computer hit with baseball, will only boot in safe mode now

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
My daughter dropped a baseball off the top of a bunk bed onto the keyboard of my laptop on the floor. It was on at the time. It froze, completely; time stopped ticking, mouse frozen. Rebooted, logged in, after ~20sec it froze again. Repeat 5x. I booted in safe mode and it did not freeze. While in safe mode I disabled all the startup programs except for Kaspersky Antivirus. Tried to boot again in normal mode, and I log in, the desktop flashes briefly, then black screen with mouse pointer only. does not freeze. Repeat 3X. booted back up in safe mode, no issues.

Seems obvious that it's been physically damaged by the impact, but I question why it experiences no problems in safe mode. They keyboard seems fine mechanically. I suspected that maybe the baseball hit some combination of keys that cause a program to go suicidal, but I thought that turning off all the startup programs should eliminate that.

any ideas?
 

JohnInTX

Joined Jun 26, 2012
4,787
Lots of laptops have a stick of RAM under the kbd. Hitting this while active could have momentarily fouled the connections when Windows (assumed) was active. Who knows what it was doing?

In the boot to safe mode screen, try the step-by-step option to see where its hanging. If its a corrupt driver etc. you might be able to bypass/delete/update it. Hopefully, you have a win restore disk that you can use the repair console with.

The drop might have roached the HDD in an area where it loads drivers that it now can't read.

Time to back up your data before messing further.

PS depending on your machine, the BIOS (hit DEL, ESC or whatever while it boots to get to the setup screens) might have some useful diagnostics. On my old HP, one of the few good things about it was that it had pretty comprehensive diagnostics for HDD/RAM/Video etc built into the BIOS setup pre-boot screens.

Good luck. That's a new one!
 

BMorse

Joined Sep 26, 2009
2,675
Most likely the issue will be in the peripherals that load up under normal boot up, when in safe mode, windows only loads drivers for the basic components, and the RAM does not sit directly under the keyboard, it is usually accessible from the bottom of the laptop under the motherboard, if it was the memory, it will not even boot up that far, the only thing I can suggest is to open up all the little panels in the back and check to see that all plug in modules (Wi-Fi, Hard drive,etc.) have not come loose......
 

JohnInTX

Joined Jun 26, 2012
4,787
RAM does not sit directly under the keyboard, it is usually accessible from the bottom of the laptop under the motherboard, if it was the memory, it will not even boot up that far.
Actually, many do have RAM under the KBD HP, IBM/Lenovo, Dell and Toshiba that I know of. My point was not that the RAM was permanently killed but that a physical shock to the strip that momentarily broke connections would result in a system crash as the OP indicated. If the system was writing to the HDD at the time, its a bad thing.

A physical shock to the system itself when the HDD is spinning is likewise a bad thing.

That said, your point about checking the peripheral connections is spot on.
 

BMorse

Joined Sep 26, 2009
2,675
I have a Lenovo, A dell, an HP and several other brand laptops sitting right next to me, and NOT one has any memory sticks UNDER THE KEYBOARD (which means it would be on top of the motherboard)..... all models usually have it right where it is easily accessible under the laptop, since RAM is one thing that always gets upgraded..... and the picture you show, is a memory stick under the motherboard...... but I guess to be technical, everything in a laptop is under the keyboard.
 

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
what do you think about this...
I go into safe mode and uninstall all the peripherals
I go into normal mode and start installing peripherals until it hangs up
Then I know which peripheral to look at
?
 

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
Meanwhile, how's the troubleshooting going?
it's not. This happened before I went to work (night shift). I'm at work now. Gathering ideas and making a game plan for when I get home.

EDIT:
And what make/model is the notebook?
It's a dell Inspiron. I called my wife and asked for the model number but all she can find is "P10F" but I think that's the part # of the chasis or something.
 
Last edited:

JohnInTX

Joined Jun 26, 2012
4,787
Get the service manual
Check out the hardware diagnostic page.
Built-in hardware diagnostics
PSA (Option 2) looks like the BIOS diagnostics.
Outside Operating System Tests (Opt. 3) runs from HDD.

The links are for a generic Inspiron. Check your specific model number to verify the correct ones but you get the idea.

Once you know the hardware is working, you should be able to run the various Windows diagnostics from Safe Mode to see what needs fixing. Google 'windows safe mode' for your OS and see what your options are.

Good luck!
 
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