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    Rolled my laptop down the stairs :'(

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by MrDerek, Nov 23, 2009.

  1. MrDerek

    MrDerek Notebook Guru

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    Hi, apologies if this is in the wrong section... didn't really know where to put it.

    Just 30mins ago I acidentally rolled my laptop down the stairs (in a thin laptop bag). I've given it a good inspection and other than the CD tray being popped out, there doesn't seem to be any damages... it seems to be running fine. There isn't any marks or dead pixels on the display, and there isn't any lumps or bumps sticking around...

    But I'm still worried since I've only had this laptop for about a month. cost me £1k...

    Is there anything I should be worried about?
    and Is there any tests that I could run to make sure that the internal hardware is fine?

    hope to hear form you guys soon,
    Cheers
     
  2. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    First thing to check is the HDD for errors.
     
  3. Serg

    Serg Nowhere - Everywhere

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    ^^ at Soviet Sunrise.

    Back to topic. Run a check disk utility. Check the performance with benchmarking tools. Perhaps opening it?
     
  4. afhstingray

    afhstingray Notebook Prophet

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    what brand is your laptop? if its a dell run the dell diagnostics at startup.
     
  5. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    If the notebook was powered off (which I assume in this case) and inside a case, I wouldn't be too worried. If it was running, that's another story.

    I once threw hard, (by accident - tripped), an external HD across my office (20 feet) and that drive is still working today (5 years later)!

    Including running the check disk utility (make sure to check both boxes and reboot when asked), the only other thing I might check is that the RAM is still correctly seated.

    Other than that, enjoy! (You still have warranty, right?)

    But be more careful next time. :D
     
  6. sean473

    sean473 Notebook Prophet

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    Run Checkdisk first and use your laptop... and then if probelms come up we can help... BTW HOW THE HELL CAN YOU ROLL A NEW 1K POUNDS LAPTOP DOWN THE STAIRS???????????????????? MAY LIGHTNING STRIKE YOU FOR DOING THAT! Lol....
     
  7. MrDerek

    MrDerek Notebook Guru

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    thanks for the replies.

    checked the hard drive and everything seems fine... I'm still a bit shaken though, I could still picture the laptop rolling down the stairs quite vividly in my head lols...
     
  8. wearetheborg

    wearetheborg Notebook Virtuoso

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    Did you heart stop when it was happening ? :D

    In all likelyhood, your laptop will be none the worse for the roll...the bag saved it probably. Were the floors carpeted ?
     
  9. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    Stay on-topic in this thread - thank you. I had to delete a few posts.
     
  10. occupant

    occupant Notebook Enthusiast

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    I will second tilleroftheearth's suggestion to make sure the memory chips are still seated. I bought a non-working 12" Aluminum G4 once at a flea market for $100, it had obviously been dropped but the screen was good so I gambled on it. Figured worst case I could buy another with a bad screen and swap it out. But I wanted to see if this one could run so I bought an AC adapter for it, a fresh battery, and it wouldn't do anything. So I started checking out battery contacts and nothing. The power plug wasn't broken loose. There were no cracks on the mainboard or the daughtercards, but I removed and installed the memory while I checked all this. It booted fine after that and I had no trouble getting $450 for it on CL. Awesome. If your laptop is working fine, I say keep using it, but if it gets flaky, check that memory and run CHKDSK or something equivalent.
     
  11. surfasb

    surfasb Titles Shmm-itles

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    I'm curious how long of a staircase it was. I once dropped a book on a staircase. It hit the step started rolling and picked up momentum. Finally it made a leap that cleared the last 6 steps. It was quite the sight. I've never seen a book jump that high. If that was my laptop, it would of definitely cracked the screen.

    Lucky you.
     
  12. sean473

    sean473 Notebook Prophet

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    LOL.... Nice tale... definetly going to try this as a physics experiment in school... anyway my school laptop are old celeron M laptops... worthless....
     
  13. Serg

    Serg Nowhere - Everywhere

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    As Charles P. Jefferies said above. Stay on topic.

    To MrDerek, any luck? Can you update us? Thanks
     
  14. surfasb

    surfasb Titles Shmm-itles

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    It's probably just fine.