Question PC won't start despite new mobo

adamskiiiii

Honorable
Jul 6, 2016
5
1
10,510
Hi,
Two days ago I spilled dr pepper in my pc. It turned off and wouldn't come back on after I did my best to dry it. I took it to my local computer shop who told me the mobo and ram are dead but the other components are ok.

So I ordered a new mobo and new ram, set it up (I've decent experience building PC's) but now it still won't start.

I've tried a different psu, different power cable, different plug socket all to no avail. I'm concerned the power button on my case may be the problem so I tried the screwdriver trick with the power switch pins but it didn't work.

In case it's relevant:
Case - NZXT H510
New mobo - Gigabyte B550 Gaming X V2
CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 3700x
GFX - Nvidia 1660
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 2x16gb DDR4
PSU - EVGA 600W 80+

I'd really appreciate any suggestions on what to try, thanks!

Edit: I forgot to add that when I connect my external HDD via usb, it boots up and the light turns on, don't know whether this helps or not but thought it may be useful.
 
Sorry I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting. Could you explain it to me a bit simpler?

He means just to take all components out of the case (mobo, CPU, CPU cooler and memory as one), connect them back up again outside the case and see if it runs like that. He's (correctly) asking you to take a troubleshooting step that will tell you if anything within the case is now shorting out against the motherboard subsequent to the spillage, running the parts outside of the case is the best way to rule this out.

It's a very good idea at this stage, did the computer shop do this? My guess is that they didn't. Why did they specifically diagnose mobo and memory? You need to ask them that, because it's very easy to speculate that without ruling out a short between the case and motherboard, especially when you're being paid to do so and may get future work off the back of that judgement.

If you still have your motherboard box, ideal to put the board on while you do this. Otherwise, something non-conductive like cardboard would serve this purpose.
 
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adamskiiiii

Honorable
Jul 6, 2016
5
1
10,510
He means just to take all components out of the case (mobo, CPU, CPU cooler and memory as one), connect them back up again outside the case and see if it runs like that. He's (correctly) asking you to take a troubleshooting step that will tell you if anything within the case is now shorting out against the motherboard subsequent to the spillage, running the parts outside of the case is the best way to rule this out.

It's a very good idea at this stage, did the computer shop do this? My guess is that they didn't. Why did they specifically diagnose mobo and memory? You need to ask them that, because it's very easy to speculate that without ruling out a short between the case and motherboard, especially when you're being paid to do so and may get future work off the back of that judgement.

If you still have your motherboard box, ideal to put the board on while you do this. Otherwise, something non-conductive like cardboard would serve this purpose.
Thank you so much for this response! I reassembled the pc outside of the case like you suggested and it boots up. The only issue I have now is that I can't get an input signal in either of my monitors. Does this mean definitively that the case is unusable and to replace it (and also that the pc shop guys were full of <Mod Edit>?). Thanks again.

Edit: got monitors working, everything seems fine now.
 
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Thank you so much for this response! I reassembled the pc outside of the case like you suggested and it boots up. The only issue I have now is that I can't get an input signal in either of my monitors. Does this mean definitively that the case is unusable and to replace it (and also that the pc shop guys were full of <Mod Edit>?). Thanks again.

Edit: got monitors working, everything seems fine now.

To be fair, it was @scout_03 who suggested running it out of the case and I agreed with him that this was a good idea. And he's on the money again saying a new case is probably a good idea. At least you now know your components are fine and that the PC shop was full of the brown stuff. But I'm very glad you got it working, whack it all in a new case and you should be good to go.

But this also begs the question as to whether your old motherboard is actually okay and that you didn't need to get the B550 board as the short in the case was the issue, not the components. Now that you have the new board, you may as well use it if that's what you'd prefer. You could test your old board using the same method, see if it works and if it does, either keep it and return the B550 or sell the B450 on. B450 is still very viable, if it was something like a Tomahawk Max or another board with decent power delivery then it'd be able to accommodate a 5000 series Ryzen without issue.

I also wouldn't give that PC shop any custom any more ;)