We had a computer on a table with the ethernet cable temporarily suspended from the router to the back of the computer. I, like a dumbass, tried to step over it and tripped. It pulled the computer off of the three foot table onto the ground, landing on it's side. Now, when I boot it up, it gets to the loading screen and blue screens. When I load up in safemode, it also crashed when it gets to the loading screen. From this, I know the mother board and video card is alright. The optical drive is also OK. I am assuming the RAM is ok, as there is no sign of it moving at all. I am now thinking it is either the CPU or the hard drive. The CPU is alright, considering the fact that it will boot from the disc and doesn't crash. So I think it is the hard drive. What do you think?
Was the computer just sitting there idle or was the hard drive perhaps spinning. The likelyhood of a hard drive getting damaged from some blunt force trauma is much greater if its reading or writing data.
In any event, the first thing I would do is make sure everything is really fully seated. Make sure everything is as far into its socket as it can go. If that doesnt help, I'd guess the hard drive. If eveything seems to be working fine when you boot from disk then its a likely candidate.
If it is the hardrive, a reformat might work or, worse case, hard drives are cheap and I hope you didnt have any irreplaceable data on it.
I bought a new harddrive. The CPU heatsink had fallen out, but I put it back in. I think it was damaged, though. It is a bit loose (side to side, not up or down). Also, the case was broken (Antec 900) so I got a new one, of which I am extremely happy and more pleased in (Antec P180). I am installed Vista again right now, so I will know in about an hour. I had to move everything over, so everything is seated and plugged in correctly.
Well, Vists is installing normally, no problems. I think what happened is that when it fell, the head scratched the platter so it couldn't read all of the data, some of which was needed to boot Vista. Also, out of the Antec 900, I got two 120MM fans for my new case (one 120mm broke off one blade, and the 250mm broke a blade and stopped working).
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