Need help with computer after "probable damages"

[Noctosphere]

Hello everyone,

Last week, a flooding occured in my appartment when the occupant of the appartment above me had their plumbing damaged
So water started leaking from my ceiling. Lots of water leaked right on my desk, my monitor being on it and the desktop tower under it
When i first saw the leaks, i unplugged everything. I then seeked for help with insurances and other tech support.
Right now, i'd like to know whats happening in my computer. Here is whats happening with it when i turn it on
First, it boots well, everything goes fine, except that there is a noise coming out of the tower.
Few minutes later (2 or 3), everything reboots on their own, except that the monitor stays in sleep mode.
It then rebooted again few minutes later again, i saw it with my gpu led turning off and on quickly.
And then, nothing more happens, i hear the gpu and the fans running, but thats it.
I also noticed that the longer i let my computer off and unplugged, the longer it stays on when i turn it back on. I can go on windows and browse a bit before it restarts.

Anyone knows what is happening exactly? With the details i gave, can you guys give me an idea of which part of my pc might have been damaged?
Just need to say that all hard drive seem to be ok, i managed to browse them a bit before it restarts, and datas seemed to be alright at the moment.

Thanks

 

[fringle]

If I had to guess it sounds like a bad or shorting capacitor, possibly in the power supply. Once it gets fully charged it shorts out. Leaving the system off allows the capacitor to discharge and thus it works again until power is restored to it and it starts the cycle over.

 

[FAST6191]

It can also be trapped water that goes somewhere, only to get warmed up by the power to the thing and short back out, cooling off then allows you to use it for longer.
Repair of that is doable but cost wise it is going to get up there -- you might get away with ultrasonic cleaning and drying but if you start having to remove chips, possibly replace some or diagnose things without a service manual (not like companies send those out to those that want them) then oh dear. If you have not left it somewhere fairly hot with some rice or silica gel then maybe do that as well.

Depending upon which insurance you are covered by (person above, your own and landlord's all being options in this) you might get a full like for like or even new for old replacement and thus might not have to bother doing much ehre. Cost of repair might also see such a thing become even more likely.
Do find any receipts you have for parts, and if it is more off the shelf then be aware of current prices if the insurance company decides to pull a fast one (when you are the one to investigate the accident, pay out the money and investigate yourself for misconduct then they do it by default).
You might also find you can accelerate the process if it is something you need for work, for medical reasons (it is my main outlet the world because of my touch of the 'tism and what have you), whatever local regs say they need to sort things out by (UK has some fairly strict time limits so often if the price is low enough they will pay out even if they know it is fraudulent)...

If you are on your own then standard procedures apply.
Take everything off but the bare minimum you need to boot it (if you have not backed your hard drive up yet then best do that, or indeed leave it out and boot off a USB or something). Build back up until you identify some possible problem parts, or better yet try them in another computer, and replace those instead.

Somewhat curious that this happened though -- normally if you pull power immediately then most things get saved once you dry it out.

 

[Kwyjor]

If I had to take a guess, maybe something's overheating? I think HWINFO is the preferred means of tracking temperature.

If that's the case, maybe re-applying thermal paste on your CPU would help.

 

[Hayato213]

Hello everyone,

Last week, a flooding occured in my appartment when the occupant of the appartment above me had their plumbing damaged
So water started leaking from my ceiling. Lots of water leaked right on my desk, my monitor being on it and the desktop tower under it
When i first saw the leaks, i unplugged everything. I then seeked for help with insurances and other tech support.
Right now, i'd like to know whats happening in my computer. Here is whats happening with it when i turn it on
First, it boots well, everything goes fine, except that there is a noise coming out of the tower.
Few minutes later (2 or 3), everything reboots on their own, except that the monitor stays in sleep mode.
It then rebooted again few minutes later again, i saw it with my gpu led turning off and on quickly.
And then, nothing more happens, i hear the gpu and the fans running, but thats it.
I also noticed that the longer i let my computer off and unplugged, the longer it stays on when i turn it back on. I can go on windows and browse a bit before it restarts.

Anyone knows what is happening exactly? With the details i gave, can you guys give me an idea of which part of my pc might have been damaged?
Just need to say that all hard drive seem to be ok, i managed to browse them a bit before it restarts, and datas seemed to be alright at the moment.

