How To Fix Any Dropped Laptop Problem

Ouch!! You dropped your laptop, now what? Well, after picking up your laptop from wherever you dropped it, there are few things you should consider right away:

• Your computer might not boot up but still has a chance of being fixed at home.
• Your laptop may boot up but that doesn’t necessarily mean everything is ok.

The two points above are just a tip of the iceberg. In this article, I will go through all the possible scenarios of how your laptop could have been damaged from the drop and how you can fix it by yourself.

There’s no special laptop model that can handle a solid drop. This means that if you are using a Dell, HP, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer or any other laptop brand not mentioned, as long as it dropped from a significant height, the laptop may develop some type of damage.

If your laptop has developed some type of problem, that’s because you must have dropped it on something solid like on a concrete floor or something similar. Your computer might still develop a fault even if it falls on something soft like on your carpet, toe or cat.

Another reason your computer has developed a problem after it dropped is that it fell into water like your bathtub or pool.

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This kind of situation is 5050, because your computer may work or not. Even if your computer manages to work after taking it out of the water, there’s a possibility that it’s only a matter of time before it starts revealing its true problem or it might not just work as it used to again. Just make sure you do not try to plug in your charger while there’s still water in your laptop.

Before we begin, you might want to consider asking these questions:

Is my laptop insured?

This will surely be great news to you if you already insured your laptop with a good insurance company. You don’t have to continue reading this article.

All you have to do is to contact your insurance company and let them handle the rest.

If your laptop isn’t insured, that’s ok because your laptop might still be under warranty.

Is my laptop under warranty?

Just maybe your laptop isn’t insured, there’s a chance you are probably still under warranty. Obviously, you should be able to figure this out yourself.

If you are still under warranty, my advice would be for you to take it back to the store you bought it from.

Make sure you haven’t broken your warranty seal or agreement before taking it back.

After considering insurance or warranty and you figured that you aren’t covered by that, let me show you how you can fix your computer yourself.

Depending on what your computer is experiencing, you should skip directly to the topic that you feel will give you the solution you need.

Let’s get to it,

[su_box title="NOTE" style="soft" box_color="#1EA497" radius="15"]The solutions below might require you to disassemble your laptop. If this is something you are not comfortable with, visit your nearby computer repair shop and if you are comfortable with it, get your toolkit ready.[/su_box]

Dropped Laptop is Dead

Symptoms

• Not working
• No power
• Won’t power on
• Won’t turn on

Solution

Here’s how to fix your laptop going through any of the following symptoms above.

Reset CMOS battery

Here’s how,

1. Unplug your charger and other peripherals.

2. Disconnect or remove your battery.

3. Open your laptop to reveal its motherboard.

4. Take out the coin looking CMOS battery into your hand.

5. Press and hold your power button for more than 40 sec and then release your hand.

6. Reconnect your CMOS battery correctly.

7. Connect your laptop battery and turn it on.

Check Laptop Hardware

Hardware like your ram and hard drive or ssd is required by your laptop to start correctly. If any of the required hardware devices is not well in place or connected, your laptop won’t power on.

To resolve this, all you have to do is to open up your laptop and check if everything is in its place correctly.

Dropped Laptop Screen Issues

Symptoms

• Has lines
• Screen is black
• Screen is messed up
• Blue screen
• Black screen
• Broken screen
• Black spots screen
• Black lines on screen
• Display problems
• Screen flickering
• Half screen white
• Half screen black
• Lines on screen
• Black lines
• Screen vertical lines
• Screen pixelated
• Touch screen not working

Solutions

How to fix screen with lines

First things first, if your laptop shows any of the following symptoms below, consider your screen damaged.

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• Black Lines
• Spots
• Half screen with or black

These kinds of symptoms can’t be fixed because the damage is already done. If the lines or spots are not too serious, you can manage them like that until you can afford a new screen replacement but if your screen is really messed up, you should replace it immediately.

