Laptop help, please? Gateway nv53 dying and death

reply to post by LordDrakula

Laptop should work without a battery if it is plugged in to power. So that rules the battery out.

Yeah, I thought so, too! The very first thing I tried was taking out the battery. When it was out, the computer wouldn't work at all. Hmmm. I wondered about that, too.

Okay - well, sounds to me like I just need a new laptop, ,and THEN (because my computer nerd software engineer is VERY picky about what gets put onto his computer) I'll burn the Ubuntu DVD on my new one and try to salvage the data from the dead one.

How's that for a plan?

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by LordDrakula

 

Laptop should work without a battery if it is plugged in to power. So that rules the battery out.

Yeah, I thought so, too! The very first thing I tried was taking out the battery. When it was out, the computer wouldn't work at all. Hmmm. I wondered about that, too.

Okay - well, sounds to me like I just need a new laptop, ,and THEN (because my computer nerd software engineer is VERY picky about what gets put onto his computer) I'll burn the Ubuntu DVD on my new one and try to salvage the data from the dead one.

How's that for a plan?

Nice plan he he he ... you will have to take out the hard drive from the "death guy" and put it in an ext. case and than plug it into new one. But use Ubuntu on new one as well because windows might not recognize damaged hard drive and Linux is more "hardcore" for those things

Try Amazon for a new one. You can get great deals...

Good luck

So, dead HD would stop the fan, too?

No it probably wouldn't. If it was a bad hard drive you would get something on the screen telling you there was an error.

From the symptoms you are describing it could be the memory.

Other than the memory it could be

- Bad power supply
- Screen
- Motherboard.

- a bad hard drive is a possibility but its way down the list.

reply to post by PhoenixOD

- Bad power supply

So, that means the power-pack and plugged-into-the-wall on one end and into the laptop on the other end?

I tried to check it - it lights up and gets warm, tried changing the outlet also. The blue "power on" light on the keyboard comes on, as well as the blue "battery charged and ready" light. Just no action beyond that.

Although, one of the first tries, the little red P at the top of the chassis (?) (above the F keys) blinked a few times. Then it stopped coming on altogether. When I run my finger over the strip where those red lights are, the bullhorn-volume thing lights up, but nothing else now.

Is it a power supply INTERNAL to the laptop? The battery is still showing "blue" rather than "red (dead)"

reply to post by PhoenixOD


I don't think it's the screen, because when it WOULD boot up, the screen was fine. Even with the error page, it still worked. It just said "windows failed to shut down properly."

Now it doesn't come on at all.
So - motherboard. or Memory.

reply to post by wildtimes


Well the symptoms would suggest memory but it is always prudent to check the wiring first and then work backwards to the root of the problem.

The power supply might have a light on but not outputting the right power , its rare but a possibility. Also the connection between where you plug the power connector in and the mother board can get faulty. The power supply is the large block on the power cable that you plug into the laptop.

The battery is sometimes the problem as well. This is not always easy to check as some laptops will not turn on without a battery plugged in. You would have to find out if your laptop will or won't.

You can check if its the screen by finding someone with a VGA monitor and plugging it into your laptop and see if anything comes up when you turn it on.

Failing hard drives don't tend to stop an entire system from coming on. You usually just get an error on the screen telling you it can't find a system drive or something along those lines. Most laptop hard drives have a SATA connection so you can pull them out and put them into a desktop computer to check to see is they are working ok.

Bad memory CAN stop an entire system from functioning and so can a faulty mother board.

So there are a few things you can do to check some of the parts to try to narrow down the problem. But if I really really had to take a wild guess without any testing (never a good idea to try) id say memory.

reply to post by PhoenixOD

The power supply might have a light on but not outputting the right power , its rare but a possibility. Also the connection between where you plug the power connector in and the mother board can get faulty. The power supply is the large block on the power cable that you plug into the laptop.

Yeah, I don't think it's the power supply. It seems to be working fine.

The battery is sometimes the problem as well. This is not always easy to check as some laptops will not turn on without a battery plugged in. You would have to find out if your laptop will or won't.

Yeah. It won't.
Take out the battery and I get NOTHING. When I first tried removing it, the unit was running but no screen - as soon as I released the battery the whole thing died.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Thank you very much, PhoenixOD!!!
I'm guessing it's memory or mother board failure. This computer is NEVER unplugged, or moved. It just sits there like a desktop.

