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Laptop broken


Rippy

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Dropped my laptop and it froze.

Ran the repair system option at startup. After it completed it restarted but would only load up the first dell page and then after remains a blank screen with the flickering dash.

I can't search on my phone tbh, and no one I've asked seems to know what to do. Can anyone help please? Never been sp desperate. What's the next step? Where can I get it repaired?

My warranty no longer covers my laptop because I took my laptop apart few months back to change the casing.

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Well if all you want is just files, then take the hard drive out and connect to another PC. Also what repair are you talking about? A full factory default or the Windows Start UP repair that you normally get in Windows 7?

A laptop being dropped could break a number of things, could be the motherboard (component being broken, hard drive (if the needle is forced to move in a direction that it wasn't naturally suppose to be at then its pretty much "BYE BYE DATA", also perhaps the shock from the drops has shifted memory dimms out of place.

If you're looking for a place to take it and get it repaired then there's many lil market places out there nowadays with some kind of "Laptop/Computer" repair shop or whatever you call it. Failing that PC World, friend of a friend who may know someone.

Failing all that, I can assist, just let me know where I need to be or post it :D

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most likely the hard drive is gone if its not loading up after the dell screen

go into bios/setup (hold del or f8 or f12 or something at startup, it should tell you what key) and see if it can reckognize the hard drive

edit: actually saying that, if it was able to run recovery it probably can access the hard drive

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Yeah I can access bios/setup. Does that alone mean it recognises the harddrive?

I've removed the harddrive from it, Now I need this IDE hd adapter??

I'll have to buy one then??

Im lucky enough to have backed up my stuff in may but I gave my harddrive to a friend so I deleted some of it off it. My music is safe though.

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BIOS doesn't wipe anything

in BIOS there should be a place that lists connected drives (CD/Hard drives/etc) if it shows the hard drive model (e.g. "Samsung H989 HDD") that means your hard drive is being recognized

if its recognized then go into recovery again and see if there's some sort of 'check disk' option, or if there's a 'command prompt'/DOS option select that and when the windows comes up type "chkdsk /r /f" or "chkdsk c: /r /f"

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Ah I actually meant if I run the diagnostics will I wipe my data.

When I go to bios the following comes up

System

-system info

-processor info

-memory info

Etc etc

It only says under device info: primary hard drive 250gb hdd

And I don't see any check disk option.

I've inserted the windows vista cd but it won't even boot that.

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Ok ive made progress. I will try the ubuntu app if this doesn't work.

Ive managed to boot from the windows vista cd (I read to do this somewhere but the instructions following don't correspond to what appears on my screen). It loads up the installation page for windows vista and gives the option of repair system. So clicked that and then a system recovery window opens and says

'insert the installation media for the device and click ok to select the driver'

No idea what I'm to select or wether this is of any benefit.

Edit: im getting somewhere. Ill post back tomorrow if I need further help. Gonna go to servicing on Monday. Thanks.

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the ubunu method is recommended if you haven't got enough space on the drive to install the os and therefore have to format the whole drive before installing.

if you do have enough space (which i assume you do) you can skip that. just reinstall and your old files will be in the C:\Windows.old folder (assuming you're using windows)

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for real, Windows 7 you life brah!

but yeah, I dunno what to do at your current point, I would if I had it in front of me I would,

but if you have no issue with having to reinstall windows and all your programs then you can just install it again at the installation screen (instead of recovering), my way will likely be quicker but if you can't figure out a way to get there then I dunno

the screen you're looking for is this, then you click the command prompt and put in the phrase "chkdsk c: /r /f"

16039d1261253596-how-create-system-repair-disc-windows-7-w7-recdisc3.jpg

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Yeah dubby I did that disk check last night

After completion is everything meant to be alright? Because it still doesn't work. Is there anything else on that screenshot I can try?

I'll go buy an adapter today and see if my harddrive is ok first.

Gonna download ubuntu in a bit.

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When Laptop takes a drop, and it stops working, the possible cause might be hardware related. Have you made sure the hard drive is connected properly in its bay? Loading up BIOS doesn't mean the hard drive is fine as it boots up from a ROM chip on the motherboard.

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I put ubuntu onto a USB stick, tried booting from it but says 'invalid or damaged bootable partition'. Googled it, with some answers saying harddrive issue that has probably gone. Last time I checked I had about 1GB free on my hard drive.

Ive done the startup repair twice but still no luck.

And yeah checked the harddrive is connected fine.

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Lol what?

ITS FIXED!!! repair stores were useless.

All I had to do was reinstall windows vista. And dubby I hadn't done chkdsk f, but did so before installation. Few files are still corrupted though. Is that why you suggested ubuntu Francis? I've got the windows.old folder but I can't access programs. Should I delete those and reinstall them? Is it fine to move files from that folder to the new one?

My Internet can't detect a network either. Don't know what drivers to download. Tried one I thought was correct but it doesn't work. Can't seem to find appropriate solutions on google. Anyone know? I've tried inserting the drivers CD that came with the laptop but I don't what I'm doing tbh.

Under Device Manager>Network Adapters, I only have Bluetooth Devices.

edit

ok connected to internet through ethernet cable. trying to configure new drivers now. hope this works.

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windows 7 would have automatically downloaded and installed your driver.

go to windows updates and see if your drivers are available for download.

i think your problem with programs is to do with the registry. don't know how to fix that, so you may want reinstall the ones that don't work if you can't find a solution on google.

download windows 7 asap

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