Update: I replaced capacitor #2 in case it was installed incorrectly or faulty. No change.

I guess I'll mess around with the pin some more. What's confusing is that according to all the LGA1155 pinout diagrams I have seen, the pin in question is a VSS (ground) pin. (If someone could confirm that, I would really appreciate it!). Losing one of those shouldn't result in big issues, should it?

If that fails, my last resort is an ipa bath in case some water minerals or soap is causing a short somewhere.

If that doesn't work I think I'll just give up.

When I wash boards with soap and water, I use an electric blower / duster to dry it off really well afterwards.

It could be that there is something that is not dry properly or did not get rinsed all the way and caused conductive gunk and caused a short.

If that pin looks really close to how it should be, it should be just fine. There is a little bit of wiggle room for alignment.

I guess if there was some charge left somewhere and it got sent to the BIOS chip, it could have corrupted the BIOS.

Thank you for your response!

cyclone3d wrote on 2026-07-15, 20:42:

When I wash boards with soap and water, I use an electric blower / duster to dry it off really well afterwards.

I did use an air compressor with a water/oil separator and left it in the sun for several hours.

cyclone3d wrote on 2026-07-15, 20:42:

It could be that there is something that is not dry properly or did not get rinsed all the way and caused conductive gunk and caused a short.

Possibly, but I did wait several days before powering it on. Do you think an IPA bath is a good next step? Or is it too late?

cyclone3d wrote on 2026-07-15, 20:42:

If that pin looks really close to how it should be, it should be just fine. There is a little bit of wiggle room for alignment.

Yeah, it's as close as it will ever be. I'm done messing with it.

cyclone3d wrote on 2026-07-15, 20:42:

I guess if there was some charge left somewhere and it got sent to the BIOS chip, it could have corrupted the BIOS.

I was gonna try a BIOS flashback next. Not sure if it will help. When I power on the motherboard, it gets stuck on code 15, but the CPU_LED light is on, and the motherboard does not beep.

BIOS flashback failed, and when I pulled out the BIOS chip to try a known working one from another board, I bent and broke the pins on it.

So this board will be for spare parts. I have two other P8Z77-v Premiums. One will be my new NAS and the other will be my portable Windows XP build.

Maybe I'll get all my builds up on Vogons at some point.

*Edit* P.S.: And I've learned my lesson...no more washing motherboards!

In principle there is nothing wrong with giving electronics a bath. But it should only be done in cases where boards are particularly filthy and need proper removal of build-up of grime. People even use ultrasonic cleaners for this sort of thing.

I would also recommend not giving up on the diagnosis. Part of learning to repair electronics is being able to diagnose faults. If a fault was caused on the board during the washing process, it would be a good exercise to track it down.

Since the board was posting a BIOS code, this suggests it still has life in it and can potentially be repaired.

You mentioned damaging a BIOS chip when trying to remove/replace it. I would get a new BIOS chip and try again. You really have nothing to lose at this point.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-07-16, 14:37:

In principle there is nothing wrong with giving electronics a bath. But it should only be done in cases where boards are particu […]
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In principle there is nothing wrong with giving electronics a bath. But it should only be done in cases where boards are particularly filthy and need proper removal of build-up of grime. People even use ultrasonic cleaners for this sort of thing.

I would also recommend not giving up on the diagnosis. Part of learning to repair electronics is being able to diagnose faults. If a fault was caused on the board during the washing process, it would be a good exercise to track it down.

Since the board was posting a BIOS code, this suggests it still has life in it and can potentially be repaired.

You mentioned damaging a BIOS chip when trying to remove/replace it. I would get a new BIOS chip and try again. You really have nothing to lose at this point.

I appreciate your words. I just don't know what to do next. If someone is willing to help me, I'll try.

My first question is, if I do replace the BIOS chip, do I have to buy one advertised as being for my specific board, or can I buy any chip that fits the slot and reprogram it?

I would look up the specifications of the chip and source a chip with the same specs (size, pinout, memory capacity). If you can source an identical chip, that is the safest option.

In principle there is nothing wrong with giving electronics a bath. But it should only be done in cases where boards are particularly filthy and need proper removal of build-up of grime. People even use ultrasonic cleaners for this sort of thing

I do that all the time, especially when dealing with PCBs that suffered from leaky capacitor or battery juice or just spilled coffee, soup whatever liquid that make a good electrolyte. In fact, i did it just now - a friend brought a laptop that got an entire glass of cola on the keyboard and of course a lot of it got inside.

A good ultrasonic bath with isopropyl alcohol was all it needed, thankfully my friend was smart, so he opened that laptop and disconnected both main and CMOS batteries after it happened, I even tried to do that with a top case with a keyboard. Surprisingly it worked - keyboard works like new, even if often washing laptop keyboards don't help and you need to replace them.

That dude's sister was very lucky in this case.

All you need is to be careful and don't use maximum power when a board got lots of tiny components, and if it's a motherboard with LGA socket or any other fragile connector that doesn't need any cleaning, just cover it with something like actual socket cover or a piece of plastic bag - just don't put Kapton tape right over the socket pins.