Water spillage - please help

[amy kemp]

So.... Spilt water on pc tower, on the power switch and usb ports.
Switched it off immediately.
Fully dried it out.
Now it won't switch on.
Any advice on where we go from here. My husband is technically minded, can take things apart etc so wondered what you would try first?

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Thank you in advance

 

[amy kemp]

We used a hairdryer to dry everything and removed the switch panel and dried it all out. But thinking it may have shorted out something in the PSU?

 

[amy kemp]

Ok so I'm going to order one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DIGIFLEX-Power-Supply-Tester-Diagnose-Black/dp/B004IO5CT8/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=Power+Supply+Tester&qid=1675457891&sr=8-4

Just a thought I have an older tower with a PSU in it. Would I be able to plug that into this tower to test it or are there lots of differences?

Thank you

 

[amy kemp]

There is a thing you can do where you put a paper clip/wire in the PSU main 20/24 pin ATX connector which will allow the PSU to power up at least. You could have a look at that first and see if you see any life out of the PSU like the fan starts spinning. I would recommend you disconnect the PSU from everything when you do this. That will allow you to see if the PSU works. If it doesn't, replace it. If it does work, start connecting one component after another to test. Start with the cheapest stuff first like fans, working up to full boot up.

I can't work out how to remove this from the circuit board, it looks like the pins have been removed from the original block connected and then pushed into this?
Looking at images of this PSU all of the plugs are black. Where as this one is white?

https://i.postimg.cc/CxbpkZMx/IMG-20230203-WA0003.jpg

(Just trying to add a pic)

 

[amy kemp]

Sorry i meant if I replace this PSU. How do I remove the pins (as in the picture above) from the power switch?

 

[amy kemp]

Amy the picture you have posted is not the same connector we are talking about.

Yes thank you don't panic I realised

 

[amy kemp]

Sorry Amy, not sure I understand you. You aren't removing any pins you are just testing the PSU connector with it disconnected from the motherboard by creating an electrical short with a piece of wire to fool the PSU into thinking that it is connected to a working motherboard.

That's what I'm about to do, thank you.

I've jumped ahead thinking If I do have to replace the PSU how do I even disconnect that? (my picture above)

 

[amy kemp]

Can you post a picture of the insides of your computer? If you aren't sure, probably worth getting someone that knows computers to have a look. The youtube video above is showing like the main connector which comes off of your power supply unit. This plugs into a large circuit board bigger than anything else. That's the main PSU connector. Make sure you unplug from the mains before you go prodding around inside a potentially water damaged PC.

Yes, all definitely unplugged. My husband knows how to fix most things but inside a computer is a different story but he'll try.

 

[amy kemp]

If you post details of the motherboard you have inside the PC, we can talk you through how you can try to turn it back on. Or a picture of the insides or both.

Thank you so much

 

[amy kemp]

As well as removing the power switch connector from the motherboard, it may also be advisable to remove the front USB header plug from the motherboard too.
What motherboard is it?

Just removing that now thank you. Here is the motherboard

 

[amy kemp]

I've removed the 24pin connecter from the motherboard and I have shorted out pin 3 and pin 4 as per the YouTube video posted above and I'm about to turn it on to see if the PSU is working.
Do I need to do anything else first?

 

[amy kemp]

You can still do that if you like. All you need to do there is turn the PC on at the mains and press the rocker switch on the back of it to see if the fan spins up. It probably will.

I've just powered it up with the shortout wire on pin 3 and 4 and the PSU fan fires up as well as the usb fans. Everything else is disconnected from the board.

(If I run out of 'allowed' comments I'll come back to my last comment and keep editing it)

 

[amy kemp]

Cross your fingers?

Some peoplee recommend removing the other power connectors from the PSU (HDDs, CPU, etc). I never have but up to you.

Fingers were well and truly crossed

Fans all fired up. Everything else was disconnected.

(If I run out of 'allowed' comments I'll come back to my last comment and keep editing it)

 

[amy kemp]

Yeah so it so far is sounding like it may well just be that small little circuit board which does the power/reset/activity led/usb ports which might be fried. If you do as I said above shorting out the pins, it may well fully power up. It's basically powering it up by not using the power button which could be dead.

