Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dude Ranch]

[Emeliu]

I don't know about motherboards messing up from falling down, but hard drives really like to be picky when they are tossed to the ground while the laptop is on, but the fact that it turns off, doesn't start up, or turn on at all, means one thing:

NEW LAPTOP TIME.

[Dude Ranch]

They put another hard drive in and it did not work still

[Dude Ranch]

Ooops sorry this should go in the technology forum
my bad

[madoka]

Well, if you MB and video card are damaged then, yeah, it's more expensive to repair than it is worth. Back up all your data and go shopping for a new one.

BTW, Macbooks have magsafe connectors that automatically disconnect when you trip over the cord. It's a great feature, so long as it doesn't spontaneously combust.

[madoka]

[KoreaninKorea]

A lot of things can break when the laptop falls. My guess is that a fan got chipped and it slowly broke. This would allow the computer to work for a little bit and explain the reboots. I can't be sure without opening it up. Then again, it could also be a thousand other things.

If you can send it back and get it replaced or fix by Philips for free, then send it back. I wouldn't bet on it, though. If it is the motherboard, you might as well buy an new laptop. If it's the graphics card, you might be able to replace it. However, finding the part you need will be difficult. It could be the RAM or hard drive and that would be an easy fix.

A good repair shop should be easily be able to test the RAM and hard drive. If it's the graphics card, it can't be tested without a compatible motherboard (not likely). The motherboard should be looked at and checked that all the fans are working and no parts are broken or missing. If there no physical damage visible, then check the CPU. This doesn't mean that the motherboard isn't broken but it can lead to solution.

Overall, I think you're out of luck over here in Korea. I'm not saying that someone over here couldn't fix it, but most computer shops over here couldn't tell the difference between a bit and a byte.

Should I suggest getting a Dell E6400 XFR next?

[NorKnOAd]

I'll give you the bad first... From what you've said, there could be a few problems which boil down to needing a replacement motherboard. Any power supply issue, video issue, usb.. you name it, its part of the motherboard. Intermittent freezing, and random shut downs could be more serious issues where you would have to replace the board or the laptop, however, if it is just a video problem you may be able to use a more interesting setup for a while. If there's any other monitor you can get your hands on, plug it into the laptop and see if you can get display on that. With an external monitor, usually picture shows there first, if not, you may need to press fn+f5 or wherever the little picture of a screen is to get display out of the monitor. Sometimes i've seen laptops with broken cables / connectors to the display, and an external will work. Though if it is a video card problem, this will not work and you will need to replace the board or laptop.
Well, the "good news" is your data should be fine. Hard drives don't like being dropped, but they're more resilient than you'd think. I'm sure any tech place has usb - hard drive connectors so you will be able to check if your data is accessible. Any MUST HAVE material, is always able to be recovered if need be, but that usually costs a lot of money if you have to send your hard drive out to a lab... however, i think your hard drive should be OK.
I hope this helps, and i hope its just the display... Good luck!

[Yesterday]

[Dude Ranch]