Thanks

Things as you can try right now take out the gpu and see if it work onboard, take out all but one of the ram stick and see if it stay on, may as well check for any corrosion on the board, and do a cpu thermal paste repaste if it is dry. If you can narrow down what parts need to be replace it would save you some money.

 

[Noctosphere]

It can also be trapped water that goes somewhere, only to get warmed up by the power to the thing and short back out, cooling off then allows you to use it for longer.
Repair of that is doable but cost wise it is going to get up there -- you might get away with ultrasonic cleaning and drying but if you start having to remove chips, possibly replace some or diagnose things without a service manual (not like companies send those out to those that want them) then oh dear. If you have not left it somewhere fairly hot with some rice or silica gel then maybe do that as well.

Depending upon which insurance you are covered by (person above, your own and landlord's all being options in this) you might get a full like for like or even new for old replacement and thus might not have to bother doing much ehre. Cost of repair might also see such a thing become even more likely.
Do find any receipts you have for parts, and if it is more off the shelf then be aware of current prices if the insurance company decides to pull a fast one (when you are the one to investigate the accident, pay out the money and investigate yourself for misconduct then they do it by default).
You might also find you can accelerate the process if it is something you need for work, for medical reasons (it is my main outlet the world because of my touch of the 'tism and what have you), whatever local regs say they need to sort things out by (UK has some fairly strict time limits so often if the price is low enough they will pay out even if they know it is fraudulent)...

If you are on your own then standard procedures apply.
Take everything off but the bare minimum you need to boot it (if you have not backed your hard drive up yet then best do that, or indeed leave it out and boot off a USB or something). Build back up until you identify some possible problem parts, or better yet try them in another computer, and replace those instead.

Somewhat curious that this happened though -- normally if you pull power immediately then most things get saved once you dry it out.

Thanks for the answer.
For the last paragraph, i was already aware of that, but the main problem was that it wasn't only water, there was cleaning products in it.
When i got flooded, there was a strong smell of bleach in my whole appartment

As for my insurances, they only asked me the value of my pc, or rather the value of it when i bought it. I gave an approximation by including how much i paid for the main part, then added a couple of hundread bucks for the other parts, and added the cost for building it. Thats pretty much how it works here, they only ask for the value of what has been damaged. Depending on the company, the customer will have to pay a certain amount. In most case, this amount is between 300 and 500$. So if i declare 3000$ of damages, they will refund 2700$ since i have to pay the first 300$.
But i already declared some damages. My climatiser has been damaged, and just that will cover the 300$ i have to pay.
So yea, no trouble for the insurance par

Post automatically merged: Jul 17, 2023

Things as you can try right now take out the gpu and see if it work onboard, take out all but one of the ram stick and see if it stay on, may as well check for any corrosion on the board, and do a cpu thermal paste repaste if it is dry. If you can narrow down what parts need to be replace it would save you some money.

No money need to be saved, insurances are on the case

 

[FAST6191]

The money you pay before they take care of the rest is called an excess in English. Fairly standard, though 300 is on the higher side.

Cleaning products can trouble things but I would not necessarily expect it on this timeline, does make a greater case for taking it to an electronics repair shop with ultrasonic for proper cleaning and drying.

I will however say other than maybe the case it could be worth considering replacing many things -- water damage can be one of those things that only shows in the longer term (the trapped water from before can cause all sorts of fun in the long term as it migrates and oxidises things, or even prevents things from being oxidised* which is actually worse). If you submit the claim now it can be very hard to go back and get extras out of them, and indeed that is one of the things they rely upon to stop you from getting your due. That they also seem to expect you to diagnose your own failures in parts saying much there as well -- I am sure you met a builder or plumber as part of this already and I assure you they have computer experts able to come out and assess things if they cared as well. In case nobody ever told you then insurance companies are horrible things, will try to trick you, con you and weasel their way out of paying in every way they can, probably offer you less than the amount you asked for, maybe get you to use their preferred vendor when a cheque would do better and much more besides. I recall before you had a thing where you wanted to sell a laptop but the guy tried to fake a lower price, you only just realising and getting out of there -- that is but a playground slap fight compared to what the insurance company will try to pull so get someone that knows how they work in your corner.