Before doing what you said above, I don't know whether I should plug the hard drives and all the other connectors that come from the PSU back onto the board and do the short test again? Could it still be an internal fault in the PSU?

 

[amy kemp]

The paper clip test is just literally to test the power supply unit works. You've proved it does.
Next thing is plug everything back how it was and short those pins I said and I reckon it will boot up. If it doesn't, post back, there are other things you can try.

Can I just ask.
If it's possibly the switch panel/led/usb panel at the front of the tower, do I need to disconnect this before powering up just incase the short is still there?

 

[amy kemp]

Yeah where the wires all go into that place above in the image I posted, you can actually pull ALL of those wires out of the main board. So if you want to be safe you can pull out the ones doing the activity LED, reset switch, usb ports etc. Reason I said not to, is it can be a fiddle to get them perfect on the right pins so was trying to keep it simple to start with.

If the short it still there, it is unlikely to do damage, but more likely to simply affect operation of the LED, USB ports and/or reset/power switch. Up to you.

Thank you. If it does kick into life, what do I do then? Is it ok to take the screwdriver straight off?

EDIT I've run out of posts so I am going to have to edit this post everytime I reply.

EDIT I've done the touch test with screwdriver and nothing happened. What step is next please? Thank you so much for your help so far

EDIT everything removed other than one stick of ram and CPU. Still nothing

 

[amy kemp]

Excellent advice from @jaybee.

One thing to remember about the "wire test" on the PSU is that it is only showing that the PSU can provide enough power to spin the fans. One of the tests during boot up is for the motherboard to test that the PSU is providing sufficient voltage by checking the voltage on one of the wires in the power connector that goes to the motherboard. The PSU tester you ordered will show if the PSU is providing a properly good voltage.

Sound like it unfortunately was not the circuit board at the front of the PC that does power/reset/usb/hdd activity stuff. It sounds like the PSU probably does work on the basis that it powers fans up during your test. Whilst it could still have a fault, let's assume it does work for now. The next step really is to try to eliminate what else could have broken. You can either work backwards by starting to take more and more stuff OUT of the case (i.e. Disconnect components) or you can work up from the bare minimum. Easiest for you would be backwards since you are new to this kind of thing. So on the basis you could do the below:

1: Take the graphics card out. Check youtube for how to do it but there will be a little tab again that you have to flick to get it to come out of the slot. You will also have to undo a screw holding it in near backplate. Once removed, you can plug whatever lead you had going to your monitor, directly into the actual motherboard VGA/DVI/HDMI ports which your motherboard does seem to have. This would eliminate the graphics card. You can still leave all of the cables unplugged that connect from the front switch/usb port area to the motherboard. Then again, use the screw driver to bridge the connections to attempt to start it.

2: As above but unplug/remove any drives like nvme drive, sata drives

3: As above but unplug all fans except the one above the CPU that is black and says AMD on it.

4: Try booting with just one single RAM module in the motherboard. Sometimes this requires a specific slot for it to work so you can try both.


Remember the PSU needs to be on in case you have pressed the switch on it to off during your testing.

If after all of the above you still see no life or lights or action, the next thing would be to remove the entire motherboard from the case in case there is water underneath it or a screw/bolt on the case is creating a short against the board or something like that.

If after that it still doesn't work, it's most likely the actual motherboard got broken.

Thank you so much.
Unfortunately nothing worked so I have ordered a new motherboard which fingers crossed should be arriving today.
I actually found a PSU I had in the loft so I didn't order the tester in the end.

I will update once I know more (or have more questions)
But really appreciate everyone's advice, thank you so much

 

[amy kemp]

Motherboard arrived, new case arrived but case is damaged so needs to go back New one should be arriving Tuesday

 

[amy kemp]

let us know if you need any other advice/help

Thank you

 

[amy kemp]

My husband has put the cpu on the new board, ram on the new board, fitted new thermal paste and the cooler.
Tested all of the pin outs for all of their correct voltages on the PSU with a voltmeter.
Now about to bench test this before the new case arrives.....

Ok, all plugged in and nothing happens when screwdriver is touching the pins

So could it be the CPU?

Is it ok to plug in the old CPU (ryzen 3350G pro) from their old system that we know works? Is that ok to try with this new motherboard etc?