It sounds like a busted chingadarian, this is ultimatly fatal after long suffering. SHOOT IT!

[b]F[/b]loppy [b]D[/b]rive [b]C[/b]ontroller.

Could be that you reconnected the floppy drive cable incorrectly (does the the floppy drive access light stay on constantly?), or it could be that the soda you spilled took out the FDC on the motherboard.

From the other problems you're having it sounds like the soda chewed up other components on the motherboard and/or processor and memory. Bummer, dude.

Sounds like your discombobulator has transmorphed.  You'll have to replace the whole thing.  


:)

Hit it with a hammer!

I build my computers out of stuff that other people throw away (currently up to a P200) so I'm not very far beyond the stone x86 age when it comes to this stuff. However I'll throw out a few observations that should bait the techies into correcting me and get you taken care of. First, FDC means Floppy Drive Controller. Second, It's obvious that this is a hardware problem, so don't go changing software configurations to get it running, unless you replace the motherboard and need to update settings.
In my experience, sometimes leaving a computer off for an extended period of time will cause a marginal CMOS battery to weaken enough and lose the BIOS settings. You didn't mention anything about this so I'm going to reccomend trying to check this out. If you have a teenager handy it is good to have someone help you with this; it's like changing the headspace on your AR when you mess with it.

The CMOS is a memory chip that stores settings that allow the computer to wake up and remember how to get to use the different pieces of computer that are hooked up to it. There are a gazillion different types of memory, cache memory, hard drives, cdroms, floppy drives, etc. etc. Each one has a particular setting that the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) needs to be able to call up to use the parts it is connected to. When the little battery that powers this CMOS chip gets low, the settings can be corrupted or lost and those settings will usually revert back to a default setting. This seems to be what you are describing.

Most newer computers have onboard floppy drive controllers, hard drive controllers, and parrallel/serial ports. On most older computers, this functionality was achieved by plugging one or more cards into the system. The BIOS settings would allow you to enable or disable the onboard controllers if you chose to use a plug-in card so they wouldn't conflict with each other. Further, the hard drive controller had to be told certian parameters about each hard disk so that the controller would know how to read the hard disk and the computer could boot up from it.

What I would do at this point is turn your system on, observe the screen carefully, and when you see an instruction like "push delete to enter setup" (it might be the F2 or another key), follow the instructions immediately. They will only give you a few seconds so if you miss it, reset the computer and try again.
Once you are in the setup, read the directions onscreen carefully. They will tell you how to navigate through and change the settings. At this point I would spend a few minutes writing down the setting you see and when you are done, if you think you can fix any obvious problems, change those settings accordingly after writing down the original setting. I would stick to not changing anything except the drive settings for the moment and if you see a setting for "autodetect" the hard drive, use it. Usually, the ESC key will take you back to the main window. Tell it quit and save changes and see if that helps it to start up.

Although it might be possible, I really doubt it would be a low battery problem.  You might try replacing the battery (and cleaning the contacts), but it's a lot more likely that something got shorted out when the liquid hit the chips' contacts.

The great thing about whatever happened is that apparently your hard drive didn't get fried.  I mean, who really cares about the hardware as long as your software and data are still intact?

Hardware is cheap -- you should be able to replace the motherboard for $60-$140.  Chances are that that's the only part you'd need, but just in case, a floppy is $25, and an excellent CD-RW drive costs $150.

Windows XP is a pain according to everything I've heard, but as long as you have the disks you should be able to reinstall it.

This is going to sound really stupid but its worth a try.  A buddy and I have tried this with the exact same problem that you had, soda in da puter.  Beings it doesnt work right now its worth a try.  Take the motherboard and other cards out of the computer (video, audio, nic, etc.).  Then get the bath tub filled with some nice cold water, no bubble bath.  Then take each board and gently move it throught the water.  There could be some soda turned syrup thats shorting out parts of your board.  The clean water should disolve this.  Then let boards dry for a couple days.  It would be best to use a non conductive fluid such as Fluorinert by 3m but that costs about $300 a gallon, more than it would cost to replace the parts.  Anyway, just do the cards.  Not the drives.

xp  is to ME as the m1a was to the m1 ... and if you use ie as opposed to net6.2 ..  its just as offensive..direct line to the MAN...

bobbyjack,
Does Nutscrape still not work right with Norton and the rest of those programs that made me delete Nutscrape off of my computer many moons ago?
Is Nutscrape STILL owned by AOHell, that friggin anti-gun POS?

