Dell laptop won't POST after being dropped

[Notoriouskelly]

My laptop fell a short distance yesterday. hard drive is rattling but with hard drive and battery removed shows no signs of life.

With battery in, battery light flashes but also no POST>

Besides bad hard drive, is there anything commonly bad on the Dell after shock?

I took it apart last nite but nothing jumped out at me.
I know PC's pretty well butI am not experienced at laptop repair.

Thank you.

 

[bcastner]

I took it apart last nite but nothing jumped out at me.

It actually would have been better had something jumped out at you, as you could just put it back.

Between the hard drive and likely a new motherboard, and possibly a new display, I would go shopping for a new laptop.

My daughter's Inspiron, for example, met the same fate. When dropped it hit on the side where a PCMCIA adapter resided. That was enough to require replacing under Warranty a new motherboard. Similarly, one dropped on the left front corner (as you face the machine) will push the battery hard enough to impact the hard disk drive and take out the motherboard.

 

[Notoriouskelly]

Thanks bcastner. I took the laptop completely apart and that's Exactly what it is; the PCMCIA had been knocked off the board and pins were shorting.

I'll get a better case and be more careful with laptops.

 

[bcastner]

If you are any good at soldering, you can purchase very cheaply the Dell pcmcia socket. Google on "dell laptop parts" an do some shopping.

If the machine had not been under Warranty that is what I would have done. I problem mis-remember, but I think the socket is like US$ 8.00 or so.

.

Users Helping Users

 

[skiflyer]

You could also just get some wire snips and remove it, then put some non-conductive material over the pins so it no longer shorts, tho if you snip short enough it may be unnecessary.

Then just replace your PCMCIA items with USB items as is the trend these days.

 

[Notoriouskelly]

Both good tips- Thanks bcastner and skiflyer- i'll post how it turns out!

kelly

 

[Notoriouskelly]

you guys are Geniuses! i thought my beloved laptop was a paperweight, but cleaned off the PCMCIA mess and it POSTed!

then i put in the hard drive and it Booted!

for 50 bux got a wireless USB and am back in bidness.

Thanks so much for your tips bcastner & skiflyer.

i had almost given up hope on it.