Son dropped laptop 2 feet now getting unexpected I/O error

[powersupplywoes]

My son dropped his refurbished: "Dell Latitude E6430 14" Notebook PC - Intel Core i5-3320 2.6GHz 8GB 320gb SATA Windows 10 Professional (Certified Refurbished)"

he dropped it about two feet onto carpet and it really didn't seem like it was that bad. Now when booting up it says Unexpected I/O error and says possible poorly connected external device or failing hard drive (please no!). So I need some advice because the hope is he knocked a connector loose I'm planning on opening it up to take a look, but would love any and all advice. Again it wasn't from any large height and fell slightly on a corner and then onto the flat surface from no more than two feet onto pretty thick carpet. I suspected something got disconnected. Repeated attempts at autorepairs by Windows 10 failed. So yeah let me know what more info you need and thanks in advance!!!!!!!!

 

[powersupplywoes]

I should add we got it for Christmas 2017 so while refurbished it was quite new for us.

 

[USAFRet]

It's probably a loose connection or the drive is actually damaged.
Only way to know is to open it up.

Eventually, you may need to remove the drive and see if you can access it in another system.

 

[powersupplywoes]

It's probably a loose connection or the drive is actually damaged.
Only way to know is to open it up.

Eventually, you may need to remove the drive and see if you can access it in another system.

Thanks for the quick reply! So I opened the hard drive with a screw driver took it out and put it back in and the same. Anything else I can do along those lines? It's odd because it was such a small fall and hit on the opposite corner from the drive itself which landed on a pillow actually.

 

[USAFRet]

It's probably a loose connection or the drive is actually damaged.
Only way to know is to open it up.

Eventually, you may need to remove the drive and see if you can access it in another system.

Thanks for the quick reply! So I opened the hard drive with a screw driver took it out and put it back in and the same. Anything else I can do along those lines? It's odd because it was such a small fall and hit on the opposite corner from the drive itself which landed on a pillow actually.

Just to be clear...you "removed" the hard drive, not "opened it".
Correct?

If its still doing the same thing, check ALL the internal connections in the laptop.
And if the laptop and drive was running at the time, a 2 foot drop may well have screwed the drive.

 

[powersupplywoes]

It's probably a loose connection or the drive is actually damaged.
Only way to know is to open it up.

Eventually, you may need to remove the drive and see if you can access it in another system.

Thanks for the quick reply! So I opened the hard drive with a screw driver took it out and put it back in and the same. Anything else I can do along those lines? It's odd because it was such a small fall and hit on the opposite corner from the drive itself which landed on a pillow actually.

Just to be clear...you "removed" the hard drive, not "opened it".
Correct?

If its still doing the same thing, check ALL the internal connections in the laptop.
And if the laptop and drive was running at the time, a 2 foot drop may well have screwed the drive.

I was wrong it did drop on the HD side and it appears to be connected. No I just removed drive I did not open the drive itself. :-/