Understand that it doesn’t matter if you manage your laptop screen because the lines and spots are still small. Those lines and spots will slowly spread and eventually, you will still need to replace your screen.

Here’s a reliable store to get your screen replacement if you don’t want to buy a fake.

Get a reliable laptop screen here and search for your full laptop model and end it with screen replacement.

For example,

"Dell Inspiron 15 7000 gaming screen replacement"

How to fix flickering screen

Flickering or pixelated screens can be deceiving at times because it gives you an illusion that your laptop screen might still work.

But here’s how you can test it:

Restart your laptop and watch closely to see if the flickering begins immediately when you turn on your laptop or after the windows logo to your sign in screen.

If the flickering started immediately when you turned on your laptop, it means your screen needs to be replaced but if the flickering starts after the windows logo, it can be fixed by simply adjusting your refresh rate or reinstalling and updating your display drivers.

I wrote an article specifically to fix flickering screens and you should check it out.

How to fix Blue screen

Blue screen can be extremely frustrating because it’s difficult to know exactly what is causing your laptop to give you the bluescreen error.

But these are commonly what causes the blue screen error:

• Hard Drive
• RAM
• Motherboard

Since dropping your laptop is what resulted the blue screen error, you should know that one of the hardware listed above is what is triggering the blue screen error.

The ram and hard drive can easily be resolved but the motherboard can’t be easily resolved. It would need to be replaced.

If you think your hard drive is the problem, you should test your laptop with another hard drive with OS installed to see if your laptop work just fine.

If it works, you need to format your hard drive manually using a bootable USB to completely get rid of the blue screen error.

If the test hard drive also results in a blue screen, chances are your RAM is the culprit.

To fix your ram from causing the blue screen error, here are few tips to guide you:

• Remove and reinsert your RAM correctly because it could have shifted somehow after you dropped your computer
• Clean your RAM and its ports before inserting your RAM back in.
• Test your RAM one after the other to separate that bad ram for the good ram.
• Test your RAM port one after the other to identify the port that must have gone bad.
• Test your laptop with another RAM to know if yours are already bad.

How to fix black screen

If your laptop started showing a black screen error after you dropped your laptop, you need to be able to tell if it’s a software issue or a hardware issue.

Software issues would be related to applications or programs installed on your computer while hardware issues would be related to your screen itself.

To simply know if you are not facing any hardware issue, you would need to test your screen.

Here’s how,

Restart your computer and check if it shows a black screen all through the booting process. If by any chance nothing is visible on your screen after restarting your computer, that is a big sign that your laptop screen is damaged or your RAM is not sitting correctly in its slot.

If you try to turn on a computer without RAM, the computer would turn on but won’t display anything on the screen. That is a possible reason why your laptop is showing a black screen. So, make sure you check your RAM properly to know if they’re sitting right.

If your laptop displays a black screen after the windows logo, then it means the problem you are facing is a software issue and very simple to fix.

Here’s how you can fix it:

1. While in the black screen, Press the following command to launch task manager:

Ctrl + Shift + Esc

2. Click on file.

3. Select run new task.

4. Type in Explorer.exe and click enter.

This should automatically launch your home screen.

Note that this is a temporary fix and would require the same process every time you restart your computer.

For a permanent fix, I would recommend you reinstall your windows manually through a bootable USB to remove all errors completely.

How to fix a touch screen

I’ll have to give this one to you straight. Your touch screen is already damaged and needs to be replaced. As long as it stopped working after your laptop dropped, it means that drop has affected it resulting in it to stop working.

On the bright side, some laptops with touch screens have two layers which are the screen itself and then the touch. The touch might go bad but the screen would still be working perfectly as long as there are no lines or spots on it.

Hopefully, your laptop screen has two layers and you would only need to replace just the touch which should cost you less.

