Finally fixed my neighbor's boot loop after 4 months of guessing

My neighbor's old Dell desktop would get stuck in a boot loop every time it rained. I tried swapping the PSU, reseating the RAM, even replaced the CMOS battery one Tuesday afternoon. Turns out a tiny trace on the motherboard was corroded from a small leak in his roof. I patched it with a wire bridge and electrical tape on Saturday, and it booted right up. Has anyone else dealt with humidity causing weird motherboard failures like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaret_bennett316d ago

I used to roll my eyes at people talking about humidity and motherboard issues, but reading about your "tiny trace on the motherboard was corroded from a small leak in his roof" really changed my mind. That's a crazy specific problem that took SO long to figure out. I've always just blamed bad components or power issues when things get flaky, but now I'm thinking this stuff happens way more than I realized. My buddy had a laptop that would crash randomly in the summer and we never did figure it out, probably something like this. Makes me want to open up every computer that acts weird after a rainstorm and look for green spots on the board now. Gotta give you credit for sticking with it for 4 months though, I would have given up way before that.

thomas_young16d ago

And that's the thing nobody talks about, right? You spend all this time swapping out RAM and testing power supplies, but it's like your eyes just glaze over the physical board itself. I had this old Dell desktop back in '09 that would freeze up every time the weather got muggy. Must have replaced the PSU twice before I just happened to look at the board under a magnifying glass and saw this tiny white crusty spot near the CMOS battery. Cleaned it with some isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush and it ran fine for another three years. Makes you wonder how many perfectly good parts end up in the garbage because of a little moisture.