Man I screwed up! Fried Motherboard

well, after trying to fix my print and boot up problem i tried to swap a drive and while the case was open (quicksilver), i took a sip of water and bumped my hand on my desk, splash went the water, not really much but enough to get on the mother board near the battery, ata connections and the main power connector with the black rubber boot.

I dried it off as best as i could with a towel, just dabbing it, and now it wont boot at all, the monitor doesn't turn or or nothing. the only thing that runs are the fans.

is there any breaker or fuse that protect the mother board? is there a fuse/breaker at the powersupply that protects anything although the fan still runs?

I know these systems can get condensation on the board which is pretty much the same thing, when that happens...what happens?

Lastly, i also reset the pmu button thats right above the secondary IDE connectors under the superdrive, can this have something to do with it.

please dont mock me, i am stupid for doing this and am very upset, its a dual 1.25ghz with my editing s#*t on it, im outta work and cannot afford to buy a new one, hopefully i can fix it somehow such as reset something or let it dry or just change the motherboard cause i did notice a capacitor next to the power cable that connects to the mother board looks to have browish like corrosion/burn fryin the capacitor (the big connector with the black rubber boot next to the cpu/heat sink in the lower center of the mb.)

f*!ck!!!!!!

Posted on Sep 15, 2005 10:42 AM

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2 replies

Sep 16, 2005 11:56 AM in response to job smith

Sorry about your machine. I totally understand. KNow how you must feel.

I can tell you only that the protocol I follow in that sort of situation (was servicing a laptop on a boat once and you can imagine...). Gotta pull the power as quickly as possible. I've also use a blow dryer instead of towels.

The cuda button(s) on the board I am told completely drain the power from the motherboard. Thinking in reverse, even if the machine is disconnected quickly from power, there's still voltage in the board.

I'm guessing your not getting start up tone. And if you're seeing burn or corosion I'd say you've done some toasting. But you may still have viable data on the hard drive.

I do not know of a fix, I am sorry.

Sep 16, 2005 12:14 PM in response to Gordon Kaplan

Pull the power REAL FAST. Dab with towel (I find disposible kitchen towels are the best; toilet paper is too fine and cotton can leave threads), do not use blow dryer (this can damage the circuit board by heating up one area too quickly compared to the rest of the circuit board, causing soldered joints to pull apart or crack).

The original poster said in a later thread that he got it up and running again. He was lucky. I don't keep food near the computer when its case is open.

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Man I screwed up! Fried Motherboard

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