- 1). Determine the damage to the case, or body, of your notebook by powering up and examining the keyboard and screen. If the screen is not operational but the power comes on, your hard drive is most likely fine, but you will need to replace the notebook casing itself. There is no practical or cost-efficient way to replace a notebook screen. To test if the notebook is working, connect it to an external monitor using a male-to-female monitor cable.
- 2). If your notebook doesn't power up at all, try putting it in the freezer for 24 to 48 hours to literally "freeze" all the data and components after it has been dropped. Attempt to power up again after it has been frozen.
- 3). If, when you power your dropped notebook on, the monitor comes on but the operating system cannot boot up or you see no activity, you may need to power down, unplug the notebook and reset the CMOS as directed in your owner's manual.
- 4). If everything appears to power on, but you want to be sure all your information is intact, there are several hard drive data restore programs you can run to revive your hard drive. Do not use a system restoration program or your original system restore disks, as these will wipe out any data you have stored and return your system to its original, unused state.
- 5). If the keyboard is damaged or the case is damaged to the point of not being able to access the power button (or any other key), use a screwdriver to remove the battery and the back of the notebook. Remove the hard drive and install it in another system, either as an internal or external hard drive, and access your data.
- 6). If you can access your data from another system, or find your data intact after running a hard drive revival program, chances are you are suffering from a broken motherboard or damaged RAM, which would have occurred on impact when you dropped your notebook. If this is the case, one or both will have to be replaced.
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