My Computer does not boot after vacuuming

[Cleankill]

I have a A7N8X-X & 2500 Athlon XP. Recently i vacuumed some dust in the mb and surronding area, and now my computer does not boot. But the Onboard LED lights-ON? any ideas? thx

 

[one-shot]

I'd hate to say this but LOL. Vacuums and electronics are bad friends. Like Water and electricity. They should be kept apart at ALL times. The static from the vacuum could have fried your pc. Good luck and I hope this may be a lesson well learned.

 

[Cleankill]

lol... really... i have done this many many times...

 

[stoner133]

Then you were very lucky in the past but your past may have caught up with you. Vacuming causes air to move and air moving builds static electicity. Static electricity causes shorts when its grounded out to the wronge spot. You should always use canned air made for blowing out computers. It has added compounds to keep this from happening.

But one more thing you should check, make sure you didn't knock any connections loose. You could be lucky and find thats the problem, if so count yourself very lucky and next time do it right.

Edit: you also don't want to use a home air compressor to clean out your computer. Air compressors get water & oil into the air supply. Two more compounds that don't mix well with electronics.

 

[jerreece]

So there's an inherent problem with vacuums and dust and electronics. Vacuums stir up dust, create static electricity, etc. There's a good chance you created some static spark that shorted something in the motherboard, memory, etc.

You'll have to do some troubleshooting and possibly replacing of parts to be sure which part is dead. But probably is your motherboard.

 

[evilshuriken]

One-shot is right man, that's not really a good idea...
They say using an air compressor can do the same thing, but I've used this method for years without incident. Maybe I've been lucky?

 

[mbbs20]

it could be al lthat but it could simply be a loose connection as well...y dont u give us some insight to the problem in a bit of detail....like does the processor fan and other stuff like hard drives spin....does your comp make the same kind of noise as it did before or is it quieter (meaning fans are not working)...there can be a lot of reasons apart from the static spark mentioned by others

 

[stoner133]

Yes you too have been very lucky, not only risking static buildup but damage from water & oil causing shorts as well. Even the best filtering systems for air compressors can't remove water and oil completely.

 

[HVDynamo]

I have been using the Compressor method on my computers for years as well without any problem on both my computers and my friends, I just don't use a very high pressure, I scale it down to about 30psi or less and I don't blow very close to the motherboard itself. I suppose a compressor can build static electricity, but vacuums are much more likely because the dirt rubs against the plastic hose which generates a significant amount of static to the point where its noticeable, whereas the amount of static generated just from the moving air and the dust would be too minimal to be a problem I believe, but to be safe I don't bring the nozzle to close the the components. So if you got the end of the vacuum too close to the components of the motherboard it is very likely that a static charge could jump and cause problems. Good luck solving the problem, I would check the connections like the others have suggested as well, and if you have extra components that would work, try those as well. Good Luck!

 

[Zorg]

If you didn't use the brush attachment and rub it all over your components it is very unlikely that you damaged your machine with static.

Check for a loose wire or something else that came loose.

 

[apache_lives]

its an old computer, check for blown capacitors or burn patches etc, and yes static is a killer/damager

 

[Cleankill]

thanks for all the input... i will avoid vacuuming from now on... i just remember i have put another power supply(free used one) prior to vacuum. Something intersting was that i notice the CPU fan spin (half-circle) when on turn powersupply. Then later, i press the power button and it did not work. Was that the reason why my mb is toasted?

 

[Zorg]

It sounds like you are either using a junk PSU or you have a short somewhere.

Try building the bare minimum on a piece of cardboard outside of the case. That will rule out a short.

 

[Cleankill]

Another interesting pt is that the Onboard LED lights is ON when the PSU is ON. So i guess the mb is not totally fried. I checked the cables/jumper for mislocation and could not able to find any blown capacitor...lol...

 

[Zorg]

If the LED stays on then it's not a short, at least not a short that is overloading the PSU. Default the BIOS (clear CMOS).

 

[apache_lives]

If the LED stays on then it's not a short, at least not a short that is overloading the PSU. Default the BIOS (clear CMOS).

reseat the video card and ram and post back (like totally take them out, try with just one stick of ram and a video card etc)

 

[Cleankill]

how to clear CMOS?

 

[Cleankill]

reseat the video card and ram and post back (like totally take them out, try with just one stick of ram and a video card etc)

tried but still not working

 

[Zorg]

how to clear CMOS?

It probably won't fix it, but it's worth a shot.

 

[ShawnMo5]

I wanted to post on here, a forum I utilized, when encountering black screen/crashing issues I was having.

the black screen issue seems to be resolved after some minor changes which I will explain.

I have a rather odd set of circumstances that I will explain. I want to keep this clean, clear, and easy to navigate.

First, here are my specs:
1. I recently upgraded my PC components:
a. New SSD - Samsung (MZ-V7S1T0B/AM) 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB.
b. New CPU - Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 8-Core.
c. New Mobo - MSI MPG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC LGA 1151 (300 Series).
d. New CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition CPU Air Cooler

2. Older components still utilized in my build are:
a. GPU Nvidia geforce 970 - EVGA GeForce GTX 970 04G-P4-3975-KR 4GB SSC GAMING w/ACX 2.0+.
b. 750 W PSU - Hand me down from ~2016. Don't know exact spec.
c. 16 gb Ram - G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB).

History:
Long story short, I vacuumed the exterior of my metal mesh computer case while the computer was on. Yes... I vacuumed my computer.... My computer instantly black screened. This is an extremely bad idea. Do not recommend. The computer turned back on but would crash randomly, whether I am checking emails for work or playing a highly, CPU and GPU intensive, video game. I feared I may have fried my newly added components to the computer and ruined something or everything. Nothing was overheating during use, it strictly appeared to be occurring randomly. I ran many stress test and would monitor task management during video games (on my 2nd monitor). When a crash occurred, both monitors would go back, and audio would appear to glitch out, I could actually still hear my friends talking on discord. I would need to do a hard restart.

My resolution:
I powered off the machine the other day after 3 crashes within a short time span. I began to comb the internet for solutions and my attention was zeroing in on anything from, I destroyed my components, to PSU issues, to GPU issues. It was suggested on one site to do the basic check that all plugs were accounted for and fully plugged in. I just installed that new MOBO ~2-3 months ago, so this sounded within reason. I did notice that my GPU plug from the MOBO was ever-so-slightly not fully connected. I corrected this. I also read to remove and replace RAM sticks. I did this. Double checked all my connections and powered back on. it's been about 48 hours with no crashes. I've been playing games like Planetside 2, Rocket League, and Lord of the Rings Online and utilizing my computer for work per usual. These were all activities that would conjure a black screen crash and a hard restart. So far, no issues about 48 hours later.

I hope this helps some because it is a very frustrating situation I was researching for about a month or more. I had just thrown down a good chunk of change on new components and thought I would need to invest some more money in the immediate future. After my "researching" I was leaning towards a PSU replacement, possibly GPU (which are a pain to get at the moment). Hopefully I have thwarted those efforts for now and only needed to do activities I listed above.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[USAFRet]

I wanted to post on here, a forum I utilized, when encountering black screen/crashing issues I was having.

Please start a NEW thread for your particular situation.

This one is 13 years old.