*there is an experiment you will sometimes see when learning about oxidation called the water drop experiment. In it you put a drop of water on some steel or something and go away, you will get a nice ring close to the edges but further in it will not as it has used up all the oxygen and instead sits there eating the metal away without the limited benefit of rust to protect it. Make the solution strongly basic (like bleach would, and if it is strong I would guess they were trying to clear a blocked pipe and it got out of hand as the main other reason is electric shorted making an ozone generator) or get some salts floating around in there and we are off to the races.

 

[Noctosphere]

The money you pay before they take care of the rest is called an excess in English. Fairly standard, though 300 is on the higher side.

Cleaning products can trouble things but I would not necessarily expect it on this timeline, does make a greater case for taking it to an electronics repair shop with ultrasonic for proper cleaning and drying.

I will however say other than maybe the case it could be worth considering replacing many things -- water damage can be one of those things that only shows in the longer term (the trapped water from before can cause all sorts of fun in the long term as it migrates and oxidises things, or even prevents things from being oxidised* which is actually worse). If you submit the claim now it can be very hard to go back and get extras out of them, and indeed that is one of the things they rely upon to stop you from getting your due. That they also seem to expect you to diagnose your own failures in parts saying much there as well -- I am sure you met a builder or plumber as part of this already and I assure you they have computer experts able to come out and assess things if they cared as well. In case nobody ever told you then insurance companies are horrible things, will try to trick you, con you and weasel their way out of paying in every way they can, probably offer you less than the amount you asked for, maybe get you to use their preferred vendor when a cheque would do better and much more besides. I recall before you had a thing where you wanted to sell a laptop but the guy tried to fake a lower price, you only just realising and getting out of there -- that is but a playground slap fight compared to what the insurance company will try to pull so get someone that knows how they work in your corner.


*there is an experiment you will sometimes see when learning about oxidation called the water drop experiment. In it you put a drop of water on some steel or something and go away, you will get a nice ring close to the edges but further in it will not as it has used up all the oxygen and instead sits there eating the metal away without the limited benefit of rust to protect it. Make the solution strongly basic (like bleach would, and if it is strong I would guess they were trying to clear a blocked pipe and it got out of hand as the main other reason is electric shorted making an ozone generator) or get some salts floating around in there and we are off to the races.

Thanks for your answer
First of all, you say 300$ of excess if on the higher side, what do you mean exactly? That it is a high amount? Because if so, i'd really like to know the average excess where you live. Here, 300$ is very low.
As for all the legal stuff, i doubt there will be major problem as how much i asked is around 3000$, which is far from that much when you consider the kind of claims we can see around.
However, i guess you know the expression "ok boomer"? Well that thing about insurances who dont want to pay is one of the thing we blame boomers of. A couple of decades ago, in 80's 90's, there was a big wave of false claim to insurances and i can even witness. My father was one of those boomers. When our garage got busted and robbed, he did a claim to the insurances and there were so many thing on his list he never ever had. Insurances didnt do any verification and refunded him everything. There was stuff we could never afford with him gambling every penny we had.
It was a common thing for this generation, and it is one of the many thing we blame boomers for, because today, there are verifications over oververifications to be sure to not overpay their clients...

 

[JuanMena]

I've had the restarting on its own and staying in sleeping mode problem before. It was my fan/cooler.

Computers shuts down after reaching a certain temperature, so if your cooler is failing to cool down the motherboard, it'll shut down as protection.

Might also be a capacitor that might've blown, maybe a resistor failing to deliver energy to a certain part of the motherboard, but this is just a guessing game until you take a multimeter and check every conponent to see if they're receiving enough power to function.

Your monitor... did you let it dry completely? Have you disassembled it to clean it? Check for rust or oxide maybe?

Post automatically merged: Jul 17, 2023

Also, it's your landlord's fault. The fucker must do any repairs on pipes to make sure everything is working properly in his fucking building.

Unless, it's like, in my place where I already own the apartment (but not the building since it's government's) then if something happens in my apartment, then I'm responsible because I already own it.

Make sure you know that information (who owns your apartment, or the building in it's entirety) and let them know that it's their responsibility to make sure everything is working fine in the building.
Or in the case of your upstairs neighbours, it's the fault of whoever they're paying to stay in the apartment... since, they must be renting an apartment in optimal conditions, including it's services (water, gas, electricity, etc.)

 

[Noctosphere]

I've had the restarting on its own and staying in sleeping mode problem before. It was my fan/cooler.

