dropped something on keyboard

[thinkpad1]

How can I test my Thinkpad? I was stupid and dropped a rechargeable battery pack (small one that fits in wall socket) and it wouldn't boot at first. I got a 'blue screen' and then it went to the black screen....

I turned my laptop off and it did boot up to XP.

I'm concerned about damage. Everything seems to be working but one of the rechargeable batteries was bent and really hot. I guess it hit the keyboard? I don't know why it would be so damaged but if it's that bad, what about my laptop?!?

It hit the keyboard on the right side, near the Enter key.

I thought I noticed a 'RAM' message but what is underneath the keyboard on the right side?

Should I take it in or take the keyboard off and look underneath? Would that show anything? Is there a chance I could be lucky and somehow it just caused it to reset or shutdown? What would produce the blue screen?

I wouldn't care if the keyboard was damaged because it's already sticky but if it did something to a video card or something else, like the screen or LCD, I wouldn't know what to do.

I usually try to not have anything near the laptop but I was just moving passed it and carried the pack too close and it got away from me.

[RealBlackStuff]

It depends on your model Thinkpad...
On a T2x, T30, there's the battery bay, bordering on the ultrabay, underneath the right side of the keyboard.
Other models (like T4x and R5x) have the hard drive, bordering on the ultrabay, there.
etc.

[thinkpad1]

It depends on your model Thinkpad...
On a T2x, T30, there's the battery bay, bordering on the ultrabay, underneath the right side of the keyboard.
Other models (like T4x and R5x) have the hard drive, bordering on the ultrabay, there.
etc.

Oh great, I just upgraded the HDD.

It's a T41.

[killer]

On my T43 the CD/DVD drive is located directly under the return (enter) key. I don't know about T41s but I suspect it is similar. Anyway, good luck with it.

[thinkpad1]

Is there any hard drive tests I could try to test the condition of the drive?

[thinkpad1]

When I right click for properties, it takes an awful long time for the window to come up.... is this a symptom of anything?

I was going to install PC-Doctor but it won't install.... not sure if there's a better app... but, I am getting worried that my drive's toast.

[Neil]

So, do I understand correctly that the Thinkpad was powered "on" at the time of this accident? If yes, then we could well be looking for HDD damage. Remove the drive from the laptop and try to boot into BIOS and/or boot from a CD and see if everything works OK without the HDD. If everything seems OK that would indicate a problem with the drive. You could also put the HDD in a external USB enclosure and connect it to another PC to check if the drive is functional at all.

[rkawakami]

One option provided by IBM/Lenovo is PC Doctor for DOS. Here's a link to download a file which will create a bootable .ISO image that you can burn to a CD-R:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-56222

You can boot the system with the disk, select the Diagnostic heading and the Fixed Disk section. The other option would be to locate a drive diagnostic which was created by the drive manufacturer. For example, Seagate drives can be tested with SeaTools and Hitachi/IBM drives with DFT.

[thinkpad1]

So, do I understand correctly that the Thinkpad was powered "on" at the time of this accident? If yes, then we could well be looking for HDD damage. Remove the drive from the laptop and try to boot into BIOS and/or boot from a CD and see if everything works OK without the HDD. If everything seems OK that would indicate a problem with the drive. You could also put the HDD in a external USB enclosure and connect it to another PC to check if the drive is functional at all.

Yes, the laptop was powered on and connected to the AC adapter.

I'm using it now, posting here, with the laptop and the drive is functioning. I had a mouse, usb flash drive and an ethernet cable also plugged in at the time. I disconnected everything after it happened. I tried to catch the object but it got away from me. I am worried about the impact because one of the batteries was dented and really hot to the touch. It was a small rechargeable wall charger so it's a bit heavy.

I just don't want to put a lot on this hard drive without knowing the extent of any damage, if any. I think I might have to take it somewhere to get it tested and inspected if I can't figure out the condition. I don't have experience with diagnosing hard drives and I have not had any accidents with any laptop or desktop until now. I am usually pretty careful but got careless this time.

I had to move recently so that's why I had more stuff around the laptop than normal.

I hope there are some other things I can try before taking it in.

