My laptop was dropped and it will no longer boot
I have a Toshiba A45-S121 laptop that I dropped off a coffee table onto a floor covered with carpet. It will no longer boot. When I power it up, the backlight goes on, the fan goes on, and I see the HD light blink a bit. Nothing else – no video, no HD activity, no beeps. I took the cover assembly off and reseated all the flex cables, and tried another HD I had. Still nothing. I think the motherboard is dead.
Why do you think the laptop has a dead motherboard? Because it will not boot up?
When I repair dropped laptops, first of all I reseat all connectors inside and very often it fixes the problem. I hope you didn’t crack the screen.
Try to reseat the memory module (by your description it could be a dislocated memory) and see if it fixes the problem. If not, reseat the wireless card. If it doesn’t help, I would try to reseat the CPU. Here’s a guide for taking apart Toshiba Satellite A45 laptop.
The memory is located under the keyboard, but it’s very easy to access it on this model. Follow steps 8-11. It’s not necessary to disconnect the keyboard. Remove the battery and disconnect the AC adapter when you work on the laptop.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
i dropped my compaq presario v5000 and the screen wont work the computer works i hear it loading up and the backlight comes on but the screen is blank and one time i was white with lines how do i fix this
August 30th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
My daughter dropped a large book on my closed laptop. There is absolutley no power or lights. It is a gateway lite which the power button is on the screen not the keyboard. Do you have any suggestions as to what I can do to revive it?
Thanks,
Theresa
August 8th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
have u tryed to take out the battery and keep the ac adaptor out.
1 take ac and battery out.
2hold the on botton for 30s to 1min
3 put battery back in
4 try to power on
5 it sould work now
August 4th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Mike,
The message and the ‘ticking’ is normally a sign that you’ve damaged the hard disk. It probably needs removing, checking (by using a USB connector to a PC). There is a likely hood that you’ve lost it – and all the data on it.
A replacement hard disk isn’t that expensive – but will need to have an Operating System installed (Windows XP / Vista etc)
July 17th, 2009 at 1:35 am
also, in regards to my above comment, I just noticed that it will not close anymore. The tab to lock the screen down is bent.
Thanks.
July 17th, 2009 at 1:30 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite L305D and it is only a few months old. I had it sitting on the kitchen table and went to pick it up to move it and dropped it upside-down on the hardwood floor. Now whenever I try to boot it up, it makes a quiet whirring, but it has a tick to it, and says “please insert boot disk and press any key.” Never noticed the ticking, so I don’t know if it is normal, but any help would be appreciated.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Hello,
I dropped my book bag which had my laptop in it. The laptop will turn on (the number lock light, the wifi light, and the battery light all light up) but the screen stays a dark blue. The left side of the laptop has physical damage and I can see a cord that is not connected to anything. People are telling me that I need a new motherboard. What do you think? I just bought it 3 months ago : (
June 20th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Hi,
My son in law dropped his Sony Vaio VGN-FS115Z, and now it doesn’t boot. The front indicator lights come on, indicating battery, wireless and Hard disk activity. The hard disk powers up and the spins down after a couple of seconds.
No backlight, no screen display (even without the backlight). Hard disk is good (checked on a desktop machine) and have reseated the memory modules.
It’s almost as if a power line is missing, and the CPU etc isn’t starting.
Any thoughts would be gratefully accepted!
P.S. I’m a reasonable techie, having spent many years in the business – both hardware and software – so any detailed suggestions can be handled.
May 31st, 2009 at 9:24 am
Hey there again,
This is worse i found when i just turned my laptop on( Toshibe) It turns on and says Launch Startup repair which is reccomended I click it I have to wait about two to thrww mins for thios to “Start” but it doesnt it say says the programme has failed to install or something and then it says click OK to turn off your computer, I cant do anything else about this ARGH can Somebody help mme please, I really need Help!! Thanx
May 31st, 2009 at 9:18 am
Hi ever since my Laptop had been stepped on And like jumped on by a very heavy ten year old, it wont turn on i Think its got something to do with the insides of this Toshiba Equium I switch the laptop on It turns on the usuall Windows screen its about to load and then it flashes to a blue screen and quickly starts again and this is all that happens a screen comes up asking me if i want to system recovery i do that but it says the disk Or something is not working PLease turn off and try again. This has happened every time i turn it on. What should i do to turn it on with its usuall setting so i dont loose any of my documents?????
