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Dropped laptop, doesn't start up

A

allies

Platinum Member
Hey guys and girls,

I'm in Korea right now studying abroad, and one of the other students apparently dropped her notebook at the airport. Apparently it was from around 3 feet, and the computer was off. However, when the power button is pushed, the LEDs come on, and it sounds like the hard drive begins to spin, but nothing really comes after that. No post, no nothing. On one hand I think it's the harddrive, but then again since the screen doesn't come up at all I don't know what really is the deal.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

The laptop is a Vostro 1500.

Regards,
Steve
 
If ONLY the hard drive is dead, the screen should come on and POST, but there will be an error when it tries to load anything from the HDD, like when trying to boot into the OS.

Since nothing comes on the screen, it could be the screen, the video card, the motherboard, the internal cables connecting the screen to the video card, or any combination, all in addition to possible HDD death.

Looks like she's going to need a repair or replacement.
 
Sounds to me like the CPU needs to be reseated. In most laptops, that requires keyboard removal, but it is not uncommon. My brother flies a lot in his own planes, and the exact same thing happened to him, not from a drop, but from sustained vibration. My guess is the HDD is OK.
 
oddly i had this happen to a laptop, i took it apart and it was the inverter to the lcd that came unplugged, which is a full disassemble, worst possible on an hp business notebook.

have you tried external monitor? you could hear the o/s load if you put your ear to the drive it would be doing mad seek boot-up.

the unit sustained a 600lb smash damaging the keyboard and dvd-drive (kinda crease pinch smash), $15 for new keyboard and full disassemble (took many hours on this particular laptop) and it works great like new no dvd-rw any more and you can see the frame damage but works perfectly.

so check to see if the unit can boot to external monitor that would be a good start. thats what keyed me on to the display. i was real lucky the screen took no damage just the inverter/power plug got knocked out.

the screen is a real pita to take apart at least on this particular laptop.
 
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