Dropped Laptop keyboard Issues

Symptoms

• Keyboard not working
• Some keys work while others aren’t working
• Keyboard won’t work after liquid spill

Solutions

Check your Keyboard connections

Since your keyboard began to malfunction after it dropped, chances are that your keyboard connections must have disconnected.

The idea for you to resolve this is to simply detach and reattach your keyboard properly. This would require you to disassemble your laptop to get to your keyboard and it’s cable.

Once you are able to achieve this, all you have to do is to disconnect the keyboard cable carefully from the motherboard and then reattach the cable back correctly.

If your keyboard isn’t still working, I believe your laptop keyboard must have been damaged due to the drop.

How to fix laptop Keyboard after liquid spill

In a situation where you spilled water, juice, soda, coffee, tea or any other kind of liquid on your laptop keyboard, you would need to act fast before your keyboard gets completely damaged.

The first thing is to make sure your laptop is completely turned off and disconnected from any power source because water and electricity obviously don’t mix well.

The second thing you would want to do is to turn your laptop upside down so the liquid flows downwards. You should place a towel underneath your laptop to absorb all the liquid coming out. Leave it like that for some time.

If you think there’s still liquid in your keyboard then, the next best thing is to disassemble your laptop and take out the keyboard specifically for drying. Once it’s dry and you are sure there’s no more liquid in your computer, you can turn your computer on to test your keyboard.

If it works, great!! but if it doesn’t work, you simply need to replace it.

Dropped Laptop Not Booting Properly

Booting issues are always related to hard drive or solid state drive. Basically where your operating system is installed. Dropping your laptop must have ejected your hard drive or damaged it which is the reason why your laptop is unable to boot your operating system.

Symptoms

• Boot device not found
• Can’t find hard drive
• Damaged hard drive
• Repairing disk error
• Does not boot
• Won’t boot
• Hard drive failure
• Hard drive recovery
• Windows won’t load
• Operating system not found
• Preparing automatic repair
• Stuck at starting windows

Solutions

Before you begin with the solutions below make sure you disassemble your laptop and eject and reinsert your hard drive or SSD back in its location correctly.

If you insert your hard drive or SSD correctly and you are still getting the following symptoms above, it means your hard drive or SSD got damaged during the fall. You would need to replace it. You can also try the fixes below if they may help.

How to fix boot device not found

Boot device not found is basically your computer telling you that it’s trying to boot up your operating system but it can’t find any bootable device to boot from.

What you can do to resolve this is to boot into your BIOS setup and set your boot order correctly. Make sure your Hard drive or SSD comes first because that is where your operating system is installed.

You should check out this special article I wrote dedicated to fixing boot devices not found.

How to fix operating system not found

Operating system not found means that your laptop is trying to boot from your hard drive or SSD but it is unable to find an operating system inside your drive. If this occurred after you dropped your laptop, unfortunately, there’s no way to fix this. Your drive got damaged immediately you dropped your laptop and you need to replace it.

If you are getting the operating system not found error and it wasn’t caused by dropping your laptop. All you need to do is to reinstall Windows 10 manually back into your hard drive using a bootable USB.

Everything should work smoothly once you reinstall windows on your drive.

How to Fix windows not loading

If windows won’t load properly it means your laptop is probably stuck on the windows logo and it’s failing to move to the next phase which is your sign in screen. In this kind of situation, the ultimate solution is to reset your windows to completely remove all errors. Although if you don’t like the idea of losing your files, here are some tips to help you resolve this issue.

• While stuck on the windows logo screen you should wait for windows to finish whatever its doing and then hopefully it might boot to your login screen
• Repair your windows automatically through the windows boot menu or using a bootable drive.
• Just like I mentioned earlier, reinstall windows on your laptop.

How to fix Hard Drive Failure or Error

Hard drive failure and error are both symptoms of your storage drive being damaged due to the drop. As long as your laptop started showing the hard drive or disk error after you dropped your laptop, then it means your hard drive or ssd storage is damaged. And it is not a damage that can be fixed but to be replaced.