April 13th, 2009 at 7:12 am
I have a pavillion hp entertainment pc. i accidentally dropped it on my floor. It will turn on but not actually start up. the system shows options to try to fix it but none of them are workng :s
do you have any suggestions?!
February 9th, 2009 at 12:17 am
LC,
Apparently you choose to create a bootable floppy disk. It’s referring to data on the floppy disk. You should create a bootable floppy disk only if you have an external USB drive, so you can boot from it.
If you don’t have an external USB drive, you should download an ISO file and burn it on a CD. After that boot your laptop from that CD and run the hard drive test.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I followed the external USB enclosure link above and realised I have yet to test my hard drive using the Hitachi Drive fitness test. I was just about to run it but this message stopped me, “This setup program will create a bootable 3,5″ 1.44 MB diskette. All data will be lost!”. What data are they referring to? I am using a home PC as I type, there is important data on this computer belonging to my father who is not home presently. Will it wipe this comp??
Also, does reconnecting your hard drive wipe the data from it? Sorry for my ignorance.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
LC,
You can try accessing data on the hard drive using an external USB enclosure. If you still cannot access it, apparently the hard drive has been damaged. The only option to get the data will be clean room recovery.
February 4th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Reconnected the hard drive but I’m still receiving the same disk read error message…the battery light is now blinking orange. :/
February 4th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Thanks for the quick response, I will try that now.
February 4th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
LC,
Did you try reconnecting the hard drive? Maybe the drive is not making good connection with the motherboard.
Access the hard drive, disconnect it from the motherboard and connect it back. Try turning on the laptop.
February 4th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I tripped over my charger wire and my Sony Vaio Vista laptop dropped a metre off the floor and hit the ground incredibly hard. Now when I attempt to turn it on, the only light that turns on is the green power light (the battery light is blank) & I just get the same message over and over again: “a disk read error occured, press CTRL + ALT DEL to restart”. I had some really vital data on my hardrive that I did not back up, pleeease help?!! :S Thankyou
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:02 am
Hi. I have a brand New HP Mini-Note PC. My mum dropped it this evening on a tiled floor. It has a small dent beside the on/off button but apart from that is working normally with no problems. I have re-booted it etc. Is there anything else I need to do?? Thank you
January 17th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Hi,
I dropped my laptop (Hp Pavillion dv4000, 3yrs old) on carpet the other day (half a meter off the ground)and when i picked it up it looked ok and seemed to be working fine. I left it on for a couple of hours and when i returned to it the screen was blank and it appeared that the battery may have died out. I connected it to my battery pack but the laptop will not reboot. I checked all the connections and plugs and everything looks fine to me (no visible damage or rattles), i even tried another battery pack thinking mine may have been the problem. Everytime i press the on button, the batery light flashes but nothing else goes on, it doesn’t even sound like its starting up… I don’t really know much about computers. Can you recommend anything i can do/try before i take it to a computer technician?
Thank you.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:39 am
hello i recently dropped an apple macbook about a foot from the ground but it seems like the impact was pretty hard. the apple was in a case when i droped it. afterwards i worked normal, it turned on, the screen seemed good as before. but just wondering when i turn it on i hear a low pitch weird loud humming sound. is that the fan which could be messed up. it lasts for some time and then goes. Do i have anything to worry about. I really dont know much about comp. and the guy at the i store told if it works then theres no problem. IF anyone ca n help me out, so i know if anythings is wrong with it. thank you
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I have a Inspiron 5160 that I just installed a new hard drive in. When I tried to start it afterwards, the screen would not light up at all and it only stays on for about 5-15 seconds and then shuts off. I tore it down to just the motherboard, memory and CPU and the same thing happens… I love this thing, I dont want it to die!
Thanks a lot for any help
December 1st, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Rachel,
First of all, check the memory. It’s possible the memory module was dislocated when you dropped the laptop. Try reseating the memory module.