Gateway 9550 Will not start

[solo9550help]

I have a solo9550 laptop that will not start. I have replaced the battery and power supply and ran through other steps such as discharging the laptop. (Unplugged and held power button down for 15 seconds.) When I plug the power back into the laptop, severals may happen. One time I may get a red light, it is like the hot-swap indicator light comes on. Then other times it the green power light willl come one or both the power and battery light will come on. Sometimes the battery charge and power light will cone on. Then the next time the hot-swap. It makes no sense. The power plugin pin seems loose to me. Could it be broken? Any ideas? Thanks

[finito]

Hmm you have something wrong with one of your peripherals, it seems whenever you put the power cable is it does a self test finds something wrongs and disables it self.

This is only a theory.

If you are courages you can open up your lappy:
http://repair4laptop.org/contrib/gateway_solo_9550/gateway_solo_9550_notebook_disassembly.pdf

Once open you can do what you would when you test a standard desktop.

[solo9550help]

Yeah I was afraid of that. Thanks for the post and help. The link is very helpful. It is in about a million pieces right now. Not seeing anything obvious area the power connection.

Thanks again. now it is time for the the testing.

[solo9550help]

Hmm you have something wrong with one of your peripherals, it seems whenever you put the power cable is it does a self test finds something wrongs and disables it self.

This is only a theory.

If you are courages you can open up your lappy:
http://repair4laptop.org/contrib/gateway_solo_9550/gateway_solo_9550_notebook_disassembly.pdf

Once open you can do what you would when you test a standard desktop.

Well after several times taking it apart and checking things the best we could, the problem persists. You plug in the power cord and you will get the red light on the "safe to remove something" then unplug it and plug it back in and then both the green lights will come on. Very strange. When hitting the power button still nothing happens. Any ideas? Thanks.

[finito]

Well you did open it. What did u expect?

[solo9550help]

lol, it was doing the same thing before I opened it up. So no real change between before and after.

[finito]

Can you remove the Ram Chips.

Boot and See what happens?

[Perry.Traw]

This might sound dumb, but have you checked that there is nothing shorting out pins like your RJ45, RJ11, or USB ports? unplug everything that you have hooked to it and try, IE.. Keyboard mouse external monitor. Just checking the obvious

[solo9550help]

Yes the ram chips were removed and booted and it still did the same thing. Thanks for the help.

[solo9550help]

This might sound dumb, but have you checked that there is nothing shorting out pins like your RJ45, RJ11, or USB ports? unplug everything that you have hooked to it and try, IE.. Keyboard mouse external monitor. Just checking the obvious

There was nothing atttached to the machine when we tried staring. As a matter if fact everything that could have been removed were out during the bazillion startup tests. lol I thought it may have been a problem with the power pulgin pin but it was good and tight. Just about the only thing that we didn't removed was the mother board. Visually couldn't see any problems on the board or components there. Of course I can only see the top portions of the board. It is perplexing. Thanks for the ideas and help.

[finito]

Yes the ram chips were removed and booted and it still did the same thing. Thanks for the help.

When you did this it didn't even boot or did it.

Eitherway it seems the the Board is the problem or the PCB that control thge power.

[solo9550help]

When you did this it didn't even boot or did it.

Eitherway it seems the the Board is the problem or the PCB that control thge power.

Ooops, sorry about that post, it isn't very clear. No it didn't boot with. Just did the same thing with the chips in or out.

That is sort of what we came up with is that there maybe a problem in the board. I think we are pretty much nad a stand still on this unless someone has an idea.

Thanks.

[finito]

Hmm, try booting with AC charger only. w/o battery

[solo9550help]

We have tried that s well. I just did it again to make sure. One thing I have noticed is that the cd drive light comes on when the red light is on when plugged in. When the green lights are on the cd drive light doesn't come on. No light come on at all bear the power button at any time. Thanks for your help and ideas. Keep thinking, maybe we can get this thing figured out. lol

[finito]

Honestly This system would be out the window by now.

Hmm, try and locate the Power supply PCB, try and see if its running hot when you try to run the system.

[solo9550help]

Honestly This system would be out the window by now.

Hmm, try and locate the Power supply PCB, try and see if its running hot when you try to run the system.

Haven't found anything running hot. Also noted that the battery won't charge even though the light indicates that it is. This is a new battery as well. This is about to go the way of the recycler. Thanks for he help.

[finito]

Well sorry to hear it's fate. Hmm I just checked the system specs PIII that is way out of it's service time.

That was when things would actually last more then 2 years before dieing out on you.

[solo9550help]

Well sorry to hear it's fate. Hmm I just checked the system specs PIII that is way out of it's service time.

That was when things would actually last more then 2 years before dieing out on you.

They sure don't make them like they use too. The sad thing about all this is the problem probably a failed 12 cent resister.

Talk about age, my everyday machine is an old compaq presario 1800t. Knock on wood. This thing is slow but it keeps on firing up each day and heck it is on for 14 to 16 hours per day as well. Now that I thought about it and talked about it, I just hope I didn't jinx it. lol

Thanks for all of your help.

[finito]

Lol, I added an extra knock on wood from my side.

People don't think how everything is getting cheaper they just want it cheaper.
I mean you remember when a 4x CD-Writer was like 300 $, or 10GB Hard Drive was 150$. They were expensive yes but dam were they built to last.

But I guess you can say hardware is getting updated so fast that life cycle is counted in months.

[solo9550help]

Lol, I added an extra knock on wood from my side.

People don't think how everything is getting cheaper they just want it cheaper.
I mean you remember when a 4x CD-Writer was like 300 $, or 10GB Hard Drive was 150$. They were expensive yes but dam were they built to last.

But I guess you can say hardware is getting updated so fast that life cycle is counted in months.

You got that right. When I bought this machine, it was built to my specs, but we paid over 2k for it. Big bucks back then. Things now days are built disposable, not much consideration on repairs. It breaks, just get a new one. But in many cases they can be fixed with relative ease and cheap. But 95% will just buy new.

I may be showing my age, but I remember back in the early 80's when I purchased a 4 meg hard drive from my computer guru and he stated that there is no way you will ever fill this thing up. lol I think now days it takes about 4 megs just to produce a ".". I'd almost bet that if I still had the old hard drive that it would probably still run. lol

[finito]

I'd almost bet that if I still had the old hard drive that it would probably still run. lol

Well to be fair Hard drives don't die that easy hence the name. I only see then die in Laptops but teats more due to the shocks they receive while running.

Don't forget when Billy said 640KB is more than enough

[solo9550help]

How things have changed. lol