Spilled liquid on Dell Inspiron 6000, can't boot BIOS, but XP boots with some device errors..

specs: Dell Inspiron 6000 / Windows XP Home Ed. SP3 / 2gb ram


I spilled about a table spoon of liquid on my Dell Inspiron 6000, immediately turned it off, removed the keyboard and cleaned it off, then put everything back together.

I used it for an hour afterwards, then a strange crackling noise came from the speakers. The noise would come on periodically so I turned it off.

When I restarted I got a blue screen saying "memory parity error". I restarted again the blue screen was gone, and it tells me a NIC adapter is having problems, and asks me to press (S) to shut it off. When I tried pressing 'S' it didn't respond (more like it froze), so I restarted again.

This time I can finally boot into windows. But now my 'new hardware found' wizard went berserk, and kept on telling me there is new hardware found, non-stop. I had a look at my Device Manager and noticed the following had exclamation marks on it:
-OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 host controller
-intel pro/wireless 2915abg network connection
-Ricoh R/RL/5c476(II) or compatible cardbus controller
-SDA standard compliant SD host controller

All of the above showed an error message saying "this device cannot find enough free resources that it can use".

At the time I realized:
-my soundcard was not working (+ the volume control speaker icon disappeared from task bar)
-I lost the wireless internet functionality (Intel PROSet unable to detect a wireless adapter, and also my wireless profile under Network Connections is gone)
-my SD card slots on the side of my laptop not working

I let it sit for a night and turned it on again the next day, and the soundcard magically seems to be working again, while the rest of those devices are still showing the same error message in Device Manager.

I tried booting into the BIOS by pressing F2 at startup, but it gives me a black screen. I tried pressing F12 for boot menu at startup, it takes me to the selection page, but when I touch any key on my keyboard it freezes. I thought I may have a faulty keyboard so I tried doing it from a USB external keyboard, however the results are the same.

So now I have a Dell laptop that can:
1) boot into windows with a few device not working
2) freezes when booting to bios or bootmenu

Where can I narrow down the problem? Is there something else I can try?

 

It may take a while for it to fully dry out. My son spilled lemonade on mine months ago (quite a bit of it too) and I'm still using it.

 

^ I also hope mine will be fully functional again eventually, it'd great if it does.

Seems strange to me that it can boot into XP (except a few devices not functioning) but can't get into BIOS/boot menu. This wouldn't be a motherboard problem would it?

 

I have the same problem for my Dell Inspiron 6000...It is nothing to do with your spillage...because I never spilled any fluid...I think Inspiron 6000 is having some glitch...Please let me know if you fixed yours so that i can try to fix it similarly...

 

Hi, I've recently come across a computer with pretty much the same issues. If I press any keyboard keys before WindowsXP boots up, it will just freeze the entire computer. Here are the steps I've used to repair the computer, but you'll need the following Items: USB Floppy Drive, and drdflash.exe file. (you can find drdflash.exe by going to google and search for it, it's a boot disk generator for flashing BIOS)

Step 1. Create a boot disk with drdflash, and after the floppy disk is done creating, place the Dell BIOS updater ( I6000A09.exe) on the floppy as well.

Step 2. Startup your computer with the floppy inside the drive and connected to the computer, and now press down some keys on your keyboard to make it beep, press and hold the keys as soon as your see "DELL" and let go when you see "A:\" showing up on the screen with the keys that you're holding. (in my experience it allowed the keyboard to function under command line mode, otherwise if you don't hold the keys to make it beep once it boots into command line mode, it will cause your computer to freeze by pressing any keys)

Step 3. type in I6000A09 to run the BIOS updater. The system will indicate that you have the same BIOS (if you have A09 already), and if you do, just make sure you flash it again!

afterwords you can try to go into your BIOS setting to see if it's working now.

Please try the above steps at your own risk. In my experience it worked for me.

 

can't remedy your particular situation, but next time you spill liquid on your electronic devices (hopefully never!), let it dry out for a day or two with the battery removed. from experience with my own stuff and other peoples gadgets, it usually works afterwards, though rarely, not 100%. good luck with your problem!