HP Laptop Dropped - Not Working

[Doc Watson]

HP Laptop, Windows 7 Home Premium, 3GB RAM.... in teen's laptop, Mom brings in frm car, tosses backpack in kitchen corner. Ceramic tile floor, CRASH !!!! Screen can be lifted from frame slightly at upper left corner, but otherwise, no other apparent damage.

System boots to a Safe Mode prompt initially due to forced hard shutdown in previous session. Starting Normally, boots up fine, but nothing works. Nothing at all. Whatever you click on the circle goes 'round for a moment or so and then goes away. Only way out is a hard shutdown. Rebooting into safe mode, I am able to access Control Panel and Device Manager shows all hardware is working correctly. Trying a System Restore it presents no restore points, but tells me I can't do that in Safe Mode anyway.

Is the kid's system FUBAR ???

[StuartR]

From the symptoms, this sounds more like a software problem than a hardware one. I wonder if the CRASH was an unhappy coincidence.

Do you have a restore disk for putting the laptop software back to factory settings?

[Claude]

can you see the recovery partition ?

[Doc Watson]

Thanks Stuart & Claude. I agree it appears to be a software issue rather than hardware. I don't believe there are recovery "disks" for this as teens rarely do any form of maintenance or backup but I'll ask. I did get into the Recovery/Repair section of Control Panel but System Restore was empty (???) which I found strange. It causes me to suspect a virus, but without access to anything inside, I can't figure that one out.

I did see the Recovery partition and an option to use it, but did not try it. I sent the laptop back to theowner with that suggestion as a possible alternative, but no guarantee it would work at all, and an offer to try it for them if they were not comfortable trying themselves.

Just thought I'd ask, in case it comes back to me or if the kid calls with questions. Thanks for the input. Any further thought or ideas will be appreciated.

[viking33]

I know laptops are not as interior accessible as a desktop but you could also try re-seating the HD and any other "plug-ables like memory sticks, etc. A crash to the floor could well have loosened up plugs or connectors?

[BobH]

Do you have any diagnostics software on the machine or on a USB drive or CD? I think I recall some of these products being able to load from Safe Mode where they will then run both hardware and software checks and report findings. Can't remember which diag software but a bit of googling should turn some up. IIRC the inability to run these tools from Safe Mode indicates problems that can't usually be fixed by the average home repair protocols.

Good Luck, Doc!

[Claude]

Any further thought or ideas will be appreciated.

Have you tried the Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper. I found it extremely useful, recovering PCs and Laptops that nothing else could rescue.

[Doc Watson]

Any further thought or ideas will be appreciated.

Have you tried the Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper. I found it extremely useful, recovering PCs and Laptops that nothing else could rescue.

Didn't know it existed, but I passed a link along to the kid telling him to try this before he uses the recovery partition option or sends it back to me.

Thanks Claude. If he tells me how he made out, I'll post back.

[Doc Watson]

I know laptops are not as interior accessible as a desktop but you could also try re-seating the HD and any other "plug-ables like memory sticks, etc. A crash to the floor could well have loosened up plugs or connectors?

I'm 100% not comfortable with opening up laptops. That said, if this one comes back into my possession, I might do some "beta testing" of my hardware skills.

[Doc Watson]

Do you have any diagnostics software on the machine or on a USB drive or CD? I think I recall some of these products being able to load from Safe Mode where they will then run both hardware and software checks and report findings. Can't remember which diag software but a bit of googling should turn some up. IIRC the inability to run these tools from Safe Mode indicates problems that can't usually be fixed by the average home repair protocols.

Good Luck, Doc!

This is a Windows 7 system and my "expertise" (such as it is) and tools are not. XP and I are old friends, Vista is the bastard daughter and Win 7 is an unknown grandchild.