[thinkpad1]

One option provided by IBM/Lenovo is PC Doctor for DOS. Here's a link to download a file which will create a bootable .ISO image that you can burn to a CD-R:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-56222

You can boot the system with the disk, select the Diagnostic heading and the Fixed Disk section. The other option would be to locate a drive diagnostic which was created by the drive manufacturer. For example, Seagate drives can be tested with SeaTools and Hitachi/IBM drives with DFT.

Do I need a floppy for PC Doctor?

The drive is IDE/ATA, the highly touted Samsung M160HC and I only recently received it.

[Harryc]

No floppy, download the .iso file and burn it to disk (CD) as an image. Use ImgBurn or a similar utility to do this. Once the CD is created, boot from it.

[thinkpad1]

No floppy, download the .iso file and burn it to disk (CD) as an image. Use ImgBurn or a similar utility to do this. Once the CD is created, boot from it.

Yeah, that's what I'm doing now. I just downloaded ImgBurn. I have to find some CD-Rs though. My stuff is all over... ugh..

[rkawakami]

The Samsung HUTIL program appears to support your drive:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... HUTIL.html

[poshgeordie]

PM sent and +1 for the other posts.

I'd also suggest very regularly backing up your My Docs, photos, music etc in case of HDD failure Also your emails and addresses, and Internet browser favourites / bookmarks. If you're not sure how to do that let us know what email and internet browser programs you use and we'll tell you how to do it.

However I'm a bit concerned about this:

I tried to catch the object but it got away from me. I am worried about the impact because one of the batteries was dented and really hot to the touch. It was a small rechargeable wall charger so it's a bit heavy.

and specifically the damaged battery in the wall charger. Please don't use that battery any more and dispose of it carefully and responsibly.

The danger is that due to the damage there may well be internal shorts developing which could cause the battery to go up in flames at any time.
As a temporary measure I'd suggest burying it in a metal bucket of sand away from anything flamable. This sounds excessive but batteries in this state are extremely unpredictable and dangerous.

[thinkpad1]

The Samsung HUTIL program appears to support your drive:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... HUTIL.html

This program is hopeless. I have downloaded 2 unzip utilities and two iso burn utilities. When I unzip the file, there is no iso. I cannot burn anything and neither program works.

I'll take the notebook in and if the drive is dead, I'll get a new laptop and sell this one.

[rkawakami]

The link provided for the .ISO version of HUTIL does download a .ZIP file however the file inside is possibly named wrong depending on how you have Windows Explorer set up. It has "(For CD ROM Drive)" right after the .ISO filename extension. If you have Windows set to not display filename extensions, then that might be your problem.

I have just downloaded the file, extracted it using the built-in .ZIP support in Windows Explorer, used Nero to burn the .ISO image onto a CD-R and booted it on a T23. I don't have any Samsung drives but the program appears to work fine for me.

[thinkpad1]

The link provided for the .ISO version of HUTIL does download a .ZIP file however the file inside is possibly named wrong depending on how you have Windows Explorer set up. It has "(For CD ROM Drive)" right after the .ISO filename extension. If you have Windows set to not display filename extensions, then that might be your problem.

I have just downloaded the file, extracted it using the built-in .ZIP support in Windows Explorer, used Nero to burn the .ISO image onto a CD-R and booted it on a T23. I don't have any Samsung drives but the program appears to work fine for me.

You're right.

I had to rename the .iso file as it had the additional name with parenthesis.... So, I removed that and it was fine after.

I can't do anything right, I guess.

I ran the HUTIL test and the utility found no problems - all the individual tests 'passed.'

I guess that is good as far as major problems go. But, if there are slight issues with the drive or something that isn't detected by the program????

Thanks for replying, btw, and helping me. I need to be more careful and remain cautious/careful ALL THE TIME. I'm not sure what to do now, though. Nothing and just back stuff up? Or A) get a backup drive (i.e. order another drive; or B) invest in new laptop or C) ????

Oh, one more thing: when the HUTIL DOS utility was running the test, there was 'noise' every once and while at the bottom of the screen. Is that normal? I hope it is just because the program is old and DOS-based. I've been told that the effects to the battery drop is mostly related to the CD drive and the hard drive so hopefully not the LCD/screen.

What would you do (I know you wouldn't have that accident but if someone dropped something on your keyboard)?

