I'd like to hear opinions on what the possible options are for diagnosing this problem please:

I have a Gateway laptop that I recently purchased from eBay.

The laptop was fine, but one hot day it locked up and I dropped the battery out of it to to turn it off. (ya, I didn't know any better) When I tried to restart, I got no screen, one set of lights on "on" button push, no beeps (I think), I can hear fan. While the computer is sitting "off", the battery dies.

I took it to Fry's and had it diagnosed and "fixed". They said that they just had to "re-seat" the RAM. The also ran a diagnostic test on the laptop (using PC-Doctor) and it passed with flying colors. When I picked the laptop up, it worked.

I brought the laptop home and booted it up, installed my wireless network card and plugged the battery back in as well. The battery does not recharge, but all else is working fine and then my son pulls out the power plug (ie wall adapter and only power supply to the computer). When I attempt to turn the computer back on, I get the whole shebang all over again! The computer won't startup - I can hear the fan, see a light when push the button, but nothing else.

I tried to take out the harddrive and the RAM that I could get to via screw driver and re-plug them back in. Still nothing. I tried switching the RAM and I also took off the wireless card and took out the battery, but still nothing.

So, now I'm sitting $120 poorer and the same problem with a non-working laptop.

Can anyone offer any suggestions or ideas? Or at least help me figure out what to say to the Fry's guys when I take my notebook back in there and cry about it.

I'd certainly appreciate ANY help at all.

Thanks so much,
"Sugaar".

Just a thought here since no one else has responded...
Have you tried replacing the cmos battery ...
Maybe try removing and reinstalling it....
By pulling the battery and reinstalling it you might be able to clear the cmos...
Shooting in the dark here but it is something to try...

Thanks for the input!

I researched it online and it seems that the three things that keep popping up are the power supply and motherboard/CMOS battery.

I'm really scared to try and open up my laptop and replace the battery myself though. So, we'll see.

The guys from Fry's called and basically told me tough luck. They think it "might" be the motherboard (but didn't say for sure). They also claim that this issue is different from when I took it in a couple days ago. Ya, so I'm still in the hole $120. Meanies!

Thanks again for writing for writing me back!

~"Sugaar".

Just trying to help.
Just for fun ...Yea right..
Put a volt meter on your power supply to see if you are getting proper voltages for your machine... Some take a single voltage some take 5vdc and 12vdc...
Wiggle the cord etc...
If you can borrow a battery or power supply that would also help figure the problem out.

Good Luck...

I just did some checking and WOW...
Sorry you bought a Gateway...
They have some real problems.
One in particular is the charging circuit for the main battery...
DO NOT REPLACE the battery... There are stand alone chargers that will work fine.
I could not find anything on the Gateway site that would help with the CMOS battery replacement
Dell shows you how to tear the things all the way down...

Which Model do you have?
The Solo 2150 seems to have a huge problem with charging circuits...

Oh yeah, guess I should have said which model - it's a 600YGR.

I read about that battery problem with the circuit board of the battery, not the cells, but I can't even use my computer with a power cord plugged into the wall. That, alone, would make me happy.

I might have to toughen up and open the thing up, but I checked into prices for motherboards and the cheapest I could find was through eBay for $200, but isn't "guaranteed". Yeah, you think I'd learned my lesson the first time. Lol.

Thanks for spending so much time on this.

~"Sugaar".

I found a link that will get you past the keyboard and down to the cpu and most likely the CMOS battery.

The following link has information for disassembly and removal of the keyboard of the Gateway 600YGR notebook computer. This will give you access to the CPU's fan and heat-sink area. After you remove the screws on the heat-sink/fan unit you'll need to provide some effort to remove the heat-sink as it seems to be attached with some adhesive. Not to worry, you can remove it and restore it after applying the thermal compound.

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/...GR/8508489.pdf

Look for both a silver quarter sized battery and possibly a shrinkwrap set of batteries with a wired plug for RAM backup during hotswap of batteries. Not sure if it has both but many do...

You should always replace both...

The adhesive heat transfer on the cpu should be the only tricky part...

Good luck and check back if you have any problems

Thanks. I'll let you know if you turned me into a Junior Electrical Engineer.

Haha.

~"Sugaar".

Oh no not a 600YGR, those are bad laptops, I've replaced motherboards on about 30 of those things. Sounds like a definite motherboard problem (I thought maybe it was some Hibernation mode thing till I saw you say what model you have), I've seen similar problems with those here at work and usually I end up replacing the motherboard and heatsink as for some reason there have been allot of heat related issues with that model as well.
If you take it apart and replace the board just organize the screws real well, you will need a nut driver to removed the nuts on the back of the laptop (the ones your external monitor, printer, etc.. attach to) and you can pry the keybaord cover off by putting a small flathead screwdriver under it just above the ins/del keys. Under that cover you will see 5 screws securing the keybaord and then it can be removed, after that just take your time and it should go ok.

Since I'm working on one now I'll add that when you are removing the motherboard you will need to remove a screw securing the audio outputs then lift it off the board, uncrew 2 screws that hold the hard drive connector to the board and remove it, and don't forget that on the bottom of the board you will need to removed the modem card by removing one screw. There is also a silver piece of metal that you can push back to take out the board which is where the laptop battery connects to the board.