I Dropped My Compaq!!! What Do I Do!?!?

About ten minutes ago, I was hanging out, minding my own business when I reach for my laptop and it slips out of my hands, about 1.5 feet to the carpeted floor. I looked at the screen and there was no display. So, I rebooted it, hoping that would help. To my dismay the screen did not turn on and I could not hear any noise from the drives. The only way I could tell it was on was the power light. The laptop is about 3 years old and has no type of warranty. When I shake it around it sounds like a little piece is rattling around inside. Please help. I have a lot of important information on there (i.e. an essay for school due tomorrow) and need it soon.

Thanks,
Nick

 

Chances are your hard drive and data is still ok. Go get a hard drive usb enclosure right now. Put your notebook hard drive in there and use another computer for homework. Then, open up the notebook to see what fell apart.

 

Little edit to the below..

Note for the record mods that when I was typing up the below I missed the part about the hard drive not making any noise, but the info should help out someone who is in the same boat (dropped their unit) and is trying to fix it.

USB hard drive enclosure as suggested above is the most time effective thing to do.


You could try hooking up an external monitor so you can recover the data on the unit.... that's about the only way your going to be able to see what is on the screen.

Other option is to take it apart, but more than likely something is broken and your not going to be able to fix it yourself...

Hey here's an idea.... Shine a very bright light on the display to see it there is a "image" being displayed on the screen... if so the lcd lamp was damaged during the fall... replace the lamp and you should be back up and running if that was the only thing that was damaged...

Opps... See that you are taking about No display and the hard drives not making any noise... In that case you are looking at either getting the unit repaired, or replaced... Look around for specials this time of year and you're more than likely going to find it cheaper to buy a low end, Black Friday type machine than getting it fixed.

Here's a guy that might be able to help you on a repair, or advice on a repair....

ikenfixit http://www.ikenfixit.com/

Due to the time frame you can kiss that essay goodbye though if you need it tomorrow, unless you can somehow take the unit apart and fix it yourself between now and then.

Another option is to pull the hard drive, buy /borrow an external hard drive enclosure to put the drive in, read the data off of it, back it up to dvd, then print it out on a friends computer.

PS: Buying a external hard drive should be the first thing you should get if you "need" the data on your machine. There is a link to a big thread on the best external hard drives in my sig below...