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Old 10-03-2008, 08:24 AM   #1
noeffeks
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I spilt beer

on my pc. It leaked in through the top usb acess port. I saw my screen goes crazy colors and immediatly turned off my pc.

I opned it up, and it appeared to get on ym cideo card, ram, and a small spot on my mobo. So i put it near a fan and let it dry out and started it back up. I took 2 tries, and it was good to go. I was able to do everything as normal. FF ran alot slower than usual, and i kept getting this error that "USB device is malfunctioning" everytime i closed it, it would pop back up from my start bar and say it. So i decided to turn it off and unplugg the usb ports that came through the top, right where the beer spilled. Before i did this, i left it off and went for a walk to clear my head. I came back, and before i unplugged anything, i tried to start it up... when i press the power button... nothing happens. My keybaord and mouse, both of which have LED's flicker their lights at first solid, than goring more feeble as time goes on. This is when the power is plugged in... not on, but anytime the power chord is plugged into my PSU(normally they are off, and remain off until i start up my PC). I get nothing when i press the power button.

Any ideas?
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Old 10-03-2008, 01:33 PM   #2
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Buy a new PC.
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Old 10-03-2008, 01:35 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KubeDawg
Buy a new PC.
You could replace the parts that the beer spilt on, however, because the computer was on when the liquid touched the stuff it probably did some bad things. You were smart for air drying it, but it may have been too late for those parts .

Do you have another PC around that would allow you to try out each part to see where the weak link is?
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Old 10-03-2008, 04:36 PM   #4
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With things shorting out from the liquid....and the possibility that beer got into places that you might not have seen or been able to clean...you may find that you end up throwing good money after bad. It may work for a while but will fail later.

As far as trouble shooting goes disconnect everything from the motherboard except what is absolutely necessary to run. No drives or additional peripherals....just mobo, vid, keyboard and power supply. Cycle the CMOS jumper and clear it. If it powers up put it into the hardware monitor screen of the BIOS and watch temps. If temps are ok start adding components one at a time and test.
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Old 10-03-2008, 04:58 PM   #5
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Yup. I got it to power on... however it dosent even jump to the bios screen it just lights up, the cpu fan dosent spin, however the harddrives spin.

Question. Will the short in the mobo effect my HDD's? Will it only effect the parts that got liquid on them or does it effect everything?

I'm going to try first getting a new mobo, vid card, and ram. Possibly PSU. Gonna run me 500 bucks, or a months rent :/. However, it will be a few minor upgrades.

I pray that my cpu was saved. We'll see. However, if the cpu was shorted will putting it into a non-shorted mobo short out the new mobo?
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Old 10-03-2008, 05:30 PM   #6
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Shorts cause in-correct voltage flow .. which can damage your hard drives yes .. so I wouldn't turn that shit on anymore if you know its spolding.
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Old 10-03-2008, 05:57 PM   #7
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All this concern for a computer, why does noone care about the beer!?
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Old 10-03-2008, 05:59 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fishBurger
All this concern for a computer, why does noone care about the beer!?
Cause beer tastes bad and computers are fun.
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Old 10-03-2008, 06:02 PM   #9
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Air drying it wouldn't help very much if not at all. Beer is not a clean liquid, it's got all sorts of other stuff in it that will leave behind a residue when it finally drys up.

Even tap water leaves behind a residue.

If your computer wasn't permanently damaged from a short when the beer landed on it you might be able to fix the problem by going out and buying a whole shit load of alcohol swabs and cleaning every piece of electronics in there (including the places where you might not think beer landed). Then you'd have to give each piece good blowing out with clean air to make sure no fuzzies or particles were left behind from the swabbing.

It'd be a shit load of work and still wouldn't guarantee success, since chances are the intial short could have fucked some shit up.
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Old 10-03-2008, 06:02 PM   #10
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I'm going to say it before anyone else does.

