Small problem after spill.

[BrettHasbrouck]

I'll bring you up to where I'm at right now.
2 days ago a few drops of Ramen water(salty) spilled over my top case fans while setting it aside. Almost immediately my displays turned off but my computer/peripherals were active. Once I turned my desktop back on I had a message "Please connect PCI-E cables to this graphics card and restart." I removed the GPU and used the on-board graphics for a while. 6 hours later the I could use the GPU as usual but the displays would turn off randomly anywhere from a minute to an hour and I had to restart. Since I started using the GPU again today it's been working perfectly.

But I have a new problem.
My on-board sound doesn't provide any audio, but just sounds like a quiet teapot with intermittent static.
I've used different speakers/headphones. I've ran a different power cable to a separate spot on the wall. I've removed GPU, SSD, RAM, etc. Unplugging the PSU, or disconnecting the MOBO will stop the humming.

Unless something in my description jumps out at you, I'd like to know what to keep in mind if I try to clean out any residual Ramen water. From what I've read I assume the interference is caused by residual conductivity from the spill.

I'm going to brush around the front half of the motherboard where it could have dripped with a clean toothbrush and isopropyl. Any other suggestions?

 

[UsandThem]

Water is conductive. You probably shorted something out. It might be damaged and will cause issues going forward.

You can try to clean it and let it dry for a few days. If you still have odd issues that you didn't have before, you'll have to figure out what got damaged (likely the motherboard).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, that's tough. Ramen error! Have to remember that one.

I had an Antec 300 case, with the blow-hole in the top, that I spilled water into one time, on a multi-GPU machine. Had to dry it out for a week, before it got back to normal with the GPUs.

 

[UsandThem]

Yeah, that's tough. Ramen error! Have to remember that one.

I had an Antec 300 case, with the blow-hole in the top, that I spilled water into one time, on a multi-GPU machine. Had to dry it out for a week, before it got back to normal with the GPUs.

You think you've seen it all until something new pops up. Before this Ramen story, it was the "cat peed on my computer because I left it alone for too long".

Always something new.