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.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Hi,
I was reading the comments and I have dropped my Compaq nc6000 laptop. It will not boot up. Should I try to reseat all the drives. Is there something different that I should try?
Thanks,
November 24th, 2008 at 5:29 am
In reference to my previous comment “closed my screen to hard”, my laptop model is:
Toshiba Satellite L305-S5865
Maybe it will help focus any advice.
Thx
November 24th, 2008 at 5:22 am
I didnt drop my laptop, but I did close the screen too hard and now it won’t boot. The scren still works and I can hear the CD ROM spinning, there were no pops, smoke, sparks, etc. I get the following error message:
File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: An unexpected I/O error has occurred
I can get into the bios screen then ran a test on the hard drive and memory and all seems to check out ok; I completely dissasembled the laptop and reseated all connections then reassembled; I reseated the memory cards; I visually inspected every component and there is no visible damage. Im not in a location where I can download diagnostic software so Im trying everything else, so far there is no change.
any ideas would be appreciated!
October 13th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
My HP TX1000 laptop did not boot after I turned it off. When I turned it on, the power LEDs were on but, the BIOS didn’t shows up and there was nothing on the screen. I didn’t drop it. Please help me..
September 25th, 2008 at 1:58 am
hi, I have a problem with my laptop. It won’t turn on anymore. Power light is on but no hard drive light. No power on mouse. I tried to reinstall the memory and the hard drive, but nothing works. Before this happened, when I start the laptop it get stack at the windows part, so I have to like push the whole laptop down hard, and then it will start normally. I’m thinking maybe is my hard drive? I more thing sometime when I’m using it, it just dead and the screen turns to blue or black sometimes. Help me plz…
August 16th, 2008 at 4:42 am
My LT (HP 6710B) was working perfactly untill its icon of DVD drive in explorer disappeared suddenly. It came back of its own. But now since last 2 days its orange light on front is glowing continiously. Neither its recognising the charger nor booting up even after connecting the charger. I even left it plugged with charger overnight, but still not booting up.
Pl Help.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I have a Sony Viao, Model VGN-FS850/W . It also took the big plunge, 4ft onto a brick floor. The fall broke the hinge on the left behind the LAN ports.Irratic since then. Power, Bios access, Keyboard. I think its let me online twice since the plunge(about a month ago). Do you have or know of a illustrated disassembly manual for this laptop?
March 1st, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Hi, I wasn’t sure where to put this, since it said comments were closed, but I read around your site and did not see my specific issue addressed, but please forgive me if I overlooked it.
About two weeks ago, my year-old Toshiba Satellite A135 fell off the couch onto it’s right side where the the cd/dvd rom is located, and since then it’s basically acted as if it’s filled with critical viruses.
I noticed the light isn’t lit, but it had sometimes lit up after a restart but then it eventually went back out. The button to open it does not work at all, but the drive will open using the eject feature on iTunes.
After several fruitless attempts at virus searches, system restores (which no longer works for some reason) windows fixes, etc, I’ve just about given up.
Up until a few days ago, if it connected at all, an error about Windows not being able to connect to the system event log would appear and I, for some reason, would not be able to use any of my browsers, as well as a few other applications. After taking about 40 minutes to load, it would take hours, like 5 or 6, for a website to load, and it would seem as if the flash was stripped from it, leaving basic HTML. Firefox would not work at all after a while, same goes for the rest which eventually succumbed to the same issue, IE, Safari, etc, but after launching Safari from the start menu after a restart, it has worked pretty decently. The event log error also only popped up once and when I x’d out of it, it never reappeared, which was not the case all of the previous times. The computer is still quite slow in comparison. Also, my desktop looks like windows XP instead of Vista, which is what came pre-installed on it, only the toolbar is white instead of that bright blue, and I dont get that at all…It just says Window Classic on the control panel but has no option for me to change it back to it’s Vista settings.
I also tried running it in safe mode and it still acts like it has a virus.
