Dropped laptop? ? ?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about three
feet onto a ceramic tile floor.

Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be working
perfectly.

I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Ray Jenkins wrote:
> Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about
> three feet onto a ceramic tile floor.
>
> Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be
> working perfectly.
>
> I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.

If it was running at the time, the HD could be damaged. First to do is
run chkdsk /fix from a command prompt. Second is back up anything of
value to CD, just in case.

Q

 

[Andrew]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Ray Jenkins <rayj.balt@verizondelethis.net> wrote:
: Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about three
: feet onto a ceramic tile floor.

: Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be working
: perfectly.

: I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.

If you have all your data backed up on a CD, DVD, or other backup
device, you shouldn't worry about it except for the price of
replacing/repairing a broken computer. For some of us, the data on
our hard drives is much more valuable than the computer itself.

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
*******************************************************************
----> http/www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
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[Andrew]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Quaoar <quaoar@tenthplanet.net> wrote:
: Ray Jenkins wrote:
: > Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about
: > three feet onto a ceramic tile floor.
: >
: > Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be
: > working perfectly.
: >
: > I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.

: If it was running at the time, the HD could be damaged. First to do is
: run chkdsk /fix from a command prompt. Second is back up anything of
: value to CD, just in case.

Because hard drives can and will crash all the time, even without
being dropped, it's a good idea to have everything backed up anyway.
My desktop harddrive crashed on me about two months ago - I had so
much data on it that it was hard to put even on DVD's, but I had
copied the important stuff to a shadow drive long before the crash.

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
*******************************************************************
----> http/www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
*******************************************************************

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Andrew wrote:
>
> Quaoar <quaoar@tenthplanet.net> wrote:
> : Ray Jenkins wrote:
> : > Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about
> : > three feet onto a ceramic tile floor.
> : >
> : > Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be
> : > working perfectly.
> : >
> : > I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.
>
> : If it was running at the time, the HD could be damaged. First to do is
> : run chkdsk /fix from a command prompt. Second is back up anything of
> : value to CD, just in case.
>
> Because hard drives can and will crash all the time, even without
> being dropped, it's a good idea to have everything backed up anyway.
> My desktop harddrive crashed on me about two months ago - I had so
> much data on it that it was hard to put even on DVD's, but I had
> copied the important stuff to a shadow drive long before the crash.

I've found that if I backup all my files, I never need the backup.

If I don't backup my files, my system crashes.

It's one of Murphy's corollaries. <g>

Larry

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Quaoar wrote:

> Ray Jenkins wrote:
>
>>Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about
>>three feet onto a ceramic tile floor.
>>
>>Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be
>>working perfectly.
>>
>>I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.
>
>
> If it was running at the time, the HD could be damaged. First to do is
> run chkdsk /fix from a command prompt. Second is back up anything of
> value to CD, just in case.
>
> Q
>
>
Wise advice except I would do the reverse since you never know what you
will end up with once you run chkdsk with /fix. backup would be the very
first of my priorities, second I would check for bad sectors and then I
would run chkdsk with suffix to detect any problems. Then and only then,
i would use the /fix if errors are found.

If you end up with no errors, consider yourself lucky and test your
machine thoroughly during a few days before trusting with valuable data.

--
John Doue

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

John Doue wrote:
> Quaoar wrote:
>
>> Ray Jenkins wrote:
>>
>>> Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about
>>> three feet onto a ceramic tile floor.
>>>
>>> Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be
>>> working perfectly.
>>>
>>> I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.
>>
>>
>>
>> If it was running at the time, the HD could be damaged. First to do is
>> run chkdsk /fix from a command prompt. Second is back up anything of
>> value to CD, just in case.
>>
>> Q
>>
>>
> Wise advice except I would do the reverse since you never know what you
> will end up with once you run chkdsk with /fix. backup would be the very
> first of my priorities, second I would check for bad sectors and then I
> would run chkdsk with suffix to detect any problems. Then and only then,
> i would use the /fix if errors are found.
>
> If you end up with no errors, consider yourself lucky and test your
> machine thoroughly during a few days before trusting with valuable data.
>
Typo: I of course meant "without" suffix and not "with". Sorry.

--
John Doue

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

You are VERY lucky.

Yes, there could be hidden damage. The hard drive might have been
damaged, and the damage might not be immediately apparent.

You also might have broken plastics or internal supports for {could be
anything} that you might not be immediately aware of, and that might not
currently be causing problems. For example, you might have broken off
the supports for the CPU fan, but until or unless it shifts, it may not
cause a problem.