ALCOHOL ABUSE!
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Old 10-03-2008, 06:24 PM   #11
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Wash it down with ionized water... Keep the box off for a week or two and then try. If the box is already dead... it's worth a try.
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Old 10-03-2008, 08:27 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooga
Wash it down with ionized water... Keep the box off for a week or two and then try. If the box is already dead... it's worth a try.
REMOVE THE CMOS BATTERY FIRST!!!!
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Old 10-04-2008, 07:43 AM   #13
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Just to be clear. If, lets say, I got a new mobo, ram, psu, video card... but kept my dvd burner, and harddrives. If I ran the new system with the possible shorted hard drives/optical drive, keyboard, mouse, it might damage the new hardware?

I'm looking to spend as little as possible but keep the most I can out of this. I would like to not have to replace my keyboard/mouse/hdd's/optical drive/external hdd. Or is it, everything that was connected to the pc when it got the beer on it is possible fucked? Including monitors/speakers/webcams/joystick/external hdd?
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Old 10-04-2008, 12:31 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Demasu
Cause beer tastes bad and computers are fun.

SHUN THIS MAN!!
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Old 10-04-2008, 05:08 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noeffeks
Just to be clear. If, lets say, I got a new mobo, ram, psu, video card... but kept my dvd burner, and harddrives. If I ran the new system with the possible shorted hard drives/optical drive, keyboard, mouse, it might damage the new hardware?

I'm looking to spend as little as possible but keep the most I can out of this. I would like to not have to replace my keyboard/mouse/hdd's/optical drive/external hdd. Or is it, everything that was connected to the pc when it got the beer on it is possible fucked? Including monitors/speakers/webcams/joystick/external hdd?
When electricity shorts you cannot always predict what will be damaged. Quite often there are limiters and other filters designed to protect from certain uncontrolled current conditions but the beer was allowing electricity to flow along paths that cannot be anticipated. Yes, damage is possible. If you're serious about salvaging them try a USB enclosure so that if something goes bad...it should be limited to just the enclosure.
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Old 10-04-2008, 11:01 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Innoc
When electricity shorts you cannot always predict what will be damaged. Quite often there are limiters and other filters designed to protect from certain uncontrolled current conditions but the beer was allowing electricity to flow along paths that cannot be anticipated. Yes, damage is possible. If you're serious about salvaging them try a USB enclosure so that if something goes bad...it should be limited to just the enclosure.
This.
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Old 10-13-2008, 03:52 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noeffeks
on my pc. It leaked in through the top usb acess port. I saw my screen goes crazy colors and immediatly turned off my pc.

I opned it up, and it appeared to get on ym cideo card, ram, and a small spot on my mobo. So i put it near a fan and let it dry out and started it back up. I took 2 tries, and it was good to go. I was able to do everything as normal. FF ran alot slower than usual, and i kept getting this error that "USB device is malfunctioning" everytime i closed it, it would pop back up from my start bar and say it. So i decided to turn it off and unplugg the usb ports that came through the top, right where the beer spilled. Before i did this, i left it off and went for a walk to clear my head. I came back, and before i unplugged anything, i tried to start it up... when i press the power button... nothing happens. My keybaord and mouse, both of which have LED's flicker their lights at first solid, than goring more feeble as time goes on. This is when the power is plugged in... not on, but anytime the power chord is plugged into my PSU(normally they are off, and remain off until i start up my PC). I get nothing when i press the power button.

Any ideas?
Clean out the dried beer as best you can,it may be causing a short on the bus somewhere, use a damp paper towel. (when you are sober, and the power cord is unpluged!), then use a dry paper towel to mop up the moisture.

As far as the power button not working you may need to clean out the switch too.
If the switch cannot be opened, disconnect the lead wires, and do a "dead mans switch", then try to turn the system on with the power cord.(only if the switch got beer in it...)

I recommend finding a cheaper beer coaster... Perhaps an old nintendo game cube or Xbox
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Old 10-13-2008, 06:15 PM   #18
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I'm sorry I coudn't resist.

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