Dropped Latitude

[Guest]

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

My Dell Latitude C600 fell a foot or two onto a wood floor as I left
the house this morning. I was in a rush and hence couldn't spend time
with it, but I did try booting up and got only a brief screen flicker
and some drive sounds before it just shuts down after 15 seconds or so.

I plan to explore the situation further whe I get home, but is the way
it stays dark, sputters, and just shuts down a telltale sign of any
particular kind of damage?

 

[Guest]

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

If you still have the set of blue CDs that Dell sent with your laptop,
pop in the one called "Dell Resource CD" this should boot to a utility
program (you may have to hit F12 and choose boot to CD) that can test
all of your hardware. Sounds to me like a hard drive issue, especially
if the computer was running when it fell. Do you hear any clicking?

g_
http/www.pghtechsupport.com

Pete from Boston wrote:
> My Dell Latitude C600 fell a foot or two onto a wood floor as I left
> the house this morning. I was in a rush and hence couldn't spend time
> with it, but I did try booting up and got only a brief screen flicker
> and some drive sounds before it just shuts down after 15 seconds or so.
>
> I plan to explore the situation further whe I get home, but is the way
> it stays dark, sputters, and just shuts down a telltale sign of any
> particular kind of damage?

 

[Guest]

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

g_ wrote:
> If you still have the set of blue CDs that Dell sent with your laptop,
> pop in the one called "Dell Resource CD" this should boot to a utility
> program (you may have to hit F12 and choose boot to CD) that can test
> all of your hardware. Sounds to me like a hard drive issue, especially
> if the computer was running when it fell. Do you hear any clicking?
>
> g_
> http/www.pghtechsupport.com

No, since I bought it secondhand, I don't have the CDs. It was off when
I dropped it. I didn't hear anything all that out of the ordinary, but
my first thought was the HD.

Perhaps I should contact Dell about that disc.

 

[Guest]

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

You can download the diagnostic utility from:
http/support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=LAT_PNT_P3C_C600&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=196&typecnt=1&releaseid=R41988&vercnt=3

They provide instructions on how to setup bootable floppy diskettes,
though you may need to use 5-7 diskettes. You could also try to dump
them all into a cd project, burn them to CD, and see if your pc will
boot to the CD drive. These utilities help dell determine what is wrong
before they send any parts. Hope you still have a valid warrenty! Best
of luck!

g_
http/www.pghtechsupport.com

 

[Byron]

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

In article <1120154121.308581.86510@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
masspete@my-deja.com says...
> My Dell Latitude C600 fell a foot or two onto a wood floor as I left
> the house this morning. I was in a rush and hence couldn't spend time
> with it, but I did try booting up and got only a brief screen flicker
> and some drive sounds before it just shuts down after 15 seconds or so.
>
> I plan to explore the situation further whe I get home, but is the way
> it stays dark, sputters, and just shuts down a telltale sign of any
> particular kind of damage?
>
>


Bad luck. I did something similar a year ago. Take a close look at your
screen: I thought my Sony Vaio was toast, but it turned out it just
broke a bulb and a local LCD repair shop had it fixed for me for $100
within a day.

 

[Guest]

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

Byron wrote:
> Bad luck. I did something similar a year ago. Take a close look at your
> screen: I thought my Sony Vaio was toast, but it turned out it just
> broke a bulb and a local LCD repair shop had it fixed for me for $100
> within a day.

I see activity on the screen. No actual pixels light up, but there is a
change in the shade of black.

However, this wouldn't really explain it turning on, running the hard
drive for a few second, then turning back off. But thanks for the
suggestion.