Gateway wont turn on

[amy_brooke]

I have a Gateway T-6815 (running vista). I was on facebook try to upload some pictures when my computer beeped and turned off. I thought it was my power (was on battery) so I plugged it in. When I tried to turn it on, it wouldn't. I did finally get the laptop to turn on and went to a systems screen listing the ram, processor, etc and to press f1 to continue. It then went into Windows Recovery Mode. Started up and thought everything was fine. 5 mins later, heard a beep and looked over and it went dead. Like completely dead. There is no light on to indicate that it is plugged in. When I have it plugged in and press the power button, the indicator lights near the touchpad flicker (on battery power it doesn't) and won't turn on at all. I took the back off to see if I can figure out what was going on. With the battery in, nothing happens. I take the battery out and have it on ac power and I can see the fan twitching and all the indicator lights are flashing, and the battery indicator light its blinking red. (I also took the hard drive out and it was doing the same thing)

I have absolutely no idea what happened to it or even where to begin looking. Any suggestions on what might me wrong. Could the battery and the ac cord both be bad? The battery is fairly new, 9 cell just bought in Dec. I still have the old battery, it still works just doesn't last long not plugged in. I still get the same when I try that battery. Could the boot sector on the hard drive be bad? I had that happen in Dec. Or could there be something wrong with the motherboard.

 

[mbevolution]

seems like your battery is dead + won't charge, try a different charger see if it'd turn on. or if you have a spare battery you can put that in and see what happens. it has nothing to do with your hard drive, maybe motherboard but doubt it since your battery = red => no charge and yet you are plugged in, suggesting there is a bad connection somewhere.

 

[Devilpapaya]

Sounds like a problem with the AC connection to the motherboard. Either something fried or got disconnected.

I'd suggest contacting Gateway to see if its still under warranty. Motherboard/power issues can be difficult to troubleshoot/fix on your own.

 

[amy_brooke]

well I have a new battery and a new ac power supply and neither work. the led indicator light on the ac power supply started blining rapidly and making a ticking sound as well. Im at a loss at to what to do next, what died on my laptop?

 

[Athadeus]

Do you have the old ac adapter? Is your new one a 3rd part one, or did you get it from Gateway? Are there part numbers on them?

 

[amy_brooke]

I do have my old one but its the only one I have. The one I bought is a 3rd party one from Batteries Plus (luckily I can return it). Its a Rayovac, 19v 90w, model#van90a-190a. I also had to buy the cord seperately. They did a search on their system and it fits my gateway. I went to Gateways website to see about ordering a replacement and it was like 80 bucks. So am I going to have to order that one or is it possible something else is wrong. I'd hate to have to buy that one and it doesn't work either.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Does this laptop have an Nvidia chipset? Maybe it "went", like most of the NV-chipset laptops do eventually.

 

[amy_brooke]

ok this is where my knowledge of computers ends, not sure where that would be or exactly what it looks like.

Also as I was taking stuff off the back of the computer, I notice a little bit of wire behind where the ram goes, in btw that and the end of the dvd player. not sure if its suppose to look like it does, kinda like its been pulled a little and not a curled up like a spring completely, at least a small part of it. Not sure if that has anything to do with whats wrong but thought I'd mention it.

 

[amy_brooke]

chipset on my specs is Intel GM965

 

[xxxFrogg]

I've ran into a similar issue before. This may not apply to you but check it. Occasionally the DC Jack inside the computer breaks. When this happens, the charger can not charge the battery or power the computer. You can tell by looking into the circle where the charger plugs into the computer and see if the little pin in the middle is broke or pushed back. If so, there is your issue.

 

[mbevolution]

Let's go through this step by step cuz im a little confused on what you did.

1. You said you have a brand new battery and charger lying around somewhere and they did not fix your problem => showing it's not AC nor it's a battery problem.
2. You said the led on your AC power supply tickers, showing it's on its way out. => showing it's likely to be an AC problem
The above two statements are inconsistent with each other, you have to explain your situation a little better. I'm not trying to be a dick but you have to understand that troubleshooting these kind of stuff takes a lot of patience and time, you can't just ask "what's dead" and expect someone to tell you unless you provide a detailed explanation of what's going on.

So start with the following: get another AC power supply from another gateway with same DC voltage and current and plug it in, see if you can turn your computer on (or you can get a spare battery, same model number, from your friends). If you can't turn your computer on and the AC/battery seems to be in good operating condition (ie no blinking lights, battery = fully charged). Then post back again, you could have a much more serious problem.

Hope it helps.

 

[Athadeus]

I do have my old one but its the only one I have. The one I bought is a 3rd party one from Batteries Plus (luckily I can return it). Its a Rayovac, 19v 90w, model#van90a-190a. I also had to buy the cord seperately. They did a search on their system and it fits my gateway. I went to Gateways website to see about ordering a replacement and it was like 80 bucks. So am I going to have to order that one or is it possible something else is wrong. I'd hate to have to buy that one and it doesn't work either.

Yeah, definitely do not order one from gateway yet. The ticking is from the old adapter right? When it is connected to AC but without the laptop connected to it, what does the LED do, and does it make that sound?

If you can give me any numbers on the old one, I might be able to determine whether or not the adapter is the problem, based on the fact that you said it has an LED which now blinks, which sounds like a unique symptom, since I've never seen an AC adapter with a blinking LED. It looks like it could be made by Delta, Li Shin, or Lite On though, and having a number to tell which one would make searching a lot more easy.

Chances are that still that it's going to be a MB problem, and may not be worth having repaired, but better to know for sure first.