Mystery problems, very confused

[D1H25]

I built a computer for my friend with an MSI K7N2 Delta board, and an Athlon XP 3200. It was working fine until he spilled soda over it with the side panels of the case off. At first I felt most of the stickyness on the video card and I could get the computer to power on but not display anything so I took it out and tried a spare card and it seemed to work fine. So I bought a new video card for it. Then it turned out that it was still acting funny. With any video card in it I couldn't get it to boot up more than once. It would boot up once and not twice until I plugged in a different video card and this happened with all three cards I tried so I figured the card wasn't the problem. Then I just figured the motherboard was screwed up so I put in a spare motherboard and it seemed to work fine with it. So I ordered a new motherboard for it. I just put it in and now the system can hardly boot up at all. It can only boot up with the CPU clock turned way down and even then it won't load Windows. When I try to turn the clock up to the level the CPU should be running at it won't do anything. I am really confused, I don't know what the problem is. For starters, when you switch motherboards must Windows be reinstalled on the hard drive. I'm also thinking that the hard drive might have some sort of problem too. If anyone has any in put or help I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

[Dark Nova]

Originally Posted by D1H25 For starters, when you switch motherboards must Windows be reinstalled on the hard drive.

if its a diffrent chipset, it may need a repair install.

and tell your friend not to drink or eat when working with computers

[blue60007]

What kind of power supply is this? (brand and wattage)

[D1H25]

It is a hercules 400W power supply

[blue60007]

That brand isn't listed on our PSU Reference so I don't know if that's a decent one or not. I wouldn't go out and buy a new power supply just yet, but do you have one that is compatible you could swap in? Maybe when the system shorted something blew in the power supply...

Is the replacement motherboard the same as the original?

[D1H25]

I do have another one I could swap in. The new board is not the same as the original, I now have an EPoX 8VTA board in there. I will try swapping in the new power supply.

[D1H25]

For one thing, the computer can't restart, it just stops running. And whenever I want to boot it up I have to hold insert after turning the power off and on. This persists even with the new power supply in there.