These 10 tips include Fixes and Diagnostics. Even if you can diagnose the damage, if you have no idea how to repair it even with what is explained here, perhaps it’d be best to take it to a technician/repair center. On the other hand, weight how much it’ll cost to fix it and how comfortable you’ll be with the fixes against buying another computer if it’s necessary. One more thing: Don’t worry! You’ll be surprised to know how shock resilient laptops/computers are nowadays. In most of the cases, everything will be fine.
Yesterday my laptop had a small accident: I dropped it from my desk to the floor in a single blow, which initially affected it with things such as moving the screen backwards and removing the battery from its usual place. Between what I knew, what I found on the Internet and some advice, I have a list of things to do for when this happens, to make sure your machine is still in good condition:
1. If it didn’t turn off, Turn it off and check it
That’s right, turn the computer off completely if it didn’t turn off. Search for external damage to the shell, battery, hinges, base, screws, etc. and then shake it lightly to hear if there are any loose pieces inside.
If you hear any sounds inside and it doesn’t pass the following tests, you can be certain that some part is loose and you’ll need to open the laptop to reconnect or change/replace it, depending on the problem.
2. Fans
After checking it externally, we need to turn the computer on and verify that the fans are working, that they start and function normally, be either by taking in or releasing air depending on their function, but there has to be movement.
If a fan doesn’t work, try cleaning it with compressed air (which will make it move again) and redo the test… It’s possible that a piece of plastic or something has broken inside it has blocked it, which will be fixed by the compressed air. If it still doesn’t work there might be some sort of disconnection or other major problem that merits opening your laptop to check what happened.
3. Screen
Check that the screen is working, doesn’t have any cracks or dead pixels, amongst other things. We must verify that everything feels normal with it.
If the screen is damaged, use an HDMI or VGA cable to connect the computer to an external monitor and remove your data and reformat the disk used. Check how much it’ll cost to repair the screen against buying a new computer and do whatever’s right for you.
4. Touchpad
Check that your touchpad works and if all of its functions are intact (scroll, click, right click, gestures, etc.), use it as you usually would.
If it doesn’t work, consider replacing it with a mouse or an external Touchpad (Like Apple’s Magic Trackpad, if it applies)
5. Ports and Components
It’s time to check the ports and components. Assuming that the computer runs the O.S. smoothly, we will use all of the available ports and check that they work and that there’s an interaction between connecting components and the OS. Then we’ll carefully check the keyboard, on/off buttons, the WiFi and anything else we have in the computer, making sure they all work correctly. It’s also important to see that the O.S. properly recognizes all the computer’s characteristics such as the processor, amount of RAM, etc. It’s also important to connect headphones and microphones to verify that the sound card works well.
If any of the ports of internal components doesn’t work, you can consider replacing it for an external one. If various USB ports don’t work but one does, you can get a USB Hub. If the Ethernet port doesn’t work, there are Ethernet USB cards, similarly for the SD reader, the Sound card or the WiFi card, amongst others. If the entire capacity of your RAM is no longer recognized, it is probable that one of your pins (or all of your card) has come out (in case the PC has 2). In this case you need to open it and put the part back where it goes.