Installation Problems - Computer may be toast

[MrWixx]

Hey guys,

I am in need of some dire help, and I really hope somebody here can help me.

I have a Dell 1537 Laptop, and i've really enjoyed it since I've had it.
It came with Vista.. ehh.. it was ok.. but I got Windows 7 for Christmas and I put it on my computer immediately. Everything worked amazingly fine, all my programs installed correctly, and I enjoyed it for about a month.

It took physical damage.

It had a heavy book dropped on top of it while it was open, onto the keyboard area, around w,a,s,d. Webster is laughing now.

The screen went white, and the keyboard is now bent. I took the computer apart, as I figured it had to be that the monitor had come unplugged, and I was right. After plugging it back in, the monitor worked just fine, and the computer seemed to be working all right as well. I went to work and left it online.

Here is were the trouble starts.

When I came back home, the computer was off. I turned it on, and it took about 20 minutes to start. It loaded past bios allright, but when it got to the Windows 7 load-up, it slammed on the breaks. It finally loaded to allow me to log on, and the logging on took another 5 minutes. A few programs worked, but not very well.

Here is where I thought that the Windows sequence had been ruined or corrupt, so I reinstalled Windows 7. I can't get it to actually finish the reinstallation, whether that be past "Completing Installation" or "Updating Registry Files"

Any ideas? Computer might be broken. The hard drive is located on the side of the computer that took the hit. The motherboard is also there. I pulled the hard drive out, and it didn't seem to have any noticable physical damage. I couldn't see enough of the motherboard to tell if it was shattered into a million pieces, but it seemed fine.

 

[Saltgrass]

I am not sure how the monitor connector would have come loose by having a book dropped on it, but did you check the keyboard connector also?

How big was the book?

The way you tell the story, I would have to say some type of physical damage had been done. I suppose if the hard drive had been working when the shock occurred, it might have damaged it internally.

Could also be the memory was jarred and needs resetting. Make sure you remove the external power and battery when working inside the unit.

 

[bobkn]

Anything in Event Viewer?

 

[MrWixx]

Thanks for replying guys
The book was a student dictionary.
To the latest, I can't get in to event viewer now, computer won't boot past the startup to the login screen now.

The hard drive damage is possible, as it was operating at the time of impact.

The book hit the keyboard around the w,a,s,d keys, there is an obvious dent in the keyboard now. I went ahead and pulled it off when I reconnected the monitor, and reconnected it correctly when reassembling the product.

I will remove the memory and reinsert it, to see what I can get from there.

 

[Jonathan_King]

What hard drive is it? Most manufacturers provide their own testing software to scan the drive for damage.

 

[MrWixx]

It was a hard drive that came with the dell setup.
Does Dell use a different company?
Honestly... I hate working with Dell.

 

[theog]

You find the Dell testing software on one of your Dell Recovery Disks.