Computers shuts down after reaching a certain temperature, so if your cooler is failing to cool down the motherboard, it'll shut down as protection.

Might also be a capacitor that might've blown, maybe a resistor failing to deliver energy to a certain part of the motherboard, but this is just a guessing game until you take a multimeter and check every conponent to see if they're receiving enough power to function.

Your monitor... did you let it dry completely? Have you disassembled it to clean it? Check for rust or oxide maybe?

Post automatically merged: Jul 17, 2023

Also, it's your landlord's fault. The fucker must do any repairs on pipes to make sure everything is working properly in his fucking building.

Unless, it's like, in my place where I already own the apartment (but not the building since it's government's) then if something happens in my apartment, then I'm responsible because I already own it.

Make sure you know that information (who owns your apartment, or the building in it's entirety) and let them know that it's their responsibility to make sure everything is working fine in the building.
Or in the case of your upstairs neighbours, it's the fault of whoever they're paying to stay in the apartment... since, they must be renting an apartment in optimal conditions, including it's services (water, gas, electricity, etc.)

Hello juan,
According to law in our province, when it is related to appartment, if there is damages such as the ones i had, then it depends on responsibilities.
Everything i own is covered by my insurances. Damages on the building, the ceiling in my case, is covered by the landlord's insurances.
However, the law also says that if the landlord really is to blame, then he would have to pay the excess (i think that's how Fast called it), the rest is paid by my insurances. In this case however, the landlord doesnt seem to be the one to blame, it rather seems to be the previous people who inhabited the appartment

 

[Kwyjor]

The money you pay before they take care of the rest is called an excess in English.

Isn't that the "deductible" ?

 

[AncientBoi]

[wonders if Watermarks can short a circuit]

Have you checked the Motherboard?

 

[SylverReZ]

The motherboard could have some water damage. Best to check for damaged traces and blown components.

 

[Noctosphere]

Just got news of my computer (or rather, i asked for news because i didnt have any, and they said they were trying to reach me for two days, but i dont have any voicemail or incoming call from them)
They say it's the motherboard. Im really worried because they said they can't test anything else unless the motherboard is changed. I asked if they tested the power supply, they said they did and it really is the motherboard. I asked if fans were running, they said they do but they can't really test anything
When i asked if they could turn it on even for a few minutes, they said no they couldn't get any images.
They then said they "noticed" i removed some part of my computer. When i said no, they said "oh nevermind, i see you do have a 3.5 hdd". I said i had more than that, i had another 3.5 hdd and a 2.5 ssd, he said he didn't see any...

I'm starting to fear a bit

 

[Hayato213]

Just got news of my computer (or rather, i asked for news because i didnt have any, and they said they were trying to reach me for two days, but i dont have any voicemail or incoming call from them)
They say it's the motherboard. Im really worried because they said they can't test anything else unless the motherboard is changed. I asked if they tested the power supply, they said they did and it really is the motherboard. I asked if fans were running, they said they do but they can't really test anything
When i asked if they could turn it on even for a few minutes, they said no they couldn't get any images.
They then said they "noticed" i removed some part of my computer. When i said no, they said "oh nevermind, i see you do have a 3.5 hdd". I said i had more than that, i had another 3.5 hdd and a 2.5 ssd, he said he didn't see any...

I'm starting to fear a bit

Based on what they said I probably say it is the board too.

 

[terrha]

How sad, I saw your story now, do you have some experience in PC assembly, if so, in your case I would disassemble everything, remove everything from the processor, even the SHIPset and Mosfets dividers from the processor and the BIOS battery, after that I washed it with water and neutral detergent, then left it in the sun for a day and that fixed it, piped water is treated with various heavy chemical elements such as chlorine that settle very easily on the tracks and spheres causing a malfunction, but now it's too late.

 

[CMDreamer]

Before even trying to turn it on, you should've cleaned it and removed all watermarks from all over it, then dry it throughly.

You might've caused the damage, and everytime you turn it on without doing the correct thing, you're damaging it even more.

My advice is to dissasemble it and clean it throughly and then remove the most watermarks you find before letting it dry.

