def. disconnect everything from the machine, as per the previous post. i would also unplug the power supply from the board, and hold in the power button for about 10 seconds. plug the supply back in, and unplug it from the wall socket. once again, hold the power button while its unplugged. go ahead and plug it back into the wall, see what happens, its very possible the capacitors in the PSU need to be discharged. if it dosent work after this, it is almost most def. supply. could also be motherboard, but supply seems the more likely choice.

What type of computer do you have? eg.: dell, samsung, hp etc

Please read previous posts

How much mega bytes do you have left on your hard drive. You are suppose to have enough for the avast.

I have tried unplugging and holding in the power button for several seconds. Today I tried a different PSU with similar results. I'm not sure exactly how much space is left on the drive, because I can't access them. However, I'm pretty sure they have plenty of free space. I'm leaning towards a Mobo, but after doing some research on the web I can't seem to find a replacement. I have a uBTX board with an AMD Athlon X2 4200+ processor. The only uBTX boards I can find on the web are for Intel processors. I may have to replace both board and processor.

yea, u replaced the supply, then its def. mobo. thats too bad. and somewhat ridiculous that you can't find a replacement for a 4200+

Yeah, that's what I get for buying a Gateway. Never again.

Gateway isn't necessarily a bad company... I still have a few gateways that are about 8 years old, still running fine- albeit slow.

Did you check to see if it wasn't the hard drive? That seems most logical to me- the partitioning software killed the drive. Plug it into another machine and see if its recognizable. If it is, then its probably the motherboard- which sounds likely. But you should always start from square one!

Are any capacitors on the motherboard bulging or leaking?

Just a few thoughts- probably a bit late for you.

Happy New Year!

--The Comodore

No, Gateway isn't necessarily a bad company, but I can't understand why they would use a board you can't buy anywhere. Thanks for the tip about the hard drive. I'll try it in my other machine tomorrow and write back the results.

True, that. Try to find one as close as possible, if needbe?

--The Comodore