was a 6-8 year old config so I built something completely new instead. It has very expensive components in it, all I kept were the graphics card, the CPU fan, a couple of SSDs and HDDs (as well as the case). I cleaned everything properly before starting work on the new build.

That's when I noticed the sticky liquid droplets with lots of dust in them on the bottom of the graphics card PCB (not on the cooler side). It appears that someone had spilled something sticky on top of it through the top airflow opening while I was away, and when I cleaned the dust and residue off, I realized there's also corrosion (some of which I managed to just scrub off using dry wipers). This is a roughly 3x5 cm area on the PCB that we are talking about here, so it isn't insignificant. This GTX 770 was going to go into the new build, but while I was cleaning the card I suddenly realized that if this thing shorted out proper, then it may have tried to draw way too much power from the PSU, which is in turn a possible cause of its demise. Naturally, I would certainly not like this to happen to my shiny new EVGA 650 GQ.

So my questions are:

1. Does this sound like to you guys like my graphics card is probably gone?
2. Is there a good chance that I would blow my new PSU (or any other components) if I tried this GTX 770 out in the new build?
3. May the isopropyl alcohol trick hold any potential for resurrecting the graphics card?

Thanks for any advice you may be able to provide!!

Best,
K

 

[KrisKenesei]

Here's a picture of the damage:

As you can see there's still corrosion left where components are soldered onto the PCB as well as some residue. The corroded screw (on the right) and the non-corroded one on the left show the contrast between affected and unaffected parts.