Water on mobo :(

[matt2950]

So I was topping up my water cooling res and a decent blob of water dripped on my mobo. The pc was on at the time and it went off straight away. Didn't hear any bangs or the sound of parts friying but I've dried it all up and when I switch it on don't get any signal on screen and fans aren't spinning. My water pump and LEDs come on and I get error code 00 on the back of the mobo. (It's an Asus maximum vii impact)
Anything I can do or does it sound like the board is fried??

 

[Janus67]

I would leave everything unplugged and put the machine into a place where you can be certain it can dry out completely. Leave it that way for a day or overnight/etc.

It's very possible that the water hit something that shorted/fried it and it could be dead (or require some good technical work to fix).


Most importantly, let it be a lesson to not mess with that stuff while the machine is turned on, if there was no power going to the machine while you were topping it off and water hit the motherboard no harm done (assuming it was just water) just wait for it to dry for the most part.

 

[Woomack]

Considering it's really small mobo and power section is first on the way then you probably fried the board. Remove CPU and everything else, check if there are no burned pins etc. Dry it over night and check if it's working.
00 is usually error which is telling that there is no CPU or there is no contact with CPU.
Sometimes changing to LN2 mode and back, slow mode or anything else like that is helping ( I'm not sure what was on that Impact board ).

 

[matt2950]

Got it all dried out and it booted fine worked for bout 20mins but then went off again and now the red cup light is on constant and no signal to screen. Anyway to tell if it's is actually the cpu or the mobo?

 

[Supertrucker]

That it came on for 20 minutes means you probably didn't fry the board the first time. There is however a chance that by not listening to them about leaving it out overnight that you have killed it now. Seriously, unhook everything, pull the cpu out, and let that motherboard sit in a hot dry place for 24 hours.

 

[matt2950]

Already pulled the cpu out and had it drying by a radiator hours before I posted the problem, it was dry before I plugged it back in. If it was still wet it would have shorted straight away not 20mins later. I'm thinking The mobo might be faulty now but would have to by another one before I can try it. Anyway to know for sure?

 

[Woomack]

If you made it work for 20 mins then CPU is probably fine. Maybe try to force flash BIOS ( that recovery option ) for what you don't need CPU. There is a chance that something just "locked" and maybe forcing board to work other way will solve the issue.
If there are no visible damages on board then I think you can make RMA. ASUS support will probably fix it if it's nothing serious. At least I've noticed they are not asking additional questions if you make RMA on ROG boards even if it looks weird. They usually make problems if it's standard board.

 

[matt2950]

Had the board a while how long can you rma after you've bought it? To force flash you need a usb with the bios on right? Problem is this my only pc so can't download the file

 

[Janus67]

Asus boards have at least a 3 year warranty I believe

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Asus boards have at least a 3 year warranty I believe

Probably not covered since it's water damage...

 

[Supertrucker]

Rma is for the length of the warranty, usually 2-5 years depending on brand and model. And yes you need a usb stick with the bios to flash.

But first, a story. When I first watercooled my q6600 back in like 07 or 08, I forgot a hose clamp. The machine passed the cold leak test fine(just the pump on), but when I tested cpu load temps the hose warmed up and slipped off the barb. My motherboard was sprayed with the full contents of my water loop while powered on, while I was at work. Water covered my motherboard and graphics card. I came home and found that, and stripped it apart to let it dry. Left it on the table overnight with a fan blowing on it. Next morning it still didn't work. Put it in a box in my closet and went to frys and bought a new (cheap) cpu and motherboard.

Ran that for a week, all the while being bitter and frustrated because the new mobo just didn't clock as well, but my q6600 had lived. I tried the cheap dual core in my good but water damaged motherboard one last time before throwing it away as a lost cause, and after a week in my closet, it worked. Im not sure how much time between the 12ish hours i gave it overnight and the week or so it got that it really needed to dry, but it clearly took more than 12 hours. Put the q6600 back in and that worked too, that board kept my q6600 at 3.85ghz for some 2 years after that incident.

It's freaking hard to get a motherboard dry without baking it (literally, like in an oven) or just leaving it sit somewhere for a whole lot of time. Because the water can get trapped behind heatsinks, by thermal pads, under the cpu clamp, and all kinds of other places where it won't do anything, unless it moves. Mabye there is just enough under one resistor to lower resistance like the pencil tricks of old or any of a thousand other things. But if you just got your motherboard wet last night or today, you simply haven't given it enough time to dry yet unless you stuffed it in an oven or under a heat lamp or something, which poses it's own risks.

 

[Janus67]

Probably not covered since it's water damage...

I agree, just answering the OPS response to Bart.