Spilled ice-cream on the motherboard and now she won't recognise HDDs!

[thx1138]

I have a Gigabyte GA 790FXTA-UD5 motherboard. I spilled ice cream on the case and it went through the top vent and onto the motherboard. The monitor went immediately into stand-by (uh-oh!) and I switched the power (to the PSU) off at the mains socket. I opened the case up and used a moist kitchen paper towel to clean up the ice cream. I allowed it to dry and sprayed with compressed air for good measure.

The behaviour of the machine was really inconsistent from this point on. Most times when I turned it on, it reset itself every five or so seconds. Sometimes the CPU fan would come on but most times it wouldn't. I took out one of the graphics cards and tried it and it booted to Windows. I shut down and put the card back and then it wouldn't boot again. I removed the card and it still wouldn't boot. I left it unplugged for a while and later booted to Windows but it shut down spontaneously. I sometimes used the Clear CMOS button but wish I hadn't because now, even though I've booted and loaded Windows, it doesn't recognise most of my hard disks - it only recognises my system drive (SATA SSD). I have some regular SATA HDDs but the BIOS doesn't detect them.

I've uploaded photographs and zoomed in on the area that was shorted by ice cream. It was vanilla, in case you're interested and yes I know I'm stupid for letting this happen and it's why I don't have nice things (apart from this computer!).

(click to enlarge)

[Vezina]

As it s already as dead maybe you should just wash it with clean water to remove the sticky stuff ,then let it dry and try again.
If it s the same take out the heatsinks(save them) and  put it in the trash.

I ve heard of keyboards filled with beer or coke ,but ice cream inside the PC is new
Your cooling solution DID NOT work

[absic]

Just to add a little further advice to what Vezina has said, if you wash off the residue make sure you do not use tap water.

Remove motherboard from the pc case and inspect for any tracking damage both front and back

I would recommend using distilled water such as you would use in a water cooling loop as this doesn't contain any minerals that can cause further damage.

Allow the motherboard to dry properly before reconnecting to the power supply, by properly I would leave at least 48 hours after washing.

Keep your fingers crossed for good luck!