Diagnosing the issue with the CPU cooler and experiencing total power loss.
Diagnosing the issue with the CPU cooler and experiencing total power loss.
as mentioned, i recently swapped my cpu cooler from a corsair h100i to an amd wraith model. i encountered issues with the aio reporting pump failure and the system flashing red. this problem seemed to appear suddenly, and after replacing the cooler, power delivery to the pc vanished completely. i attempted to re-seat the cpu, reset the connections, updated the cmos, and even checked the ram—still nothing. prior to the pump issue, the pc functioned normally (got the pump error last night), so i suspect the motherboard might be damaged. the psu is making noises and the relay switches are popping when powered on. below are the details: cpu: amd r9 3900x, gpu: rtx 3080, gma: oc 12, ram: 32gbs corsair vengeance rgb psu: corsair rm 850, modular thermaltake case—uncertain model but concluded it’s not the problem.
It occurred to me that coolant leakage during water cooling maintenance left tiny invisible droplets on the board, causing a short without any spark. The system failed to power on. After 12 hours of drying, it worked again. Opened the unit and improved airflow—whether with fans or a hair dryer—and tried once more. Then verified the CPU wasn’t detached, which is common with Ryzen models and could mean bent pins still seated properly.
Technically it doesn't make any difference to plug it in any fan header, as long as it's plugged! But even then the PC should power on and then overheat in 30sec if it has no cooling (again, it happened to me when the cooler cable was dislodged while moving/replacing other parts ...)
I left it to rest overnight, unplugged all USB ports and it came back on. I don’t know what caused the issue, but it’s working now. When I tried to boot, I saw an error asking me to change my Microsoft and PC login. Everything else looks fine. Thank you all for your help!