Sounds like your battery is dead. This is very common with laptops. You will have to buy another one.

Are you using IDE or SATA hard drive?

Try downloading a linux live CD. Ubuntu, fedora, pc linux, etc.... they all have them. I can boot them, then it is a OS issue. If you can't then it is a hardware issue.

What exactly is the flashing pattern of the Caps lock light. How many times and what duration?

Have you made any changes to the system ie.. added new hardware, PCI cards, etc...? Could also be an over heating issue. Check and make sure your Heat sink fan is still operational.

If you get no splash or anything it's more then likely the system board is toast.

Could have been a mix of both. Bad CMOS chip would could accept a fresh flash, but would not fuction correctly. If he is telling you to install an update, but not the most current, they could have...

With all of that it does sound like BIOS issue then. Sounds like a defective line of boards. Almost like the controller on the board does not see the HDD then suddenly does. That would explain the...

The black screen with cursor means the bios have finished post and is waiting on the HDD to load the ntldr. This is usually an idication a bad MBR, but with you able to shut the system down and then...

Sounds like your HDD is having issues. Like it is having problems spinning up after a cold start. I would recommend a full back up and then replace the drive.

Sounds like you AC connection at the plug has come undone. This is common on laptops. I am not sure about gateways, but on most other brands this connection is sauder to the motherboard. You could...

This would not be caused by a bad CMOS battery. If the battery died all you would lose is your date and time and memory settings. System would still boot with default BIOS settings. Did you get a...

Depending on how many drives @ what rpms, how much RAM, and what other options on you system a 350 watt PS will not be enough. You should really be running at least a 500 watt. I would really...