Is this shorted board recoverable?

Greets all. I'm looking for expert information. None of you A+ jerks.

#1 - I've shorted out a motherboard before many years ago without standoffs. That computer reset itself every 3 seconds. Anything connected via a slot was destroyed. Anything connected via a wire was recoverable.

#2 - My brother's computer: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe. He spilled beer into a blowhole case fan which spilled onto my 2900Pro. My brother says the entire thing is shot. His power supply is destroyed, because I have a PSU tester. My 2900Pro he got beer on, also works. I'm using it at this very second. So I know that it's an isolated short somewhere. I scrubbed the old beer off my 2900 where I could see it, and everything worked fine. I cannot see a single drop of dried beer on the mobo. A few of the solder spots on the mobo (not the underside) are copper colored, but i'm assuming this is from heat.

#3 - When I put MY power supply in and leave the 4-pin regulator out, everything turns on nicely and spins at the highest RPM, obviously indicating something is missing - my point being that it runs. When I add the 4-pin, all the LED's blink and it shuts off instantly. The PSU tester will not turn on the PSU until it has been off for a few seconds without electricity. The LED on the motherboard never falters however.

#4 - What I don't understand, is that if the beer spilled on the right side of the motherboard, where the ram, 24-pin connector, and end of the GPU is (as well as it's own power connections), and the computer turns on without the 4-pin, why then does it fail if the 4-pin is on the very upper left side where it would be impossible to get liquid in such a fashion?

I haven't scrutinized all the solder points yet but I doubt scrubbing the dirty looking solder i've found will fix my problem, so hence, this post.

Cheers.