pc won't boot after using compressed air

T

Terr0r

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 14, 2004
Messages
275
hello

so i noticed that my pc was really dusty the other day. i took out a can of compressed air and sprayed it all around. when i was cleaning my video card i tipped the can too far and some of the chemical really cold stuff came out and it got on my mobo (i think). now my pc won't boot at all; nothing turns on, it's as if the power signal doesnt get to the motherboard, but when i try and use the manual button on the motherboard itself, still no luck

any suggestions on whats wrong / what to do? anyone have any similar stories? i know cleaning it with compressed air wasnt the best of ideas, but that was then and this is now!

thank you....
 
I don't know if that chemical stuff would cause damage. I'd probably take everything out and start testing stuff incrementally. Take everything out of the case (except dvd drive, hdds.). Start with mobo + psu on a table (wooden), boot it with screwdriver on the pins on the mobo (the two power sw pins on the front bay pins). And work from there - check the error codes if there are any. PS. I hope you waited for the liquid to dry/evaporate (which it probably did quickly???)
 
I've been using an air compressor to dust out my computers for almost a decade now. Never had a problem with using an air compressor.

But the liquid from compressed air... I don't know. I never use this stuff.
 
the liquid shouldnt be a problem because it will turn into a gas almost instantly.. ive gotten it on my hardware before even while my system was running and never had an issue.. id check and make sure you didnt knock any cables loose or forget to reconnect a cable.. also check and make sure you didnt push anything behind the motherboard to cause a short.. maybe you pushed a huge dust ball behind it.. anything could happen..
 
thanks for the feedback guys. that was my initial guess. i started taking apart the computer but ran out of time; tomorrow i'll re-assemble from scratch
 
took everything apart and out of the case, cleaned off the dust, plugged in just the cpu, ram and psu, no boot, no nothing :(

rip?
 
what probably happened is when the frozen chemicals hit the board, it gave the board "freezer burn" which would have the same effect of over heating. it most likely damaged the board and broke some connections. that would be my first guess
 
I doubt it. the stuff evaporates on contact. reseat your memory, the video card and the motherboard power cables.
 
I have gotten that shit on all kinda of hardware & never had an issue... Not even when I was trying to screw hardware up. My guess would be that something isn't on there tight for the power, or you maybe knocked your 4 pin loose & haven't reconnected it..
 
jiminator said:
I doubt it. the stuff evaporates on contact. reseat your memory, the video card and the motherboard power cables.
Click to expand...

did this. reconnected every cable. when i go back i'll look at it again and make sure i connected everything, but i think it's not looking good
 
Just to varify does it post?
If you get nothing, try a different power supply if possible.
If you try a (known working) powersupply and you still get nothing then i would call it rip on the motherboard. Also you did uplug the machine before de-dusting right?? If thats the case it would be impossible for you to short anything, or freezerburn.
 
Did you try swapping PSUs? If you don't have a spare one, you should attempt the paper clip test instead.
 
That blows...

You should really hook up a PC Speaker to the pinout of your motherboard to verify if you get any beeps... If all else fails, clear the cmos, take out the cmos battery, let the motherboard sit by itself for an hour or so, then hook everything back up.
 
stan is right swap to another psu and try to see if it works. my friend killed his psu once dusting it.
 
slight signs of hope: i tried plugging everything back in today and it powered on! 4 debug LED's came on (dfi nf4 ultra-d) which i have heard means it's not detecting the cpu... i'm doing a long cmos reset which i have heard elsewhere has a chance of fixing this.
 
Use it all the time on my computer and never had a issue. Probably knocked some power connectors loose. Maybe your rig was getting old and just happen to take a dump at the same time you cleaned it?
 
I've never heard of a "long" CMOS reset, but you can replace the battery and reset the CMOS afterwards. (I guess you could keep the CMOS jumper in the Reset position for a while, but I never kept it there for longer than a minute.) The CMOS battery is simply a CR2032 watch battery that you can find just about anywhere batteries are sold.
 
a long cmos reset is something i came across when looking up the 4 debug LED issue with my mobo. it's when you leave the cmos jumper in the reset position and take the battery out for 12-24 hours. apparently it has worked for some? i'm not sure if the battery is the problem itself...
 
long reset didn't work... any other suggestions? it now consistently powers on, just 4 LED debug lights

dfi nf4 ultra-d is my mobo
 
In the area where the liquid spilled, I'd heating it up with a hair dryer, one small spot at a time, while repeatedly hitting the reset button. If that gets the mobo to work, even briefly, then inspect that spot with a magnifying glass for cracked solder joints or tiny surface mount components. If the mobo doesn't work, inspect the whole area with a magnifier.

As the very, very last resort, remove all the parts and run a heat gun over the area where the liquid spilled, but be really careful to not melt any plastic or melt any solder too much -- it's easy to do that. Work outdoors, where there's no roof overhead, because burning circuit board fiberglass smells terrible.
 
I know this probably isn't going to help, but I had a similar issue with my Nforce4 SLI board. One day it was working, and I moved it into anther case and it broke...

It wasn't totally broken. Apparently moving it killed the ram slots. I only had 1 slot working and later on it died.

I really suggest hooking up a PC speaker to the board to see if you are getting any sort of beeping from it.

If you REALLY want to know what's going on with the board, buy or borrow a POST Card. They are like $5 on ebay. (I am not promoting that seller. I'm just giving an example.)

POST cards give me a better visual example of how far into a post the board is actually going, even if the motherboard doesn't show video. Though the LED's on your board are good, a real POST card is better, and is a tool all techs should have in their toolbox.

Also, when you are testing your board, DON'T test it in the case. you need to test the board when it's not mounted to anything. Test it in a fashion similar to this.
 
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When you took the system apart, did you physically remove the CPU, and then put it back in? I would reseat the CPU.
 
Not sure if you did this -- but do the paper clip test on your PSU. You must make sure your PSU works, otherwise everything after it won't work.

If your PSU works, that's good. Take out the battery and put it aside (you won't need it until you figure out what's wrong). Your computer should still turn on or give some indication of life if your CPU is dead. Make sure you have no HDDs, CD/DVD-ROM drives, or any PCI/AGP/PCI-E/PCI-X cards plugged in. Take out your RAM too. The only thing that should be plugged in is the PSU to the motherboard, CPU, and the power button connectors.

Try and turn your computer on. If the power button isn't doing anything, you need to examine the connection between the PSU's plugin to the motherboard to the connector pins for the power button. If you have a voltmeter, this would be a good time to check to see if your power button's circuit is broken or not. If it isn't broken, then the problem lies somewhere on the motherboard.

Story relevant to last sentence of previous paragraph: There was this motherboard I bought from someone here on these forums that I needed to replace in a client's machine. The motherboard wouldn't power. I tried everything that I said above, nothing worked. Then I was on the verge of giving up and tinkered with a pin connector on the motherboard -- just took it out (it was in a 3x1 array of pins on the motherboard).. then hit the power button and it came to life! Donno, you could play around with this to see if it makes a difference (just remember where the pin connectors were by default LOL).

If you can't get past this, I would say your motherboard is faulty or dead.
 
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