dropped laptop and now won't switch on. Please help

lise2010

Well as the title says - I dropped or rather knocked the laptop on to the floor and now it won't switch on at all.

I have followed this advice I found online

" To do this, remove the battery and AC Adapter cord, and press and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Then, without replacing the battery try plugging in your AC Adapter to see if you get any love. If that doesn't work, remove the AC adapter, reset the board again, and this time hold the power button down as you plug in the AC Adapter cord. If you still don't get any lights, you could try removing your memory, reset the board, replace the memory, plug in the AC Adapter, and try one more time."

It has stopped working before and something similar got it working again although it hadn't been dropped that time.

When I keep my finger on the power button and then plug in the AC cord - it briefly flashes but other than that nothing at all.

Does anyone have an advice of things that I could try at home?

Thanks.

Spank

How high was the drop? are there any cracks in the case? was it plugged in @ the time?

lise2010

It was dropped from the sofa to the floor - a wooden floor! but not a high drop at all and no there are no cracks that I can see and I'm not sure if it was plugged in or if I was going to plug it in - I've faffed about with it since so can't remember. I think I plugged it in and then realised it wouldn't come on. I didn't think the drop would do it much harm! how wrong!

prowla

That's what I call a crash!

Does it make a noise at all?

Lil306

I'm going for a broken DC Jack, who's with me ?

Does your laptop have a hibernation switch aswell as a power switch ?

My Compaq N610C has a button you push and one you can slide, you can both with AC adapter in that might give you some luck. Although it's possible you've damaged the power socket in the back. You could try slightly pushing upwards and I mean SLIGHTLY incase you have broken the solder from the motherboard to see if it creates a connection but if you have you're going to have to be handy with a soldering iron or pay someone to fix it (if it is indeed this)

lise2010

No, that's just the sound of me crying!

When I keep my finger on the power button with the battery out and then after the 30 secs keep my finger on whilst plugging power in - it flashes for a nanosecond - other than that nothing at all.

It's quite old and I have a work laptop but there are pics and documents that I don't want to lose - and no they're not backed up aghhhhh which is why I just want it to switch on if only long enough for me to copy and save them elsewhere.

lise2010

Lil306 wrote: »

I'm going for a broken DC Jack, who's with me ?

Does your laptop have a hibernation switch aswell as a power switch ?

My Compaq N610C has a button you push and one you can slide, you can both with AC adapter in that might give you some luck. Although it's possible you've damaged the power socket in the back. You could try slightly pushing upwards and I mean SLIGHTLY incase you have broken the solder from the motherboard to see if it creates a connection but if you have you're going to have to be handy with a soldering iron or pay someone to fix it (if it is indeed this)

hmmm I can't see anything that looks like a hibernation switch.

The power socket (if by that you mean the bit where you plug it in - is at the side) I've had a quick try at pushing it slightly and apart from the brief red flash nothinghappens. I'm clinging to the hope that the brief red flash means it's not completely dead!

ses6jwg

hard drives dont like big knocks

nearlyrich

Worst case scenario the Hard drive will be trashed by the drop BUT if it's not a decent techie should be able to take it out and get the data you need,
if you have a local independent computer store try asking if they do repairs and make sure you tell them you have data you want to recover, might not be cheap but that's the price of not backing up unfortunately. Good luck!

Lil306

What model is your laptop

Reading the above post reminded me about something, some manufacturers have hard drive protection to stop it being damaged when it drops.

You could try testing the power supply with a multimeter to make sure that hasn't been damaged either, was the cable plugged in when you dropped it?

On my laptop I have a blue button you can push and a catch you can slide, I've had an issue before where it just suddenly stopped working.

The laptop itself should switch on without a battery plugged into the AC adapter. If it doesn't it's probably one of the following

1 - Broken adapter or DC jack (possibly even both)
2 - Damaged motherboard (cpu possibly) - unseated RAM maybe

If you can find your model might help a bit more.

lise2010

Lil306 wrote: »

What model is your laptop

Reading the above post reminded me about something, some manufacturers have hard drive protection to stop it being damaged when it drops.

You could try testing the power supply with a multimeter to make sure that hasn't been damaged either, was the cable plugged in when you dropped it?

On my laptop I have a blue button you can push and a catch you can slide, I've had an issue before where it just suddenly stopped working.

The laptop itself should switch on without a battery plugged into the AC adapter. If it doesn't it's probably one of the following

1 - Broken adapter or DC jack (possibly even both)
2 - Damaged motherboard (cpu possibly) - unseated RAM maybe

If you can find your model might help a bit more.

It's a Fujitisu siemens amilo pro v3515

There's just one button to switch it on.

I'm not sure what the adaptor or DC jack is? If it is the lead that goes in - then I'm using it on this laptop at the moment. If it's the bit it goes into then it looks fine - by that - it looks similar to the one on this laptop that is working. You may of course be referring to something else entirely.

RAM is the memory? I've taken the memory out and put it back in again.

sorry,I'm not upon all the terminology.

thanks for the help.