Help! Soda spilled on tower.

[kylevance]

I had a full day of DOTA ahead of me when my friend rage slammed the table and spilled a full glass of coke on my tower. After about 15 seconds, the monitor went out and something started beeping, then it shut itself off. I took everything apart and cleaned it off. The only trace of coke that I found on the actual hardware was a stream down the backside of the motherboard.

I reassembled everything and it powered on and showed the BIOS screen and then I lost video. Everything else would stay on and running but no video. I swapped out a different video card and the same result. I went and bought a brand new motherboard and it did the same thing (yes everything was compatible). I swapped my original mobo back in the next day and swapped out the power supply with an old psu and an old graphics card that didn't require PCI express cables and everything worked fine.

So I ruled that it was the PSU. I ordered another one and got it all set up, and now it turns on and posts, shows the BIOS screen, then regardless of what I do, after about a minute it shuts itself off. It will turn itself back on without having to disconnect anything or flip the power switches on the actual power supply.

I have tested both sticks of ram as well as the graphics card in different computers and both work.

So I'm thinking it has to be either the motherboard or processor.

Any thoughts?

Specs:
i5 intel core 760 2.8ghz
MB BIOSTAR T5 XE CFX-SLI P55 R
8G GSKILL Sniper
OCZ 700W modular power supply
ASUS GTX 460 SE
120gb sandisk ssd
1 tb seagate hdd
Rosewill Challenger case
windows 7

 

[rolli59]

All fine with old GPU not fine with new GPU! My suspicion goes towards GPU!

 

[Chaz21]

"So I'm thinking it has to be either the motherboard or processor. " Do you mean the new motherboard or the old motherboard? You know that coke is very corrosive right? If you are still using (or trying to use) your old mobo what did you clean it with? Alcohol (no not that kind) would be best. Gently. With a swap. You have a few issues going on here. You had the spill. You cleaned it up. It worked but no video. You swapped out the GPU. Same thing. Swapped out the motherboard. Same result.
I could go on but the point I'm trying to make is that you should always treat the problems one at a time then move on. After you cleaned the spill it worked but no video. At that point you may have believed your problem was no longer the spill but you'd be wrong. With everything else working you should have continued with the spill damage control/cleanup. By swapping PSU's and motherboards you created another layer of possible problems because, as everyone on this board knows, anything can go wrong with a build (which is effectively what you did). Did you bend a socket pin when you replaced your CPU? Maybe but with the original problem you could rule that out because you never replaced the CPU.
So now that I got my rant over (sorry it comes with having 5 kids) my suggestion would be to treat it like a new build. Make sure you didn't get any thermal paste anywhere near the CPU socket nor bend any pins. Make sure all the sockets/plugs from your fans are clean (of coke) Make sure your case is clean. Make sure all i/o ports on the back are clean and that no tabs are sticking into something that they shouldn't be. This sounds like a lot and it is and it should be. The dangers of PC's and liquids is a lesson hard learned (trust me - with five kids I've learned it a few times).

 

[rolli59]

This sentense in the original post is what gets me "I swapped my original mobo back in the next day and swapped out the power supply with an old psu and an old graphics card that didn't require PCI express cables and everything worked fine. "
Since then we have new PSU new motherboard but what about GPU?
We know that the old board works with another GPU and PSU, does the new board work as well?
Is the new motherboard faulty?
Is the new PSU faulty?

 

[amuffin]

Get a hair dryer and blow everything out from top to bottom. Especially the cpu!

 

[Chaz21]

This sentense in the original post is what gets me "I swapped my original mobo back in the next day and swapped out the power supply with an old psu and an old graphics card that didn't require PCI express cables and everything worked fine. "
Since then we have new PSU new motherboard but what about GPU?
We know that the old board works with another GPU and PSU, does the new board work as well?
Is the new motherboard faulty?
Is the new PSU faulty?

You said it better than I did but that's what I meant. Many layers of "potential" problems have been added to the original one.

 

[kylevance]

I took back the "new" motherboard after it was producing the same results as the original.

As for the GPU--I tested it in another computer and it worked fine. Also, I pulled the GPU out and started up the computer and it did the same thing--power off after about 45 seconds.