I’m afraid to restart or shut this down for fear it won’t work this well again. (It’s my only computer, and I can’t afford to fix or replace it anytime soon, and I need it for just about everything. grr.)
From a list of notes I’ve taken over the past 2 weeks, it said there was a “snap-something” error, and “the device, HARDDISK0\DR0 has a bad block.”
So I don’t know what to do from here but any ideas would be soooo appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
(Sorry if this shows up twice, my internet died while sending it once and I’m not sure if it made it through!)
February 26th, 2008 at 7:16 am
my Toshiba A45-s121 laptop did not boot after i shutdown it. When i turned it on, the 4 LEDs are just steady and nothing happens. I didn’t drop the laptop. It just failed suddenly
January 7th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Amanda,
It’s hard to tell what is wrong with the laptop. It’s possible that there is a loose cable connection somewhere inside the laptop, witch meant you’ll have to take it apart and reseat all cables. Not sure if you want to go this route.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Hello,
Recently my husband dropped my HP Pavilion dv1000 notebook and now it will not start. He said that the first time he tried using it after it was dropped, the computer did seem like it was booting up,. but the screen was blank, so he held down the power button to turn it off again. We have been unable to start it since.
I thought the battery may have been dead, so I tried charging it. The computer recognized the charger (the little blue light came on indicating that the computer was plugged in to the charging cable) but even after a full day of charging, the laptop was and has still been lifeless.
I also tried securing the RAM and the memory card with no results. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:40 pm
My cousin has Toshiba Satellite Pro M70 bought here in UAE. The warranty had expired just recently. He was having some overheating problem so I decided to investigate. I took apart the laptop with some instructions for another satellite pro model(this model wasn’t available on irisvista). I was able to put it back and it worked fine. but when I left his home after delivering the laptop, he said the mouse isn’t working. he rebooted and the laptop wouldn’t turn on. I checked again reassembling it, but the laptop now just hangs at the toshiba screen. I think it may be the cpu seating problem, but I just want to make sure I didn’t mess anything up.
This might help in diagnosing the problem- the fan starts and then a few seconds later stops. and also I had trouble in putting back the screws. I have 6 screws that I don’t know where to put.
Anyway. I’d appreciate any help I get
September 18th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
I have had the same thing happen to me… but it’s a gateway laptop please help me!!
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:11 am
hi there,
firstly want to say this is great site and great advice!
Ok heres the story…. Have a Toshiba Tecra s1
Dropped laptop, pretty hard on the corner speaker onto carpet floor. It seemed ok and still worked but the next day got a blue screen of death and restarted few times then eventually when it booted said had a system error before entering windows. I sort of presumed it was my hard drive cause of the fall (bit presumptuous without any testing i know!) but replaced hard drive anyway and till didn’t work but i did find a pressure point to the right of the touch pad where if pressed hard on it it would boot into windows and work ok but after few starts this eventually failed. because of this pressure point presumed it was a connection due to fall so opened it up, reset everthing, put it back together but then a bigger problem! when it boots up to first Toshiba screen, display comes up with lines in it then goes black, then error message ‘check system then press F1 key’ when i press F1 nothing happens so i’ bit stuck!! any help or advice would be amazing!! thanks.
July 13th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
and by the way….my labtop didnt drop
July 13th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
ok did that….1 change…the blinking orange light changes to green, and it stays green…. only light which turns on and when i put in the battery without troubling anything the battery light is on as well as the green light
July 12th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Jason,
Try this. Remove the battery and start the laptop just from the AC adapter. Do you see any change? Does the power LED blink too?
July 12th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
i have a toshibal A45 s121 and its not booting up none at all….the battery light is on at the front, its jus keep blinking…what does that mean? is it the battery needs replacing or jus the adapter
January 29th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Joe,
If the power cord or AC adapter is not the problem then most likely you have a problem with the power jack connector. You can fix the problem if you resolder the power jack on the system board. For this repair it will be necessary to remove the system board from the notebook.