If you still think your hard drive will work, you should try scanning and repairing your drive through the command prompt. Or maybe you should try to format the drive manually.

Dropped Laptop Performance Issues

Symptoms

• Dropped your laptop and now its slow
• Dropped your laptop and now performance dropped

Solution

How to Speed Up and increase laptop performance

Here are some tips to help you speed up your laptop after you dropped it:

• Clear your cache files.
• Disable startup programs.
• Free up your memory (At least a 40% free space).
• Increase your RAM (minimum of 8gb).
• Use a software cleaner like Advanced SystemCare.

Read more on this particular article if you want to quickly improve your laptop’s performance.

Dropped Laptop is Broken

Symptoms

• Broken corner
• Cracked case
• Dent

Solution

If you are facing a situation where your laptop happens to crack or break, the first thing you should really look into is how severe it is.

If it’s broken or cracked so bad that you can see inside your computer, then it’s time you get a new casing. You can still manage your computer if the breaking and cracking isn’t too serious, nothing is going to happen to it.

Although you should take note of pieces of your broken casing that could have entered inside your laptop. Try to get them out before it causes you a lot of money.

Dent on the hand seems to not be a big deal in most cases. As long as everything is working as it should, you should have no problem.

Dropped Laptop Battery Issues

Symptoms

• Battery won’t charge
• Battery not working

Solutions

How to fix battery not charging

The common reason for your battery to not charge or work after dropping it is the CMOS battery. There’s a possibility that your CMOS battery must have popped out depending on the impact your laptop took after it fell.

I already showed you how to reset the CMOS battery here and also keep in mind that you are testing your laptop with a working battery, a battery that is well charged and a charger that is working.

If nothing works, you should check your power outlet because that is usually the problem most of the time.

Dropped Laptop Camera issues

Once your camera is not working because your laptop fell, the reason is because your camera must have acquired some damage or shifted from its rightful location.

If you are comfortable with opening up your laptop to get to your camera, that would be a good idea because you would easily see and detect what is not in place so that you can resolve it.

Understand that this situation cannot be a software issue because your laptop fell and if your camera doesn’t seem to work, you should get a new one.

Dropped Laptop fan issues

Symptoms

• Fan loud
• Fan making noise
• Stopped working

Solutions

How to fix loud fan noise

Loud fan noise can be extremely annoying but in most cases very easy to fix. All you have to do is to inspect properly where the noise is coming from and then resolve it.

Let us get to it.

Open up your laptop to reveal your motherboard and following this tips:

• Check if there’s anything not making your fan spin properly.
• Check if your fan is dragging on something like a wire causing it to make sound.
• Inspect your fan cables to see if it is connected properly.
• Clean your fan if it has too much dust in it.

How to fix a fan that has stopped working

If you notice that your laptop fan stopped working after you dropped it, my first advice for you is to not turn your laptop so you don’t mistakenly cause overheating.

What you need to do is to fix it to mainly check for loose cable. Without the cable plugged in, your laptop fan won’t work and might even make some beeping noise.

The cable runs from the fan itself directly to the motherboard.

Dropped Laptop Touchpad or mouse issues

Symptoms

• Not working
• Making clicking noise
• Touchpad not working

Solution

This situation is hardware related and it will require you to disassemble your computer to fully diagnose your touchpad.

There’s a possibility that your trackpad must have been damaged if it entirely stopped working because something must have broken inside your laptop.

Although, you should still inspect it closely and look for any loose cables. If it happens that your trackpad isn’t working anymore, the next best thing is for you to get an external mouse.

FAQ

How to check for damage?

To check your laptop for damages after dropping it, you have to consider how it fell and what it fell into.

If you dropped your laptop on a solid surface, you should expect that things can break or change positions depending on the overall quality of your laptop. By using your laptop, you may or may not notice a difference. If your laptop is acting up, you should disassemble it and reassemble it just to