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Solved Dropped laptop won’t turn on

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I am really in need of any opinions. I dropped my laptop from a chair, no too high, and it fell on a plush carpet, while it was turned on. After that it doesn’t turn on at all when pressing the power button and the little white light that is next to the charger light keeps flickering, the wifi (?) light is on and the charger light doesn’t light up. My laptop is Toshiba Satellite P55t-A5118. I am taking it to a professional tomorrow but I have really important data there that I haven’t managed to back up and I can’t get another computer. Do you think my computer can be saved? Any thoughts are appreciated.
 
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Welcome to PCHF Annax,


Very hard to say without knowing what any problem may be tbh.

Can you post the brand and model name or number of the notebook for us so we can do some research.

Thanks for replying. My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite P55t-A5118. I took a photo of the back, is that enough or would anything else be useful? Thank you in advance.
 
The charger LED not lighting up is a concern but because what you think is the wifi light is flickering there must be power present, one check that you can do is to see if the RAM has been knocked loose by the impact, I used the Toshiba info that you provided and found a video showing a full dismantle of the notebook, not suggesting that this is what you do but watch the video and you will see how the small square service hatch and RAM are removed, no need to take out all the screws on the base just the ones holding the service hatch, remove and then replace the RAM securely, attach the AC adaptor then see if the notebook will power up.

Before removing the hatch;

Disconnect the AC adaptor.

Make sure that no LEDs on the notebook are active.

Remove the hatch.

Ground yourself on something metal like a household radiator pipe.

Remove the RAM, replace the RAM making sure that it is nice and secure.

Reassemble, power up, test and then post back with an update for us.

Video is here

Can I ask that you do not quote every reply, it really does not help any and just makes for unnecessary reading, thanks.
 
Thank you for your feedback! You’ll have to forgive me, but I am not very knowledgeable about laptops so I might ask a stupid question, in the video the laptop part that was removed first, the wide, rectangle is the hard disk right? I can hear something small when I shake the laptop from that region, can that be from the hard disk or something else? I don’t have a screwdriver to take it apart and look inside but thank you nonetheless. I am just really worried now that I think the problem might be with the hard drive.
 
Also the sound is something small, like something thin and metalic or a bead (?) and it’s just one component, could that be something serious? Sorry if my questions are a bit ridiculous.
 
No worries, we are here to help and that includes answering questions.

What you can hear could be a screw that has come loose or a clip that holds something in place.

See the attached picture in which I have highlighted the battery and hard drive in the notebook.
 

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  • Toshiba battery and HDD.jpg
    Toshiba battery and HDD.jpg
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Oh, that makes it clear! I think the little sound I’m hearing is not exactly from there. I tried to take a screenshot to show you but it says the file size is too large. I think it’s from the optical drive? The part that he removes first which has the yellow rectangle on it. Could the screw or clip be responsible for the laptop not turning on?
 
Sorry but you are asking me to speculate as to the cause which is something that I will not do, loose RAM can cause a computer not to turn on and being that on your notebook it is an easy thing to check should you have a screwdriver that was why it was suggested.

All we can do is wish you good luck and ask that you let us know how you get on tomorrow.
 
So, good news! I took my laptop to get checked and it’s working now, I didn’t lose any files! I didn’t manage to talk directly to the person that fixed it but from what I understood they fiddled with the battery a bit and said that there wasn’t anything serious inside. Thank you for all of the help!
 
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That is great news and thank you for letting us know that all is now well with your computer :)

What you were hearing inside may have been one of the power connectors that had come off the battery terminals.

You are hopefully now off to back up that important data that you were worried about.

You are welcome and stay safe (y)
 
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