Help! GFX just went bang! Found green liquid on mobo...

Associate
Joined
4 Dec 2013
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73
Hi guys,

Turned on my PC this evening after being off for around 36 hours and my GTX 970 popped and sparked as soon as I hit the on switch. Immediately switched off and on inspection found a fair amount of green / translucent liquid running all along the pin connectors. After removing the GFX card (which I presume is now dead?) I noticed the same liquid in and around the card slot too. I've dabbed up as much as I can, but have no idea what this is, how it got here, if it's likely to be safe to plug a new GFX card in....

I'm sure the mobo has a lifetime warranty, although I'd imagine it won't cover my now fried GFX card, even if it was the cause?

Any advice would be VERY much appreciated.

Photos attached, but just let me know if you need any further info.

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Don
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Aberdeenshire
That slot on the motherboard is toast, I would be replacing it as well. What do you have above your GPU, it's likely to either be fan bearing oil or maybe heatpipe fluid, but I would put money on it being bearing oil it you don't have watercooling or have spilt something into your case.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
4 Dec 2013
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Hey guys,

Thanks for the responses so far. I think you might be right - It's water cooled and having just checked the heatsink, I've found this:

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It looks like this is the cause then! How does something like that happen?

Is it a fault or just something that can happen over time?

Given the pop, does this still likely mean the mobo socket is dead too?

Thanks again for your help!
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2009
Posts
3,287
If it were newer I would say contact the AIO cooler manufacturer, but being as old as it is I doubt they will be obliged to help you.

If it were me I would sell the 4790k and build a system around the Ryzen 3600 but I can't see anyway out of this for you as you will need a new mobo and GPU at a minimum and z97 boards are not cheap and a risk buying second hand
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Feb 2014
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2,658
Pretty much no. No gfx or mobo manufacturer will cover a leak, have to check the warranty on the aio is doubtful it's still in warranty but if it is you need to pursue them for replacement, not sure if they will cover other components though

Bear in mind there is a possibility this has killed other components, ram/PSU/ssds etc. Possibly even cpu
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,806
Ooof that sucks - I swapped my gaming PC from water to a big tower heatsink again when one of the fans on the AIO started dying and haven't looked back - I'd only use watercooling for specific use cases these days.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
4 Dec 2013
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Just looking through those links you sent @Hotwired - It looks like it should be under warranty still (purchased from OCUK in Nov 2014), and Silverstone state that in Europe the TD02 has a 5 years warranty. It also looks like they say they'll cover damage to components resulting from faulty production - so perhaps there is hope?! Although not sure how I'd go about starting this process... Their website only has a standard RMA form and no email address or contact number for Europe - just a postal address in Germany.

Not had any experience with returns before - it it likely to be something OCUK will deal with?

Thanks again
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
10,712
If a problem develops during the warranty period, please contact your retailer/reseller/SilverStone authorized distributors or SilverStone http://www.silverstonetek.com.

I'd start with OCUK and see what they advise, you can't be the first person who's needed to RMA something to SilverStone through them.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/support

The easiest anything would be to open a webnote. I believe this would be under Part Returns Enquiry: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/part-returns-enquiry

Fill in details, order number, maybe link pics, describe stuff etc, what next.
 
Associate
Joined
1 Dec 2010
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Location
England
Did you move your PC recently? I would have thought that the cooling liquid would be non conductive?

Contact OCUK support, I'm sure they can help point you in the right direction.
 
Don
Joined
7 Aug 2003
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44,275
Location
Aberdeenshire
Looks like a very slow leak that’s caused the copper of the block to corrode over a prolonged period of time and then the liquid has probably become much more conductive due to the copper ions it’s picked up as a result.
 
Associate
Joined
29 Jun 2013
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Location
Wicklow Ireland
That aio has a 5 year warranty contact Silverstone and show them the pictures, they should reimburse your losses, that looks like it has been leaking for a long time
 
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