You didn't offer if the laptop was running or not. If it was running, don't assume it's going to be OK, it will be damaged. If it was OFF, truly OFF not hibernating then the laptop took a shock that was still too great. If it was hibernating, the same result as if ON, though probable damge is minor. However, no amount of real testing can be had. I suggest you visit the HD maker's support website and use their diags suite to test and check results. While, more than likely a HD is at fault, the laptop appears to at least be working up to the point it needs to boot the OS. Whatever OS you use, that resides on the HD. try to at least boot into "safemode" hit F8 repeatedly during boot-up and select safemode, hopefully it boots, if not damaged or corrupted HD. Another test is to have a bootable disc, typically I suggest a burned image file of Ubuntu live version(google for it). Get the .ISO file, burn it to disc properly, and boot from it. The bios boot selection should be the CD drive as your 1st device, edit it for that. If it boots from the disc, then again the HD is bad in some way. Come back with results.
Since, this is new laptop why not see if warranty covers that. Call and enquire, beware of possible costs.
tada -----Willy ![]()
Well I did drop my Compaq Presario c304nr Windows XP about a foot off the ground. I'm no expert on computers but I've tried mostly everything I could to fix it. I think it may be the hard drive but I hope it isn't because it is brand new (technically since i got it about a month ago so it isn't THAT old). When I turn on my comp it does the reboot loop which I loathe. All I see is the screen that says COMPAQ and I can only access the "change boot order" and "enter setup". Your Help is greatly appreciated ! ![]()

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