[rkawakami]

I would hope that any disk drive manufacturer who puts out a diagnostic program for their drives, knows what they are doing and the tests that are implemented would catch most of the problems which may occur. At this point, if it were me, I'd be making or already have a full backup of the drive just in case something shows up in the next few hours/days/weeks. I would also continue running the drive and monitor it for any other issues.

PC Doctor can also run some hard drive tests which essentially checks to see if every sector on the drive is readable. It would be a good independent check to run to see if it detects any problems that HUTIL may not have. As far as the "noise" on the screen, that may be a function of the DOS-based program but I'm not really sure. As I said earlier, I don't have any Samsung drives so I can't run the program. Given that you have a T41 and if it has the ATI video controller (i.e., a model type of 2xxx), you may be looking at the infamous loose GPU problem. If any one of my systems were subjected to this type of accident, I'd run all of the PC Doctor systemboard tests, the video tests, the keyboard tests, check the hard drive and verify that the optical drive is still working properly. That's about all you can do at this point.

[thinkpad1]

Okay, I will try the tests. Thanks.

I have to use my desktop to do the burning. My optical drive is not recognized in Windows XP as having burning capabilities. That is why I had so much trouble with the burning applications I tried to use, ImgBurn and PowerISO which I downloaded and installed.

I went into the Device Manager trying to find out info. I got this:
MATSHITA DVD-ROM UJDA775 - D03

Then I googled it and got this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4367787

I'll try to find something more applicable to Windows but that just shows that it 'can happen' and that the -R function is not being detected? I thought maybe my drive was not capable of burning but I went to the Lenovo site and it looks like all the drives (almost) have at least a CD-RW feature.

So, I guess I have another issue with this laptop. I can use my desktop but I really need to look at some issues on the desktop and was hoping I can just burn on the thinkpad for now.... Oh well...

I am concerned about the GPU issue. I didn't have any problems except for the optical drive not reading that one CD before the accident. :-/

[RealBlackStuff]

You seem to have a picky DVD/CDRW drive, see also http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=57922

The wallop that this drop gave your TP may have caused the GPU to come loose, or aggravated a nominal situation.

[thinkpad1]

You seem to have a picky DVD/CDRW drive, see also http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=57922

The wallop that this drop gave your TP may have caused the GPU to come loose, or aggravated a nominal situation.

How would I assess the GPU?

I did run tests with PCD Doctor 5 and they all passed including the GPU tests.

If the test wouldn't catch the part coming loose, how would I assess that then?

If I took it in, would they be able to figure it out?

[craigmontHunter]

1) I would use hdtune, and run a test on the hard drive. If that passes, I would let it be, and just keep backups (which you should be doing anyway).
2) to prevent the gpu issue, follow the instructions around the forum, and I enable powerplay for the graphics chip even when plugged in. In xp, there is no diffrence in performance, the fan stays off pretty much all the time, and three is a lesser chance of the graphics chip failing due to temp cycles.
3) under the enter key is a metal frame, covering the cd drive. my guess would be that if the keyboard is working, the rest of the system should be too. the hdd is protected by the palmrest, then a metal cover, then it is shockmounted in little pieces of rubber. I think that if anything was going to break, it would be your cd drive.

[poshgeordie]

PM sent.

Also - does the Thinkpad display, display OK in normal use? If 'Yes' then forget about a potential graphics chip problem! If it all works OK then you don't have an issue in this area. Occasionally in this life there are positives!!

I do agree though about the CD drive - I've a boxful of non-working T4x CD-RW's and my conclusion is that they are one of the most delicate components in the TP. Good news is that they are relatively cheap to buy second hand but it's a risk unless you can buy from a reputable source.

[thinkpad1]

I'll check my pm's right after this reply.

I just wanted to say, I downloaded and installed HDTune Pro ver. 4.

I ran some of the tests and looked at the Health section.

Under Health, it states I have 1 damaged sector (1 sector has been replaced). Is this anything to worry about?

I understand even newer drives might have something damaged (a sector?) but over time? I am wondering if this was natural (nothing I could do) or if the bump contributed to it.

I guess there is nothing I can do about that now. I would like to know the best methods of backing up a drive either way. I would back up anyway but now even a better reason.

Also, on the 'Error test,' there were no damaged blocks. But, in the Extra Tests section, a random seek test of 8MB failed while the 64KB test passed and I received data.

No obvious display issues yet....knock on wood...