January 28th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
I have a question. My warrantee expired on my HP pavilion dv4000 and it won’t turn on. I noticed it wasn’t charging when it last worked, and that it was only running on battery. So I knew when the battery ran out I wouldn’t be able to turn it on again. The power cord or wire (not sure the term) is not the problem either is the electrical outlet in my house wall. It’s a problem within the computer. I can buy a new battery and use the computer till that battery needs to recharge then it will be a useless computer again. I tried starting it without the battery in and it doesn’t start. Any tips I would appreciate it thanks.
December 5th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
Dianie,
Probably the hard drive has been damaged. Download and run Hitachi’s DFT utility (link on the right side) to test the hard drive, run an advanced test. If the hard drive fails to pass, replace it.
This problem has nothing to do with the grease on the CPU.
December 4th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Hi again,
I tried reseating the hard drive and DVD drive, and I also cleaned the heatsink and I keep getting the same “Disk Error – Press any key to reboot” message. I read previous comments and was wondering if I should remove the memory card and wireless card. If so, how do I do it? What about the grease on the CPU? Thank you so much for your help!!
December 1st, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Dianie,
First of all, I would try reseating the hard drive and DVD drive. Just remove them from the laptop and install back. It’s possible that one of the drives is not making a good connection with the motherboard and as a result you are getting a “Disk Error – Press any key to reboot” message.
December 1st, 2006 at 9:07 am
Hi,
I have a Toshiba Satellite A40. I recently dropped it while it was still running, and it was working fine until I shut it down. Now, when I try to restart it, it gives me a “Disk Error – Press any key to reboot” message. I tried pressing any key, but the message comes back over and over again… What should I do?
August 27th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Ferguson,
I think it might be a memory module problem. Try to move it to another slot and make sure that the module is seated properly. That’s would be great if you can find a test memory module. Try to minimize the system as I mentioned in the comment 2.
August 27th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
I have a Toshiba mx35 I have had several issues with the power port coming loose which I have soldered several times. It finally came completely dislodged so I replaced with another jack I found that hangs out the back similar to another post I have seen on this site. The battery charges fine now but I have nothing on the screen and my wireless card doesnt light up. When I turn on the computer I hear the fan for a few seconds , I have the power button light on and the light on the front is on as well and thats it. I have tried an external monitor and that doesnt work either. I have reset the CPU , Ram , and checked all connectoins on the LCD screen. I dont know what else to do, is there anything else I can try? Thanks
August 26th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
Hey Mike,
Can you give me more information? What do you experience? What is your problem and what was wrong with the laptop?
August 26th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
I just replaced my motherboard on my toshiba p35 and my screen doesn’t do jack now. I think I screwed it up because I didn’t take out the battery first. What can I do?
August 13th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Try to minimize the system. You’ll need only the system board, memory and CPU to boot is successfully with an external monitor. Disconnect anything else, even internal LCD screen. I would definitely try to reseat the CPU. Unlock the socket, press on the CPU just a little bit to make sure it’s seated all the way down and lock it back.
Motherboard, memory and CPU that’s all you need for basic system. If you still cannot get any video on the external screen, then it’s possible something was damaged on the motherboard. If you can boot it with external video, start assembling back step by step and test after each step.
When the situation is really bad, I even remove the motherboard from the laptop base and assemble it outside the base on my bench.
August 13th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Thanks for the info. I’ve already disassembled it completed – everything apart – your instructions were too good to stop half way. I can run the motherboard hooked up to the screen and heatsink, but nothing really happens. Backlight goes on, but not BIOS text, etc. It definitely not booting based on sounds, HD activity, etc.
I’ve removed and replace the 2 SODIMMS. There is no wireless card. This model had none, and I put one in w/ a bezel antenna, but recently pulled it to use in a Dell.
I’m guessing it may be CPU socket – maybe the socket locking got jostled? Power seems ok to the mtherboard – the CPU heats up and the fan seems to cycle ok.
Any other connectors that can make it no boot? I put in the fan, video, and keyboard cables when I do my test boots.