 

[JuanMena]

Just got news of my computer (or rather, i asked for news because i didnt have any, and they said they were trying to reach me for two days, but i dont have any voicemail or incoming call from them)
They say it's the motherboard. Im really worried because they said they can't test anything else unless the motherboard is changed. I asked if they tested the power supply, they said they did and it really is the motherboard. I asked if fans were running, they said they do but they can't really test anything
When i asked if they could turn it on even for a few minutes, they said no they couldn't get any images.
They then said they "noticed" i removed some part of my computer. When i said no, they said "oh nevermind, i see you do have a 3.5 hdd". I said i had more than that, i had another 3.5 hdd and a 2.5 ssd, he said he didn't see any...

I'm starting to fear a bit

Man, you should've taken some pics at the place with everything your case had.
I can't believe the shitty attitude from the repair service.


Can't you just get a brand new computer? At this point, just get a new one.

 

[FAST6191]

Just got news of my computer (or rather, i asked for news because i didnt have any, and they said they were trying to reach me for two days, but i dont have any voicemail or incoming call from them)
They say it's the motherboard. Im really worried because they said they can't test anything else unless the motherboard is changed. I asked if they tested the power supply, they said they did and it really is the motherboard. I asked if fans were running, they said they do but they can't really test anything
When i asked if they could turn it on even for a few minutes, they said no they couldn't get any images.
They then said they "noticed" i removed some part of my computer. When i said no, they said "oh nevermind, i see you do have a 3.5 hdd". I said i had more than that, i had another 3.5 hdd and a 2.5 ssd, he said he didn't see any...

I'm starting to fear a bit

If this is some kind of vaguely modern PC using more or less off the shelf efforts then the computer shop not being able to test means they are a lousy computer shop to be undertaking this kind of work. They should have a few motherboards around they can transplant the CPU and RAM and whatever into, do a few burn in/stress tests (you don't need a matching gamer grade setup for that, off the shelf consumer grade should do the trick*). Johnny the field tech that knows enough to clear viruses from grandma's computer, set up wordpress, slap a modem such that it works with random CCTV from China, reseat RAM and replace thermal paste... might not maintain a setup like that but a proper shop expecting to deal with insurance should do it by default.

If this was some custom water cooled setup, mega gaming rig with each part hand fitted and tuned or an ancient 386 thing all the kids seem to want these days then that might be forgivable.

So you have Intel and AMD that are largely incompatible. Every 3 years or so they release a new socket type, new RAM types about the same frequency but different overlap. If you need to do ECC for workstation and server types then might need some more. That is nothing to maintain a reference library for, even more so if you are taking trade ins or disposing old machines, and you don't even need to have everything on the same board/interacting together for many of those either (memtest86 fails on one type it is probably dead on all of them in case you have DDR4 ram but the board they have with your CPU is only DDR3 or something).

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Just got news of my computer (or rather, i asked for news because i didnt have any, and they said they were trying to reach me for two days, but i dont have any voicemail or incoming call from them)
They say it's the motherboard. Im really worried because they said they can't test anything else unless the motherboard is changed. I asked if they tested the power supply, they said they did and it really is the motherboard. I asked if fans were running, they said they do but they can't really test anything
When i asked if they could turn it on even for a few minutes, they said no they couldn't get any images.
They then said they "noticed" i removed some part of my computer. When i said no, they said "oh nevermind, i see you do have a 3.5 hdd". I said i had more than that, i had another 3.5 hdd and a 2.5 ssd, he said he didn't see any...

I'm starting to fear a bit

I was about to say it's probably the PSU or motherboard, just because those are the places that deal directly with power delivery and they have big vulnerable areas for water ingress. The CPU is unlikely to be damaged, because it's small and it's covered by a heatsink and it's sealed with glue/silicone anyway. RAM could be damaged but would be unlikely to cause reboots, it's more likely the system just wouldn't boot, and the same thing with the GPU as well.
But my first suspicion would indeed be the motherboard. If something was malfunctioning in the PSU, there are enough safeguards in a decent PSU that it would probably simply cut power to prevent damage to other components, but it probably wouldn't be rebooting, it would just turn off. A PSU is a "dumb" device in a sense, it doesn't care what the rest of the system is doing as long as the PSU is not being overloaded, its only job is to turn on and off on demand, but the motherboard is what controls reboot/reset and tells other parts of the system to turn on and off, how much voltage should be provided to the RAM, chipset, CPU, etc... It's a lot more intelligent than a PSU so there is a lot more to go wrong.