Advice, one off the kids been sick on the PC, it dont work now.

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Hi

Basically step-son has been sick on his PC in his room, case was all shut etc, but some of it has got in to his case via air holes on the side panel i think.

Now it dont work and im not sure where to really start as iv not got any spare parts. The system powers up & the mother board lights comes on CPU fan spins but it hangs at the mother board splash screen where it says press delete for the bios press tab for the post screen.

PC specs.

Amd phenom 9850
2GB ram
Abit mother board ( cant remember, will post back if needed)
9800GT
USB keyboard which dont do anything, got some bringing a PS2 keyboard later to see if that will be able to get to the bios or not

Iv got 2 ideas at the mo either:

1, the m/board has packed up
2, the PSU got wet & for some reason is not giving another power now.

Using my system to write which is also i AMD setup. So i could spend ages trying to use my system as a test bad, which at this stage i dont want to do if it can be helped....But how safe is that, if some of his parts have shorted out or what ever. Would i run the risk of messing my system up?

So any advice on what is the problem could be, or am i right to think the m/board or PSU

Cheers
 
how did you clean it before powering it up, and how long was it left to dry out?
 
how did you clean it before powering it up, and how long was it left to dry out?

it happen early hours of the morning, he clean the side of the case with a damp cloth before i got back up. I 1st took a look at it around 10am. An iv not really cleaned anything except some dust from inside as i cant really see any thing in there so im guessing it might of dried up in there.
 
it will contain stomach acid.. which will be bad for it, however much got in there.
 
it will contain stomach acid.. which will be bad for it, however much got in there.

So whats your gut reaction? the whole system has had it? Would his graphic card be safe to test in my system or if his card is faulty now would i run the risk of it screwing up my board?
 
the GPU, RAM, CPU, HDD are all likely to be fine, unless they were covered in the er...."stuff". Its likely a mobo/psu issue. To be honest im more likely to suspect mobo as its very hard to damage a psu becuase most of them are sealed units apart from an exhuast fan.
 
So whats your gut reaction? the whole system has had it? Would his graphic card be safe to test in my system or if his card is faulty now would i run the risk of it screwing up my board?

I see what you did there, remove it from the room take the side of the case off and put it in some storage room to dry out for week or 2. Strip it down and then try to see if there is any damage to anything and try to start it up again.
 
the GPU, RAM, CPU, HDD are all likely to be fine, unless they were covered in the er...."stuff". Its likely a mobo/psu issue. To be honest im more likely to suspect mobo as its very hard to damage a psu becuase most of them are sealed units apart from an exhuast fan.

So at least im not the only one thinking its the board. Guess the only way it to take the chance & test all of his others parts with my board. Which i dont really have time at the mo.

I see what you did there, remove it from the room take the side of the case off and put it in some storage room to dry out for week or 2. Strip it down and then try to see if there is any damage to anything and try to start it up again.

I guess that is a option i could try but not sure what lying it a week to dry will do

clean the affected parts with contact cleaner and let it dry for a few days.

Would that really work on the board if the board is the problem?
 
Next time step-son, know your limit :-D

Kind of related to this thread - I once spilt coffee into a PS/2 keyboard. Yes it did mean £8 for a replacement keyboard but at least my base unit was a couple of feet away. May I suggest that next time you consider his set-up?
 
Next time step-son, know your limit :-D

Totally agreed!! An it was not that much either.

how old is you step-son?

make him sort it if u can. will be a expensive lesson learned for him.

He is 16 years old, but only knows the very basics of inside a PC. An he not got any money unless he finds a summer job or when he starts college in September for which he would need a PC for. So really needs to be fixed by then

Plus if i spend some time on it once iv gathered a idea of the problem, it will hope fully help me with the PC course im doing at the mo.
 
Had he been drinking? I mean arew e talking water beer filled puke, or full meal stomach full of carrots stuff?

later will stink more, btu actually penetrate the case less, have you actually opened it, as you speka of not being able to see well.

I'd suggest, open it, take the whole thing to pieces, clean each peice and inspect each piece, clean out the case, and then slot all back together after any damp parts have been cleaned with contatc cleaner and left to dry for a couple of days, then see if it remains stuck at splash screen.
 
The system powers up & the mother board lights comes on CPU fan spins but it hangs at the mother board splash screen where it says press delete for the bios press tab for the post screen.

Well at least it's posting that's one thing to be gratefull for,

you need to start disconnecting all the peripherals, ie keyboard mouse webcam etc one by one to find out why it's not completing post, he didn't by any chance hurl all over his keyboard did he?

If this doesn't work then it's a just a simple bit of fault diagnosing by unplugging (or swapping in the case of the cpu ram etc) each individual component inside the system one by one to find where the fault lies,

obviously making sure you turn the power off first ;)

I'd initially start with the hard drive. Faulty hard drives are a very common cause of lockups @ post.

Don't forget connectors attached to the board too, stuff like usb headers power and reset switchs, especially if he's been sick anywhere near where they are located on the case front :p
 
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