There's really no way to be absoutely sure, and it's also very possible
that you didn't do any hidden damage. Personally, I would assume that
everything is ok and see what happens. Taking the laptop apart for an
inspection probably has more probability of doing more harm than good.

[An obvious question, but with the laptop powered off, does anything
"rattle" when you shake it [not TOO aggressively]].


Ray Jenkins wrote:
> Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about three
> feet onto a ceramic tile floor.
>
> Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be working
> perfectly.
>
> I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Thanks Barry -- as far as I can now tell everything is still in working
order. As you say, I'm just lucky.

I was just carrying too many things, trying to unlock a door. I sure learned
a lesson.

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:40B6A755.1060001@neo.rr.com...
> You are VERY lucky.
>
> Yes, there could be hidden damage. The hard drive might have been
> damaged, and the damage might not be immediately apparent.
>
> You also might have broken plastics or internal supports for {could be
> anything} that you might not be immediately aware of, and that might not
> currently be causing problems. For example, you might have broken off
> the supports for the CPU fan, but until or unless it shifts, it may not
> cause a problem.
>
> There's really no way to be absoutely sure, and it's also very possible
> that you didn't do any hidden damage. Personally, I would assume that
> everything is ok and see what happens. Taking the laptop apart for an
> inspection probably has more probability of doing more harm than good.
>
> [An obvious question, but with the laptop powered off, does anything
> "rattle" when you shake it [not TOO aggressively]].
>
>
> Ray Jenkins wrote:
> > Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about
three
> > feet onto a ceramic tile floor.
> >
> > Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be
working
> > perfectly.
> >
> > I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.
> >
> >
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Yes - all seems to be good. As others have posted - just keep your backups
up to date and the hard drive would be the most suspect.

About two years ago, I had my brand new T23 from work sitting on my desk at
home. I also had my 80GB external Buslink USB Drive connected to it. I
thought that I'd be smart and back up my data - had some really important
data on there with no other backups.

My then 3 year old found his way into my home office/den and before I could
even look - he grabbed the usb cable and pulled - both drive and laptop went
onto the floor. Immediate "Ca-chunk ca-chunk ca-chunk" sounds coming from
both. Lost ALL my data. Well - two hard drives also. And one power
connector that got broken.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. The three year old? - well, all I
could do was take him out and play with him - and tell him no more touching
wires. He turns 5 next week during a daddy / son campout.


"Ray Jenkins" <rayj.balt@verizonDELETHIS.net> wrote in message
news:GUWtc.5152$oh7.3473@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
> Thanks Barry -- as far as I can now tell everything is still in working
> order. As you say, I'm just lucky.
>
> I was just carrying too many things, trying to unlock a door. I sure
learned
> a lesson.
>
> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:40B6A755.1060001@neo.rr.com...
> > You are VERY lucky.
> >
> > Yes, there could be hidden damage. The hard drive might have been
> > damaged, and the damage might not be immediately apparent.
> >
> > You also might have broken plastics or internal supports for {could be
> > anything} that you might not be immediately aware of, and that might not
> > currently be causing problems. For example, you might have broken off
> > the supports for the CPU fan, but until or unless it shifts, it may not
> > cause a problem.
> >
> > There's really no way to be absoutely sure, and it's also very possible
> > that you didn't do any hidden damage. Personally, I would assume that
> > everything is ok and see what happens. Taking the laptop apart for an
> > inspection probably has more probability of doing more harm than good.
> >
> > [An obvious question, but with the laptop powered off, does anything
> > "rattle" when you shake it [not TOO aggressively]].
> >
> >
> > Ray Jenkins wrote:
> > > Well, I dropped my year-old HP Pavilion laptop today. It fell about
> three
> > > feet onto a ceramic tile floor.
> > >
> > > Despite the fall, the screen survived, and the equipment seems to be
> working
> > > perfectly.
> > >
> > > I'm wondering if there might be any hidden damage I might expect.
> > >
> > >
> >
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"ClevelandTech" <clevelandtech@hotmail.com> wrote in
n
> I learned a valuable lesson that day. The three year old? - well, all
> I could do was take him out and play with him - and tell him no more
> touching wires. He turns 5 next week during a daddy / son campout.

leave the laptop at home!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I've noticed over years that many "accidents" are not accidents, in
the sense that if you sit down and think about the possibilities, you
are very likely to spot the accident before it happens. So many
"accidents" reflect not a direct Murphy's Law assault but rather, they
reflect neglect.

Re slippery laptops, I've got an Averatec and for slippery, it's a
winner. The solution is a padded soft zipper case found in a computer
store. Which by the way, conceals the laptop inside it, thereby
making you and your laptop a less obvious ripoff target in some public
place.

Cheers -- Martha Adams