Question Water damage cpu socket?

[antb201]

I was cleaning my pc today and i got some thermal paste in the motherboard cpu socket. I used 50% isopropyl alcohol ( i know i shouldve used 70%+) and sprayed into the socket while facing the socket upside down. There is no post beep. I literally SOAKED the socket to get all thermal paste out. I got most of it out. . I dried off the board for 20-30 minutes. My motherboard wouldnt power on at when initially tried. After an hour it powered itself on while i was on the phone and i logged into my desktop account. Everything looked to be snappy and working fine. 3 minutes it shut itself down. Now when i attempt to boot i get no power to the usb accessories plugged imto the pc (kbm) and no post beep or any post in general like i mentioned earlier. I obviously did damage, but is it permanent? I have a replacement coming in two days but Is my cpu/gpu/ram done too? I removed cpu/gpu/ram and i still get those same symptoms when booting. I will never use conductive thermal paste again.

 

[Newtonius]

50% alcohol seems too low, 70% at the least is what you want when degreasing thermal paste, especially conductive paste.... Also 30 minutes seems too short to let air dry, I would've waited an hour or 2. There could still be micro droplets under the pins. And please tell me you used distilled water, if you used regular tap water then chances are your board may be done. Regular water has minerals and chemicals that even after evaporating could leave trace amounts on the pins causing issues later on, enough to bork your board and CPU.

I wouldn't say everything else is dead, since the incident was mostly isolated to the CPU socket, then only the CPU and motherboard are dead (definitely the motherboard). The CPU may still be okay, though it's a 50-50 shot.

 

[antb201]

50% alcohol seems too low, 70% at the least is what you want when degreasing thermal paste, especially conductive paste.... Also 30 minutes seems too short to let air dry, I would've waited an hour or 2. There could still be micro droplets under the pins. And please tell me you used distilled water, if you used regular tap water then chances are your board may be done. Regular water has minerals and chemicals that even after evaporating could leave trace amounts on the pins causing issues later on, enough to bork your board and CPU.

I wouldn't say everything else is dead, since the incident was mostly isolated to the CPU socket, then only the CPU and motherboard are dead (definitely the motherboard). The CPU may still be okay, though it's a 50-50 shot.

Yea i shouldve def let it dry a lot longer. I hope my cpu/gpu/ram are still alive. New board will be here in 2 days. Especially my 2080ti

 

[Newtonius]

Yea i shouldve def let it dry a lot longer. I hope my cpu/gpu/ram are still alive. New board will be here in 2 days. Especially my 2080ti

I seemed to have misread, looks like you only used alcohol to clean it out, no water. 30 minutes is definitely long enough with just alcohol. That evaporates quickly and entirely. Either way, 50% is too weak to remove paste easily. Given you said it was conductive, left over residue might've been the cause of failure. Still test out the CPU BUT PLEASE THOROUGHLY WIPE OFF THE SURFACE OF THE CPU PINS IF IT'S INTEL. If it's AMD, you can dunk it in alcohol, that's totally fine.

 

[antb201]

I seemed to have misread, looks like you only used alcohol to clean it out, no water. 30 minutes is definitely long enough with just alcohol. That evaporates quickly and entirely. Either way, 50% is too weak to remove paste easily. Given you said it was conductive, left over residue might've been the cause of failure. Still test out the CPU BUT PLEASE THOROUGHLY WIPE OFF THE SURFACE OF THE CPU PINS IF IT'S INTEL. If it's AMD, you can dunk it in alcohol, that's totally fine.

Didnt you just say that 30 minutes was too short and i shouldve waited 2-3 hours? Btw i think you misread my post. I edited it to make it easier to understand.