Uh-Oh!
 

So, last night I was putting my new watercooling set up onto my mobo. It was quite a pain; my fingers still hurt, but I did get the blocks on without the hose between the NB and CPU kinking completely. I had two leaks, but I thoroughly dried them off. I also took the NB heatsink and stuck it on the southbridge (this is all an Athlon 2100+ on an Epox 8rda+ btw). So, since the pump ran all night with only one little seep that I fixed up, I turned on the computer.

First, it booted succesfully, but I forgot to plug important things like the keyboard in so I had to restart... then it booted succesfully again; I went into the bios, looked at the PC health, saw nice low temps, and then it froze, while I was busy noticing the pump seemed to be causing interference to the monitor. Then it tried booting again but froze at the "25" which the manual helpfully lists as "reserved" and then after another reboot "FF" which is "Boot Attempt". Several more reboots, and I took off the heatsink on the soutbridge since it looked like it was hitting a capacitor, maybe it was shorting something. But now it won't turn on at all. What have I done to my precious!? I'm kinda baffled here.

I'm starting to think maybe the problem is related to the water connecting about 30 pins on the CPU.

I really hope nothings broken.... But it probably is.

Give it a chance to dry. You'd be surprised how much punishment a mobo can take (but then again, you'd be surprised equally with how little it takes to kill it!).

Do you have a backup BIOS?

The cap thing shouldn't be shorting anything.

well, its really not giving any signs of life after I dried everything off with the spare delta fan I have, now I just have to figure out if its the mobo, CPU, or both... fortunatly my folding farm (only 2 nodes, not much of a farm..) has a pretty similar set up.

it seems there was a bit of water under the mobo, soaked up by my mobo tray (its just a small box of printer paper, another downside of not having a case; I stuck a towel under it and the mobo actually made a sign of life! It may not be too late! whew, I don't want to buy a new mobo....

damn, it seems the CPU is fine, and the mobo won't turn on with a CPU in the socket :(

Poor Mobo.... it only lasted 6 weeks :(

Damn conscience, it refuses to let me RMA it :(

*whispers*

... of course you can. :D

its actually showing more and more signs of life... I don't get it, there can't be any more water in there, I even took apart the socket to make sure, but now it will not only power on regularly with a CPU in the socket, but it will even post! I haven't had a good chance to see farther yet though, but this afternoon I'll get a chance to see how its really doing.

Well, what can I say.... I'm posting on the "dead" mobo now. And the temps are rather nice too. What a way to start off watercooling... at least I didn't have to buy a new mobo though.

that is commonly known, as the wet chipset-underbelly syndrome.... :D

it might look all nice and dry, but the gaps between all the surface-mount chipsets and the mobo are ideal hiding spots for them rouge bodies of liquid,

get your wife's (sisters/mothers..whatever's safest) hear-drier and give it a good 5 minutes on high, get the board to be nice and toasty.... works like a charm, every time.... :)


ermmmm maybe I should rather say that it SHOULD work like a charm, the damnedest thing is, I'm speaking from experience, :eek: :eek: :eek:

Its amazing the way computers revive themselves... I got called into work two weeks ago because a machine suddenly died. They couldn't get it to boot. When I got in, I turned it on and it worked perfectly :shrug:

Yesterday morning it wouldn't respond at all. this afternoon, it booted, but crashed soon after. Now, it seems to be working pretty well but the screen has flashed black a couple times. Tomorrow... I expect it will be working better than before at this rate :)

My PC is very susceptable to psychic phenomenum as well as water :D . The amount of times my rig has been 'bedevilled' then worked fine afterwards of its own accord is beyond me, damn gremlins! :mad: . You'd think they'd find something more interesting to do by now! :p ...

The hair dryer fix is a good one, also the airing cupboard works well. Just make sure the mobo gets nice and warm so it drys out the underside of the socket and northbridge type chips (which have a gap under them and lots of exposed legs). I found flushing them out with isopropal alcohol (squirt it under with a syringe that's had the point filed/sanded down) works wonders as well :) . Dust/dirt can cause simular problems in my experience, especialy with graphics cards...

Well, so much for karma.. I do the 'right' thing and buy a new 8rda+ instead of RMAing it.

And what do I get for it? a mobo that works worse than the water damaged one! This one is less responsive than the old one while it had water in the CPU socket.....

Be careful when using a hair dryer...
 

Be careful when using a hair dryer...

I have actually blown components off of boards with over enthusiastic use of a hair drier on high heat... (fortuneately it was a disposable item...)

Stick with low or medium heat, it's safer. Keep a good distance (18" or more) from the board, you just want to warm things up, not fry them.

Keep a hand in the airflow - if it's to hot for your hand, it may be to hot for the board....

Good luck,

Gooserider.