I'll take Internet Exploder for free Alex...

Are you certain that the problem isn't between the keyboard and the chair?

[:D]

Not stupid at all really. You want to remove all of the contaminant that you can. The reason some electronic devices don't start up after being exposed to things like rain water, flood water, drinks, etc is because there are minerals present in it which, upon power up, permanently etch themselves into the circuit board thus creating a permanent short. By removing the contaminant(s) this will be prevented. It is best to flush the circuit boards with something like denatured alcohol to displace the water and the contaminants. Do not use rubbing alcohol as it contains water and takes longer to dry.

Sorry to hear that buddy. My puter is about as HIV'd as a puter can get. Recently it started begging me to take it off life support and let it finally expire. I am purchasing my next puter off of [url]www.pricewatch.com[/url]. A couple of my friends have gotten puters from LLC (Under PC Windows, then under any puter setup. The one I am looking at is the athalon 1 gig.) and they just rave about the company. Hope that gives you another option.

its still under warrantee??????


dude that aint right, you should NEVER even open a computer thats still under warantee as just opening the case voids that warrentee if you arent a recognised computer tech. hate to say it but likely the company will not honor the warrantee now.

as for me it don't matter any more, as the company that made my computer went belly up. so the warantee is void anyway.

If you're going to use water clean electronic components at least use distilled water or better yet, DI water if it is available to you. Then dry thoroughly preferrably with compressed air and do not apply power until you are absolutely sure that no water is still present.

I think the best idea is to keep contaminants away from your system and enclose it in a drawer or cabinet if possible.

Also, as someone else has already said, you probably shouldn't have cracked the case if you were thinking about returning it under warranty. More than likely the warranty will not be honored now.

Sorry to hear about your problems.

OT here, but I figure I'll add my $2.00 worth....

I bought a new computer, go here Jan 17.  Nothing but problems.  First, I thought it was the OS, Win XP.  Well, it ended up being the CPU cooling fan (ran 201F), now it's about 130F.  I guess the chip was shutting off the computer, (some safety says the tech support) so errors cropped up in the OS.  Tech support told me to open it up and replace the fan.  I'm happy now.... hope the chip wasn't damaged.

I reinstalled from the image on the HD, slowly put back the few programs I had.  I'm still not sure if I want to install Office 2000....

I'm thinking of partitioning the drive w/ System Commander and installing Linux.

(I'm a newbie to most of the computer stuff.....)  So far this thing is running okay.  I have some older Win 9X programs and a buddy said that one version of Linux will let you load the older stuff....

More research for Kaliburz......

Most computer companies recognize customers may want to add memory or change out a internal modem card, and they will not void warranty just for opening the case.

[beer]

Linux is the tool of the DEVIL!! [;)] Ask Bill Gates, he'll tell you!!

[beer]

Bill Gates is the Anti-Penguin.

most companies i have dealt with (admittedly a limited nomber) required for such upgrades that you bring it to a computer tech and he clears it through the company. otherwise if there is a problem later on they can blame the owner for tampering with the computer.

Let me clear something up. I spent three years as a Master Technician doing warranty service for a major computer retailer, meaning that we did warranty service for Compaq, Packard Bell, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, and others. None of those manufacturers prohibited customers from performing their own upgrades. However, if the customer damaged the machine by performing the upgrade, the manufacturer's warranty would cover neither the parts nor the labor required to repair the computer. So, merely having broken the seal on the case does [i]not[/i] automagicaly void your machine's warranty.

In the case of a machine damaged by the customer's failure to keep the case closed on his machine, and his further failure to keep soda away from the open case, the customer would have absolutely zero warranty claim. You wouldn't expect Chevy to fix your truck after you put regular unleaded in its diesel engine.

How about Opera 6.01?

[url]http://www.opera.com/[/url]

gateway.... warrenty... AFTER you disassembled it and bathed with it? you really think they will do much? customer abuse ;). ya had the case open breaking the warrenty seal. spilled soda in it. then disasselbled it. id say.. LIE to the them tell them it just came up with this error. dont mention you opened the case or let it drink soda and bath water.


next time dont buy branded PC. they are POS. go selfbuilt, good qual hardware. less trouble from POS hardware.

I have spoken. heed these words or be struck down by a leaf.

Oneshot,

Good luck with it.  

Word:  If it will do this to your electronics, imagine what drinking this stuff does to our innards.