I just dropped my laptop on the ground...

venom0706

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Aug 18, 2012
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I just dropped my Lenovo z510 on the ground. It was on the bed, but it was connected to the charger, the cable of witch was on the ground. I stumbled over the cable, by which I pulled the whole laptop from the bed to the ground. The laptop now runs fine and luckily there are no flaws. However, I am concerned. If something happened by the hit, when are the consequences supposed to appear and show themselves? I am really dumb... Thank you.
 

venom0706

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I shook it, no noises. So it might have survived? The keyboard seems fine, the DVD rom as well. The only thing that I might be paranoid about, is that the lid seems to move a little bit untightened, but this is probably because I am overexaggerating things due to the fall, and because I am most scared about it not being damaged and not moving properly.
 

Eduello

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Does the HDD make any unusual sounds when you're using it? When something spins at 5400-7200RPM it tends to not like having force applied to it. The thing I'm worried about is the motor that spins the HDD. If it doesn't make any unusual sounds, it should be fine.
 

venom0706

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I made a HD Tune scan.I now noticed, there is a strange quiet scratching noise, but it appears randomly and when I stopped the error scan of HD Tune, the noise also almost reduces to zero, but doesn't disappear completely. Is this normal? After the scan, no errors were found and all of the squares were green. On the Health screen, everything was fine, except this warning: http://s15.postimg.org/8q11rhhiz/HDD_results.png

Please tell me that the HDD wasn't damaged from the fall. What to do now? I tried copying files over disks, and it works fast and flawless. Is there any way to check for sure whether the HDD was damaged or not? What about that strange noise? I maybe over-exagarate, since laptops aren't 100% quiet and this noise might be from some HDD process or other component. I hope that everything is ok. Please help me find whether it is. Thank you.
 

Eduello

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http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/548941-calibration-retry-count.html
http://www.overclock.net/t/762060/calibration-retry-count-warning

"This attribute indicates the count that recalibration was requested (under the condition that the first attempt was unsuccessful). An increase of this attribute value is a sign of problems in the hard disk mechanical subsystem."

There might be something mechanically wrong with the drive. As the users on those forums are saying, it doesn't always indicate an imminent HDD failure. I would recommend making backups.
 

ubercake

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Other than the enclosure, the HDD is the thing usually effected by a fall if anything in a laptop is damaged.

The other thing is you may be more aware of the noise the HDD is making as a result of being worried about the drop. It may have made noise before the drop, but now you are listening for it.

I would definitely do as Eduello says. Regardless of whether or not you dropped the laptop, a good backup strategy is good to have in place and something most people neglect.
 

venom0706

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I already backed up my files. However, I have another question. A moment ago my laptop just froze, while I was moving the cursor. No alt+f4,no window button, nothing could be done. I had to reboot it in order to fix it. Any idea whether the problem might have occured from the fall yesterday?
 

Eduello

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It might have something to do with it; I once had a faulty HDD in my laptop and that was exactly what it was doing, freezing until it was rebooted.
 

venom0706

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Thanks. How can I know for sure whether it is from the HDD, or I just have to wait and see what is going to happen? Also, if the HDD has to be changed, will it be expensive? I am in a foreign country and my warranty is not valid here. That's why I am scared about my laptop being broken.
 

Eduello

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True, but they're a lot costlier. Even though SSDs are faster, they still lose to HDDs in one thing: Failing.

What I mean by that is the lack of an indicator of a failing SSD; It might work fine and the next day it might not. HDDs on the other hand tend to slow down and give errors like this before failing, making it easier to back up all data before getting a new drive.

It's pretty much up to what you want.