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Can this laptop be saved

walrus

walrus

Golden Member
I just got my son's dell laptop that was well soaked with beer about 4 weeks ago. When I turn it on, first I get the full color Dell splash screen, but 2 seconds later I get a black screen with message..."No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility."
Pressing F1, F2, F anything, escape, alt-ctl-del does nothing.
Can this laptop be saved? I was saving up to buy a laptop for myself, but had to buy him a new one. 🙁
 
Doen't your insurance cover accidents like that? Mine does.

But, anyway, take the laptop apart, and make sure all components are dry and clean. Put it back together and hope for the best.

It sounds like the HDD could be dead, while the rest might be fine.
 
Originally posted by: oynaz
Doen't your insurance cover accidents like that? Mine does.

But, anyway, take the laptop apart, and make sure all components are dry and clean. Put it back together and hope for the best.

It sounds like the HDD could be dead, while the rest might be fine.
Click to expand...

more than likely, if something other than water was spilled your IDE or SATA ports on motherboard are toast. How new is the laptop? Dell usually has a 2 year warranty with all of their laptop items, so you could ship it back for repairs. This would be the best solution. I wouldn't even try opening up the laptop unless you are resigned to the fact that if you cannot put it back together you are going to buy a new one.
 
Make certain it isn't still under warranty before you start messing around inside it.
That will often void your warranty & you may not be able to fix it.

Second, can you get into the BIOS/setup screen? Typically press 'F1' or 'F2' or 'Del' at that Dell splash screen before it gets to the "No bootable devices" message.

If you cannot get into the BIOS, my guess is the motherboard was shorted out by the beer bath (why does that sound so fun?).

If you can get into the BIOS, check to see if the HDD is shown.
 
Can't get in the BIOS

Pressing F1, F2, escape, alt-ctl-del, enter, does nothing, none of the keys does anything. Just the on/off key

It's out of warranty

Guess I'll open it up and spray some Electronic Contact Cleaner all over it. I have a can around here somewhere.
 
well i really doubt dell covers beer spill in their warranty. I'm pretty surprised it got that far, but that error is usually the sign of bad hard drive, or controller
 
Contact cleaner was what I was going to suggest you could disassemble as much as possible and try some compressed air.
 
Originally posted by: walrus
Can't get in the BIOS

Pressing F1, F2, escape, alt-ctl-del, enter, does nothing, none of the keys does anything. Just the on/off key

It's out of warranty

Guess I'll open it up and spray some Electronic Contact Cleaner all over it. I have a can around here somewhere.
Click to expand...

Dell online laptop manuals normally have very good instructions on how to take apart a laptop. I've done it several times.


 
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