Question Kid spilled water onto top of pc case... diagnosing liquid cooler?

[bostonkris34]

Hi, bit of a disaster moment here, one of my kids tripped and spilled a cup of water directly on the top of my pc case, which has a top mounted corsair 100i v2 liquid cooler.

I immediately ripped out the power cord and let it air dry for 24 hours.

When I try turning it on now, it works fine and gets I to windows. But when I try to do anything that takes even a little processing power the computer automatically powers down instantly.

If I turn it on again right away, the fans spin like crazy and it powers down. If I let it sit for a bit (presumably to cool off) it will power up again and the cycle repeats.

I will also note I took off the side panels of my case and touching the exposed back of mobo/processor unit is extremely hot.

In my uneducated experience this all sounds like my 100i is dead, though the fans are spinning, which is causing the processor to quickly overheat and prompt auto shutdown. Is that consistent with what might happen if water damaged the cooler?

Assuming the cooler is indeed the issue, i did notice there was still amazingly some significant moisture pooled on it this morning (which I dried) so maybe it just needs to dry off even more.... or maybe it needs to be replaced.

Thank you!

 

[tennis2]

Sounds like overheating.

The pump on the Corsair 100i is in the CPU block, so spilling water on the radiator (only) wouldn't hurt anything. The fans mounted to the rad however....

Are the radiator fans spinning?
Have you software-monitored the AIO pump rpm?
What are your CPU temps under load?
Did water get on anything else in the case?

 

[bostonkris34]

Thanks for the reply! That is my confusion as well. I believe water only got into the radiator but I suppose it is possible some dripped down before I could shut it off - only a matter of seconds though.

The fans do spin on the radiator. Unfortunately I can't check Temps or run any software diagnoses due to it shutting down so quickly when I try to actually use the computer.

Just in case I did purchase a new AIO which should arrive today... not optimistic it's going to solve anything though for the reasons you implied. Sounds like the water in the radiator shouldn't have stopped the pump from functioning. No idea what else it could be, though.

 

[CountMike]

Thanks for the reply! That is my confusion as well. I believe water only got into the radiator but I suppose it is possible some dripped down before I could shut it off - only a matter of seconds though.

The fans do spin on the radiator. Unfortunately I can't check Temps or run any software diagnoses due to it shutting down so quickly when I try to actually use the computer.

Just in case I did purchase a new AIO which should arrive today... not optimistic it's going to solve anything though for the reasons you implied. Sounds like the water in the radiator shouldn't have stopped the pump from functioning. No idea what else it could be, though.

There's not much to an AIO, a pump and fan(s), none of those could have caused your problems,

 

[bostonkris34]

What else could it be that would cause suddenly overheating, any ideas? The motherboard? If water did dip down, that's what it would have hit next.

 

[drivinfast247]

If the pump was working it would take qu

Hi, bit of a disaster moment here, one of my kids tripped and spilled a cup of water directly on the top of my pc case, which has a top mounted corsair 100i v2 liquid cooler.

I immediately ripped out the power cord and let it air dry for 24 hours.

When I try turning it on now, it works fine and gets I to windows. But when I try to do anything that takes even a little processing power the computer automatically powers down instantly.

If I turn it on again right away, the fans spin like crazy and it powers down. If I let it sit for a bit (presumably to cool off) it will power up again and the cycle repeats.

I will also note I took off the side panels of my case and touching the exposed back of mobo/processor unit is extremely hot.

In my uneducated experience this all sounds like my 100i is dead, though the fans are spinning, which is causing the processor to quickly overheat and prompt auto shutdown. Is that consistent with what might happen if water damaged the cooler?

Assuming the cooler is indeed the issue, i did notice there was still amazingly some significant moisture pooled on it this morning (which I dried) so maybe it just needs to dry off even more.... or maybe it needs to be replaced.

Thank you!

It's clear that water made it past the radiator. I'd remove all components from case and check for moisture.

 

[bostonkris34]

Quick follow up... I took it all apart and found no hidden moisture. So I trashed the h100i v2 and installed the h100 rgb pro xt. In so doing, I also changed my configuration from top-mounted exhaust to front-mounted intake.

The improvement is incredible.

Knock on wood, zero shutdowns so it seems to have fixed that issue, it's MUCH quieter, and performance wise it has never blazed like this (I'm using a ryzen 5900) - and I think for the first time its full capabilities have been unlocked. Even pre-spill, I wonder if my h100i v2 just wasn't up to the task... so maybe my kid did me a favor... but he's never allowed in my office with a drink again haha