@Chaz I checked the processor and there isn't any paste on or around the motherboard or pins. All the pins are intact.

@Rolli I couldn't tell you about all the new combinations with the "new" motherboard because I took it back after it produced the same result.
As far as the new power supply being faulty, I guess it's possible. I dont have another build that I could swap it into with me though.

Also, the new board that I bought and returned was a refurbished, so I suppose that could be an issue as well.

 

[rolli59]

Does the new PSU work with the old board and the old GPU which worked fine before with an old PSU?

 

[Chaz21]

Is this the new PSU or the old one? OCZ 700W modular power supply

 

[subcutaneous]

I'm going to guess that it's still your motherboard causing problems. The only thing I can guess is that maybe there is still some soda somewhere in the case(motherboard tray?) that is causing problems with whatever motherboard you put in it.

Here's a good test- start the PC but load the BIOS screen, will it stay turned on this way? If so it is probably not the PSU or CPU and points towards the motherboard.

Another thing you might check is the power switch connectors, is there any soda that got into the plug end or possible into the switch itself that could be messing with your power signal.

Anything that is creating a short(even not a very bad short) will eventually make the computer reset once the PSU picks up the short. If just enough got into your CD drive, or HDD, or even into a fan motor it might potentially be causing a short in the power supply circuit that is resetting the PC. Maybe a cable got snagged and torn in some corner and the bare wire is against the case.

Basically just take the whole thing apart and go over every little thing. Clean the case out inside and check that there is not a drop of soda somewhere it doesn't belong.

Funny story I once had a freezer pop thawing on the top exhaust vent of my pc, unfortunately its wrapper was broken, and once it thawed enough the whole freezer pop poured into my exhaust fan. I had no idea why my display started to artifact until I noticed the liquid spattering everywhere from the fan blades. I turned off the PC and dryed it all out, left a fan on it for a couple hours, when I came back it ran fine never had any issues still runs today more than four years later. The orientation of the fan made the liquid spill right onto my 6800GT SLI cards while I was playing a game, and they worked fine afterwards somehow.

 

[kylevance]

Great news!

I took a blow dryer to it, got a can of aerosol and blew everything out really well, took out the processor and reinstalled all the connections and she is up and purring (fingers crossed).

@subcutaneous I am starting to think that I maybe had some liquid in there somewhere, due to the fact that after drying everything it worked. Also, it's been sitting on it's side (as opposed to upright). Anyway, I'm going to take everything apart again and look for any trace of coke because if there is any, it could easily cause the problem again.

@Chaz the OCZ 700w is the new PSU.

@rolli The PSU that I swapped in to test it was an old one and didn't have PCI cables, so I put a GPU that didn't require them and it worked. As of right now the new PSU is working with the old board (fingers crossed again).

Thanks for your help everyone. And sorry for my noobishness.

 

[Chaz21]

Good to hear! I'll keep mine crossed for you too. The OCZ 700w did exactly what it was supposed to do. That's part of all the new safety features in the "good" PSU's today. Glad to see they worked. In the "old" days without those features you definitely would have "fried" your motherboard. Good luck to you.

 

[HugoStiglitz]

"when my friend rage slammed the table and spilled a full glass of coke on my tower. After about 15 seconds, the monitor went out and something started beeping, then it shut itself off"

wtf did u not rip the power cord from the wall straight after it happened?
its like finding ur phone in a puddle of water and first thing you do is turn it on to see if it works.

 

[subcutaneous]

I once knocked a massive pitcher of water onto my friends Macbook Pro. While the water was still cascading off the laptop(all over the place) I was already lifting it up, flipped it over, popped out the battery, and left it keyboard down to dry. I told him that if he cared at all about using it again he would let it dry for at LEAST two days by a vent where it would get some air movement. He turned the damn thing on two hours later and it works fine to this very day. This basically makes him one insanely lucky bastard. At first I thought for it to not be friend the keyboard must have been water proof, but upon looking it up it is not waterproof. Either my reaction speed to the spill was so amazing that next to no water got inside, or he has the blessing of the gods themselves.