I'm in a bit of a panic! I decided to clean the dust out of my PC with a hairdryer, and now it won't display anything when powered on. The fans and lights work fine, but the monitor just shows a black screen. I've tried a bunch of things: reseating the RAM, cleaning the RAM slots, removing and reinstalling the GPU, reconnecting all components, clearing the CMOS, booting with just one RAM stick, and even trying with the onboard video—still nothing. I don't hear any beeps or see a post screen; it's completely unresponsive. Could I have damaged something with the hairdryer? Is this static damage? I'm really hoping someone can offer some advice—I'm feeling pretty lost here.
2 Answers
It sounds like you may have introduced static electricity into the system, which can happen with hairdryers. I've seen many cases where a short circuit from static ends up frying the motherboard. I'd suggest taking it to a local repair shop—there might not be much you can do on your own now, but avoid using hairdryers for cleaning in the future. Compressed air is much safer for your components!
You might have damaged some components or even desoldered something critical. It's tough to judge without a proper test environment, but cleaning with a hairdryer can generate a lot of static. Try booting your system with only the CPU, motherboard, and PSU to see if it at least complains about missing RAM. If it doesn’t show any signs of life, you’ll need to check the connections and possibly clean the CPU socket. Worst case, you may need to replace some parts. Be careful next time!
I'm using a Ryzen 5 5600G, B550M motherboard, 16GB RAM at 3600MHz, and an RX 6700XT graphics card with a 650W PSU.
What kind of specs are you working with?