Bricked Gateway ?

[Jim Almquist]

The kid asked if I would take a look at his laptop. He did a restart and it went blank. The screen was shot so he was connecting it to a monitor with no problems. I see the hd and cd drive light for just a second and they both go out. I have pulled the hd out and it test good. Swapped the CMOS battery. I do not here any beeps but the kid said it never did when it was working. I have pulled all the memory and tried them in each slot by themselves. Disconnected the PCMIA slot. Threw in a boot disk with no results. Nothing I have done makes any difference or changes the fact that it just lights the two drives up for a second and then nothing. Any other ideas that might help.

[Shack]

Jim what is the model number of the Gateway? Any other details would be cool like upgrades and non factory change outs? When you swapped the CMOS did you try and reset the CMOS by pulling the power cord and removing the battery for over 10 mins? Some machines need only 10-30 seconds and others over an hour. 10 minutes is standard but depends on what is installed that's holding the reserve.

[Shack]

Just for some knowledge here, which helps me at times , but you do not even need a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) battery to power up and boot the hdd's into the OS. The battery is just used to give a minor stream of power to the CMOS so it will retain power for memory to hold BIOS settings. Swapping a bad CMOS battery out for a known good one does not reset the CMOS and what it is storing. Even with a dead CMOS battery, just having the CPS plugged in will provide power to the CMOS. You have to reset/clear the CMOS by letting it draw down to no power so when booted it goes into the factory defaults and hopefully recovers what was changed to cause the issue. I am pointing my finger maybe at the CPS (computer power supply).

Where resetting the CMOS might still come into play would depend on how the BIOS is setup from factory. If the Gateway BIOS uses OS PlugInPlay to dictate input the operating system might have updated and caused something. After you try a random reset of the CMOS, I would also suggest to bring the unit down to nothing in the PCI slots and remove all peripherals (minus video card if needed) and use only keyboard. Before powering up, then again reset the CMOS to rule out anything from the bad hardware side.

[Jim Almquist]

I will have to pull the battery and let it sit for a while. It is a model MT-6704. I was lucky enough to find a guide on how to remove the keyboard because the battery is under it. The same site had a guide on replacing the screen and where to pick one up so it would be great to get it running again. I will let you know if anything changes.

[Surface Tension]

Take the battery out and try it with just the AC adapter.

[upnorth]

If you have not pulled the battery(I am thinking you already did), give it a whirl. Wouldn't be the first time I have seen completely cutting all power to the device cure the ill. But just the flicker and then lights out makes me think you have something amiss with a hardware device.

You can go as far as trying to boot up without memory, drive and even cpu in differening combinations or one at a time to see if gets further in POST.

[Jim Almquist]

Thanks for the tip ST. That is about the only combination I have not tried. Right now I am letting it sit without the CMOS battery with the laptop battery pulled.

@upnorth

I also believe that something on the MB is shot but maybe....just maybe this will change my symptoms.

[Shack]

I missed that it was a laptop. Did you inspect the power adapter, connector and cord? I believe the drop of the lights is power loss. Definitely rule out an issues with the battery by what ST had said. Next thing I would go for is using a known good power adaptor. If the PC see issues with the hardware, it will keep lights flashing till you remove power or power supplied drops. Unless it reboots, the lights should remain on unless power is lost. I should say as based on other makes and models. Gateway could have a feature where it powers drives down and the lights go with if a failure is occurring? Even a hardware failure (minus mobo) will make it to at least post. Unless the failure is directing the hardware on a PCI pluginplay way to boot prior to bios which is a possible thing.

[upnorth]

A dead short in any device will stop POST in it's tracks as soon as power is applied to it.

[Shack]

This is obviously a hardware issue. Tossing out "hardware" is like the buddy who tosses out "failed part" when a car breaks down. Yes it is, but is so vague no one really likes hearing it. The Gateway is not even getting to a point allowing even the basic of firmware to process, so YES it is hardware related. Now lets get past this and onto fixing Jim's laptop.

Power-on Self-test (POST), which occurs before the BIOS screen, protects the bootstrapped code from being interrupted by faulty hardware. Thus if a Power-on Self-tested hardware or device "fails" POST (A.K.A. shorted, melted, etc.), it is not allowed to run or recognized and off either a power down and reboot into BIOS minus the failed device with a message or blue screen.

I guess every manu's POST procedure is different and I will not claim to be an expert on how Gateway's POST conducts itself because they all do different things and react differently. So I guess we should ask if Jim hears or sees anything else beside what he posted. CD/DVD blinking light, fans whizzing up or anything? Put a USB flash stick in one of the USB ports and see if the little LED blinks. If these are not being experienced then he is not getting into POST and lights are dropping right before POST, so if this is the case and the battery or adapter is ruled out, I would assume failed input~output controller chip, or a toasted video chip on the mobo, which (given props to UpNorth) constitutes as hardware. Is/does the power adapter's (black box on cord) little LED light even turning on? If so is it green or red?

[upnorth]

There is a process that you can use to eliminate what hardware it is and that is what I relayed to Jim. Not everything can be fixed with software patch, firmware or device driver.

If it is the MB not much you can do other than replace it. And nowdays with everything attached to the MB it gets to the point where troubleshooting it past a certain point is just not worth effort, replace the MB or junk it.

[Jim Almquist]

I let it sit overnight without the CMOS battery. Re-installed and tried to boot with just the battery and then with just the power supply. Same symptoms as before- cd and hd light up and then go out and nothing more. I will fool around with it some more but for the most part I believe it is shot.

[upnorth]

If you get the drives to blink you have power to the board.

[spearchucker]

If you get the drives to blink you have power to the board.

Doesn't mean it is the right power though. This sounds like some component failure on the motherboard.

[Shack]

A dead short in any device will stop POST in it's tracks as soon as power is applied to it.

I was just saying that this is not entirely true. For the most part with my experience I have found internally failed (tested open or failed ground) to either cause a reboot (loop) or message/blue screen. What has worked for me with issues similar to Jim's is to start basic, which would include power supply (I.E. battery and cord in this case).

Quote:

There is a process that you can use to eliminate what hardware it is and that is what I relayed to Jim. Not everything can be fixed with software patch, firmware or device driver.

If it is the MB not much you can do other than replace it. And nowdays with everything attached to the MB it gets to the point where troubleshooting it past a certain point is just not worth effort, replace the MB or junk it.

Yes there is and Jim had swapped memory out before even posting and I suggested removal of PCI components in the second post. Not sure were anyone has suggested software patch, firmware or device driver???

Too each is their own and I know for some that breaking out the old soldering iron or bootable floppy is not a feasible option.

Go get'em Jim and good luck!

[upnorth]

Unless it is under normal voltage it would more than likely just plain toast something. But yeah it could be under normal voltage.

[Shack]

After working on something else this evening the obvious did dawn on me Upnorth. The little fact he was using a known broken/failed screen for some time does support your theory. I was referring to a failure occurring yesterday on a part and then booted today. Not one that occurred and was worked around, which in Jim's boy's defense is a common workaround. Not sure what is failed with the screen and if it had an effect with its prolonged use?

[spearchucker]

Most of the time if a screen goes black it is just the inverter board that runs the backlight.

[Jim Almquist]

Shack that may have lead to its early retirement. It was dropped and that caused it to have a distorted screen.