GAteway Solo 5150 Laptop Problem

[pineflatt]

Recently the LCD screen on my Gateway Solo 5150 Laptop went black. I took it to a repair shop where they replaced the inverter board that supplies power to the LCD lamp. The unit worked very well for a couple of days and the problem re-appeared.

I took it back to the repair shop. They ordered a second inverter, and low and behold, that inverter also failed in about the same amount of time. It may be important to point out that both of the replacement inverters were used.

I am considering buying a new inverter, but I am concerned that I may have an additional problem(s) that could be contributing to the failure of the inverter. I don't want to buy a new board and have it go out as well.

Has anyone had this kind of a problem with the LCD display? Could something be causing the inverter to fail. Could the LCD display be contributing to the problem? Should I try another inverter or what approach should I take.

Thanks. Any help will be appreciated

[BuggZ]

Does the laptop display to an external monitor? If so, the video chip is not the problem. When the screen turns black can you still see a faint image of the desktop if you tilt the screen at different angles? If so, check the lid close switch. That turns off the backlight when the lid is closed and if it is faulty, the backlight may turn off while the system is operating. Try pressing and releasing the switch a couple of times to see if the LCD comes back on. If that is the cause, I would suggest returning the laptop and having them replace the switch at no charge. That should have been one of the first things they checked.

[pineflatt]

Thanks Buggz.

The Laptop does display through an external monitor and I also believe that a faint image of the desktop can be seen.

The unit is not in my possession right now, so I will check the switch as soon as I get it back.

Again Thank you very much.

[2010*angel]

My gateway solo reads "bad checksum" and now has a bios password at boot up that prevents me from entering bios much less get to desktop. I am really, REALLY hoping there is an alternative besides opening the laptop to flash the bios, such as a cmospwd program for gateway solo 5150 that actually works, or a backdoor password. Anyone know? Thanks in advance! =)

[AW0C]

@2010*angel > Got exact same problem some weeks ago on my wifes same laptop model - successfully solved it this way by three hours: No need to flash the soldered bios chip! At the very first I tried out some in connection with PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0 given common passwords like 'phoenix' & s.o. - waste of time.
So first step I had to prepare the built-out fixed (or separate) notebook HDD on other machine - used an old Toshiba Protégé - with DOS 6.2, due to DOS-compendia in which printed keyboard HEX-code key tables are commonly to find. Created by using >md< instruction under root (C:>) a new directory \CMOSPWD . Downloaded 'CmosPwd BIOS Cracker 5.0' and copied content of the DOS folder [two files: cmospwd.exe + cwsdpmi.exe] to the \CMOSPWD. Rebuilt prepared drive into the 'Solo 5150' notebook (back). Boot priority was on HDD so it was only necessary to me to conduct these preparatory work, cause of unknown bios password I was not able to change boot priority up to other media.
Then started the DOS, changed to \CMOSPWD and executed cmospwd.exe /d [/d-extension is to dump cmos, ... and important! if you are using a german keyboard you will have to set the /kde-extension f.i. definitely for proper decoding the HEX-dump]. First you get displayed a quite incomplete list of known standard passwords (maybe backdoor pw too?) for several machine types and bioses. Continuing, you look at six successive and very similar screens of HEX-code and besides a misleading ANSI-equivalence. And now here comes just my part of realization you gain from. You don't have to compare every single character string HEX-symbol by HEX-symbol to the key table for hours. The pw is stored threefold at these pages to ensure that bios can fall back on it. Deepen you a little into the keyboard HEX-code key table for the alphanumerics (characters and numbers) and you will get an eye for the possible 7-digit bios pw strings. At least you will note down at maximum half a dozen are worth a try. Pw tallied with ANSI in my case was located at second HEX-screen at row 140 >> Bingo!
To keep 'checksum' stored, it is worth to renew the CMOS recovery battery. Therefore open the laptop cover by declipping the keyb. [find instruction here http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/SHARED/Keyboard.shtml ], loosen the middle screw of top plastic bridge integrate LED indicators and Power Button between the LCD hinge and remove first, than the Touch Pad main cover panel. Around there below the Right Click Button of the Touch Pad you find a small plastic cap held with one single screw and underneath you can deplug the CMOS-battery. It is a rechargeable 3.6V 70mAh Ni-MH. Look at the battery plug, if necessary scratch the formed verdigris off the red contact and spray a very light of MoS-fluid. So it will work on again.

[sandyvong]

I would NOT RECOMMEND anyone to buy a gateway notebook (desktops are ok though - I have one and never had any problems - which is why I bought a Gateway notebook). From what I have now heard (after I bought it), Gateway is notorious for having problems with their hard drives. I have only owned this laptop since August of 1998 and am already on my 4th hard drive. This system has caused more problems than all of my other computers combined!

Imagine this, the summer before my sophomore year as an engineering student at Rowan University (1998 - before I changed majors) and I purchase a brand new Gateway Solo 5100 series laptop computer. At the time it was pretty good deal...I got a Pentium II 233 processor with MMX technology, 14.1" dot matrix screen, 64MB RAM, 4MB video card, 20X modular cd-rom, 3.5" modular floppy drive, 6.0MB hard drive, Base 10/100 ethernet card, 16-bit speakers (built in to the notebook), microphone (also built in), earphones, software and bunch of other little things for a decent price at the time....