Laptop drops - How bad are they?

My laptop has suffered a few drops, usually from about 1-2 feet on carpet. Recently it had another drop but this time to a marble floor, fortunately it was maybe about a foot or so but there was a bit of cosmetic damage on the corner that it hit.

Either way I'm really concerned, I did spend a lot of money on this (first time ever). My system is however running absolutely perfectly but should I be worried about long term damage?

 

If its just cosmetic damage then theres nothing to worry about but theres a chance that you could lose some data from the HD but most laptops has bulit in HD protection incase of drops.

 

if you have a hdd you could mess it up and cause data corruption, ssd are most likely fine. with very other component you'll know instantly if there's something wrong.

when i dropped mine all i had to do was repaste thermals, but i dont know if that was a coincidence as i hadn't repasted in 4 years.

 

If the laptop was closed when it was dropped then the risk of damage is far less than if it was open and in use. Hard drive heads are parked when the computer is off but if the drive was spinning when the computer hit the ground then, unless the drive or computer has a g sensor, there's a big risk of heads hitting platters with consequent damage.

Business grade laptops tend to be more robust because they are designed to be tolerant of the maltreatment handed out to equipment which the user hasn't paid for themselves.

John

 

Very true. And unfortunately while Lenovo's IdeaPad line are decent for what they are, they are not built to ThinkPad T, X, or W standards. If you are clumsy and/or take tumbles, consider that or plan on replacing laptops or repairing them more often. Some are more LifeProof than others. Hopefully yours will be fine operationally.

 

I'm not too worried if the HDD is damaged since they can be replaced easily. However I'm more worried about the motherboard and its components. Do drops cause long term damage and eventually total failure?

 

Depends on how hard the drop, what surface it is on, and how well built the laptop. Some survive better than others.

 

Nobody knows. Bottom line is if it works after you dropped it count your blessings.

 

I would say be on the lookout for possible hardware issues (OS locking up, operating really slow). Usually the culprits of a failing hard drive.