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Questions tagged [physical-damage]

43 questions
28
votes
2 answers

Would these magnets be enough to damage a portable HDD?

As per the title, would these magnets be enough to damage a portable hard drive such as this Seagate GoFlex if left next to each other for longer than, say, 20 minutes? Thankfully, this is all hypothetical at this point as I have kept them apart…
Luke Godwin
  • 393
17
votes
6 answers

I accidentally inserted RAM while PC was booting up! Worst case scenario?

I'm afraid I have made a grave mistake. I was just finishing up my new PC build with some pretty pricey components when I had made a simple, yet gut-wrenching mistake. I was under the presumption that the PC was off, but alas; it was doing a reboot.…
user1735007
9
votes
3 answers

Broken connectors / pins on graphics card

My graphics card stopped working from time to time. So now I took it out and had a look on it. I discovered that some pins seem to be broken. Can this make fatal damage to a card? Because it looks like it would still connect. The card was…
Bobface
  • 199
2
votes
1 answer

Could it be black screen on an otherwise good laptop without hard drive?

The M.2 SSD hard drive of my laptop is physically damaged: a visual damage is seen in the middle of the card, and the chip that appears damaged gets very hot while attempting to boot. Both with and without that damaged hard drive, the laptop…
h22
  • 466
2
votes
1 answer

Motherboard fried, what does that mean for the rest of the pc?

My motherboard got fried, I think I plugged in a fan to the wrong spot and on boot I heard an electric pop and the computer stopped working. A chip on the motherboard is visibly cracked but I didn't see any battery damage or burns. Are there any…
user1040360
  • 21
2
votes
1 answer

Turning HDD off to decrease mechanical sensitivity of SSD+HDD laptop

My new laptop, a Lenovo IdeaPad 720, has a 256 GB SSD drive and a 1 TB mechanical drive (HDD). I'd like to be able to safely carry the laptop around while turned on, without taking the usual precautions associated with HDD machines, such as not…
z8080
  • 425
2
votes
0 answers

Install OS on Galaxy S4 w/ broken screen

Note: This question is about interfacing a Samsung Galaxy S4 with a computer to install a new O/S so that I can use the phone as a server on my personal network. I have an Samsung Galaxy S4 with a broken screen (no touch input and no visual output);…
Austin D
  • 121
1
vote
4 answers

Screwdriver slipped, Scratched Motherboard

I purchased a month ago a motherboard (LGA 1156 - Gigabyte P55A-UD6) at about 328USD. All worked fine until yesterday, when I saw that I had mounted the CPU fan (Thermaltake Frio - a monster of 1.5kg weight) in the opposite way. I decided to put it…
user51166
  • 738
1
vote
1 answer

Can this M.2 SSD suddenly fail with moved/damaged capacitor?

Few days ago I built a new PC and of course I had to do something wrong. In this case I rotated the in-board M.2 plastic lock in the opposite direction and was wondering why it doesn't sit well. After I figured out that it should go in the other…
cooktheprogrammer
  • 21
1
vote
1 answer

Laptop vulnerability to physical shock

My Dell XPS 15 laptop has an SSD. As far as I know it has only 2 moving parts besides buttons, the hinge and the fan. I dropped it on concrete while it was in sleep mode. On opening the lid, the login screen showed. The touchpad responded for about…
thechimp
  • 113
1
vote
1 answer

What to expect after a power surge?

I have just experienced a power surge in my house and now my computer won’t turn on. I have pretty modern hardware including a Asus B550 pro 5 motherboard that has surge protection. I know something definitely fried since the computer won’t turn on,…
João Areias
  • 115
1
vote
1 answer

Windows update changes voltage levels causing hardware damage?

I work for a large company in IT. There is a sensitive project that requires unique and special cfast hard drives from Israel which cost a fortune. The HDDs are super hardened (or at least they claim they are). The vendor has a Windows 10 RTM…
rockower
  • 146
1
vote
2 answers

Diagnostic procedures for fallen laptop

My laptop fell on the ground. I turned it on, nothing seems to be wrong. Going through Google search, many sites suggested looking for black spots on the screen or clicking sounds from the hard drive. None of which seems to have occurred. However,…
Sam Ibraheem
  • 85
1
vote
1 answer

Monitor Flickering caused by repeating gif image

I have an LG LED IPS monitor (22MP55). A GIF image of an animated firefly flapping its wings was on my screen and I was doing something else with my laptop and didn't notice monitor. After 15 minutes that I came back and closed the GIF image, I…
titansarus
  • 123
1
vote
0 answers

Getting an AMI BIOS error beep code although the PC seems to work perfectly fine

I have a problem with a brand new Spectra PowerTwin desktop PC. Sometimes when booting, I get a 5x short-beep error code¹, but I don't know why as the PC seems to be working perfectly fine. The only thing I changed was to install a PCI CAN card in…
david114
  • 175
1
2 3