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

patman99

You can easily remove the harddrive on most laptops yourself. Buy yourself a cheap 2.5" USB caddy, put the drive in, and see if you can retrieve the files yourself.

I charge £10 - £25 depending on size of files recovered.

lise2010

Thanks - sorry to sound thick but what does the hard drive look like?

tronator

lise2010 wrote: »

Thanks - sorry to sound thick but what does the hard drive look like?

Chose one from here

http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=hard%20drive&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1440&bih=666

Lil306

lise2010 wrote: »

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.

Gah, Fujitsu are the bain of my life, seriously. Someone bought one, it was DOA, I sent it off to be fixed now the screen has gone.

That's another story however.

When I'm referring to the DC Jack, the DC Jack / Pin is the little pin inside the laptop which connects up to the power supply from your power adapter. They're usually circle and have a small bit in the center.

EDIT : Here's a site I found, has a pic of a DC Jack that I'm on about

http://www.repairpowerjack.com/

If it is indeed damaged, most 3rd party traders will repair for around £0-100, pc world charge around £200.

This is why I mention a multimeter, it's worth testing your adapter to make sure it's not kaput. If the charger is kaput (possibility) then your laptop won't get power to switch on

Normally what happens, if a laptop is dropped and lands on the DC Jack when the adapter is still plugged in, it will break the solder on the connectors to the DC Jack on the motherboard and thus stops it charging and also sometimes stops it powering up because the power isn't going to the motherboard (this is why I mentioned about bending it slightly so it contacts the motherboard) was more of a hunch however.

Yes, the RAM is the memory chips. The laptop itself providing the memory is reseated properly (believe me it's always worth double checking) will still switch on even with a faulty hard drive. If it doesn't switch on then usually some electronics are damaged.

Do you have access to a multimeter at all?

lise2010

Thanks - I'll try the memory again tomorrow. Itwasn't plugged in it at the time I'm pretty sure and the pin thing looks ok - well the same as the one that I'm usng now and is working.

I'll give it all another go when I'm less stressed with it all.

Thanks to everyone who replied.

lise2010

and no I don't think I have access to a multi meter - I;ll ask at work if anyone has one or maybe my brother in law- he has all kindsof things I've never heard of it.

Robinhood

Hi, I'm no computer expert so take my advice with a pinch a salt but I think you've had allot of replies just because people want to be heard.

Was your laptop charged at the time of the drop? If yes, then the jack has nothing to do with it, or very unlikely.

If your laptop is turning off straight away, e.g. failing to turn on, it sounds more like a power supply problem than hard drive. This being the case, you should hopefully be able to retrieve the data you want, albeit at a cost of somebody who knows what they are doing!

Good luck.

Lil306

Robinhood wrote: »

Hi, I'm no computer expert so take my advice with a pinch a salt but I think you've had allot of replies just because people want to be heard.

Was your laptop charged at the time of the drop? If yes, then the jack has nothing to do with it, or very unlikely.

If your laptop is turning off straight away, e.g. failing to turn on, it sounds more like a power supply problem than hard drive. This being the case, you should hopefully be able to retrieve the data you want, albeit at a cost of somebody who knows what they are doing!

Good luck.

It's definately power related, that's why there is a red light flashing.

I've skimmed over the comments so may have missed it but can't remember if it was plugged in or not.

If plugged in - DC Jack or Adapter.
If not plugged in - electronics.

Pretty obvious really, the multimeter was just to test if the adapter is working.

Robinhood

Lil306 wrote: »

It's definately power related, that's why there is a red light flashing.

If plugged in - DC Jack or Adapter.
If not plugged in - electronics.

Hence asking about its state e.g. charge as this would rule out the DC jack or adaptor.

GunJack

I'm with Lil on this....if not plugged in (and sounds like it wasn't), then I'd go for the mobo having been damaged by the impact..seen too many with similar symptoms