This weekend I had a problem with a water chilling project.
The system is the one in my SIG an I was replacing my dual radiators with this uber water chiller http://www.ftssystems.com/multicoolbath.htm
and I was going to eliminate my res as well since the chiller has a 1.5 gal res and I was installing my Eheim 1250 inside the chiller res.
Everything started out OK. I plumbed my loop, filled the chiller with the uber Prestone windshield washer fluid good to -40 and ran it for 24 hours with no leaks with power turned off on my rig. I didn't have the chiller going at the time since I wasn't insulated against condensation yet (possibly a fatal error!).
Next I removed my mother board and covered all the chips, slots, connectors, jumpers and the CPU socket pin holes with masking tape.
I then proceeded to spray down the board front and back with KonForm SR conformal coating (following the directions on the can - 3 light coatings on each side rotating the board 90° each time) and watited for the coating to dry. I removed all of the tape and filled the CPU socket pin holes and the void in the center with dielectric grease.
Next I reinstalled my motherboard. I covered all of the tubing with pipe insulation and sealed the ends with RTV silicone. I filled the CPU socket pin holes with dielectric grease as well as the void in the center. At this point I decided to power it up and test it before covering the socket area with foram which would make it difficult to see anything. I turned on the chiller and pump and the the PC. I wasn't getting any power to the MB and it took me a while to figure out that the ATX power jumper was off by on pin. Once this was solved I was able to power up and noticed a slight leak from the CPU block. The PC itself started momentarily and then shut down. It appeared that most of the washer fluid had landed on my video card.
I shut everything off an went to work with a hairdryer. I fixed the leak by coating the tubing with dielectric grease where it entered the cpu block and did this on all the other swiftech quick connect fitting thinking that the rubber seal might be shrinking or getting brittle with the cold temp. No more leaks after that. Unfortunately it will now power up (power led lights up on the MB and the NIC) and the fans and everything start up but I can't hear it post and ther is no video. The voice reporter doesn't make any sound. It does so hear noise from my floppy so it may be seeking.
At this point I had my brother bring over his rig which I built for him.
A7N8X-E Deluxe, 3200+ Barton, etc.. and we swapped in my video card, CPU and RAM with all operating normally. We did try his video card (a 9800XT and an old nVidia GeF 4 MX400 PCI I had laing around and still no video).
I have also tryed resetting CMOS and switching the FSB jumper to 100.
Unfortunately I gave away my system with a TBird 1.2 so I don't have an old 100 MHz FSB chip to use.
Any suggestions? Or should I just assume that my MB is toast? I don't think an RMA is an option, ethics aside, since I have coated the board and have replaced the NB cooling and have epoxied on SB cooling! This is very bad timming since I have just gone through a series of financial setbacks. If I don't have to replace my MB I would really prefer not to!
Also my wife is giving me endless grief. You know the tale .. Why did you have to go that extra mile? Your system was super fast already and worked without any problems ... blah blah blah ...
I have read the stickies on BIOS death which do bear some similarities to my symptoms but I'm not really sure that's whats going on here. Once again, any suggestion that you might have would be greatly appreciated.
Bookmarks