The "windows did not shut down properly" message is what makes me think it's internal.
It used to be fine if I just closed the lid, and it would go into sleep mode. Open the lid, click 'enter' and it would come back up. No more.

Now I am almost sure this will work

Take out RAM's and put them back in or you can try another slot if you have two. Plug laptop into AC and power on laptop.

If it powers up than use it first few times on AC power.

Originally posted by LordDrakula
Now I am almost sure this will work

Take out RAM's and put them back in or you can try another slot if you have two. Plug laptop into AC and power on laptop.

If it powers up than use it first few times on AC power.

Here is how you get RAM's out :

reply to post by wildtimes


The "windows did not shut down properly" error is sometimes just a configuration error in windows. Its not always hardware related. Theres a slim possibility the Windows error you were getting and now the hardware error you are experiencing are not related.

Getting some life out of the machine is step one. Figuring out the windows error if it still exists can come later.

And you can try this because I found out that this is the issue with gateway laptops :


1. Take out the battery

2. Plug in the cable

3. Press the start button while holding it for 62 seconds.

4. It should start, then you can put the battery back in.

reply to post by LordDrakula

Okay, husband reseated the RAM the other day (he tells me now). Didn't work.

I have already tried the remove battery, unplug, hold button in. Didn't work.

Tried using a different outlet.

A quick thought on your problem. Check Ebay for a working used nv53. A quick check turned up a few used ones in the $100 to $200 range and then all you would have to do is swap in your HDD. Assuming the HDD isn't defective.

Here's a Chassis that might fit the bill.
Laptop

Also some repair services were listed too in the $100 range.

And a Auction unit link here too. 13 hrs left as of this post.

reply to post by ntech

thanks for the suggestions!

I would have to concur with phoenix. You have to start at the basics of troubleshooting. Your laptop should POST (power on self test) it's command prompt looking screen you get just before booting. A faulty HD will not cause the POST to stop. It will simply say boot failure has been detected. Most HD today ill have a SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) it's a bios setting configuration. It will warn the system user if a HD failure is imminent. It works good unless there is a significant instant brown out of the electronics of the HD.

You speak of power surges in your home this = bad for computers and it may have even contributed to your problems. Be sure that your power supply to the laptop is coming out of a surge protecting power strip. I have seen this happen before killing lots of electronics because of household dirty power. You've mentioned that this does this all itself it could be the battery/power brick/power port combination. Sometimes a power port will need replaced on the backside of the laptop as it is shorting out. Not sure if you know this or not, but them power bricks not only delivers the power, it also talks to the bios with a sensor in there that tells your bios information. If this is shorted out or broken in anyway it will cause battery charging/power issues. It may even lower the performance of the laptop as most laptops will go into a power saving mode once unplugged. So instead of running at say 1.2ghz full power, it may drop down to 800mhz permanently because it can't tell if it's plugged in or not the sensor is broken. That's one issue. the power brick or power port may have finally failed but shows green lights as though it's OK. Some laptops will not run on plugged power without the battery installed.

The next issue is that the laptop could be overheating and needs maintenance with fans checked and cleaned or oiled/replaced. Operate the laptop at a table or chair with something under it, but sitting on your lap or blanket will kill your laptop fast. There is fan ports that must have airflow or the cpu will burn out.

Next. No post or blank screen it could be that there is a short in the lid or standby switch. The hinges on laptops have straps of wires running through them and over time them wires could be shorting out. This could also lead to wifi problems. If you got flaky wifi it could be a short in the hinge as some wifi antenna wires actually loop around the screen. Also a screen power inverter/ lights have burned out. A power inverter is a device that has a rectifier in it that changes DC power into AC power and boosts the voltage to light up the crystal back light.

Some of this may or may not apply to your problem. I figured I would post some more as a future reference to help others. As for your case... You said there is shutdown problem that leads me to believe you have a power brick problem, a battery problem, power port on the laptop shorting out, or dead bios battery problem. Without actually physically looking at it can't say for sure.

To give you an example of a repair issue I had. The power brick's internal component came unglued inside. it was a power coil. What happen was it came unglued from the circuit board and the inlet and outlet sides of the copper wires of the coil got twisted around each other and shorted out. Be sure to unplug for this test. If you give your brick a little shake and you hear a nice rattle that = bad. Don't attempt to repair this unless you are qualified and know what you are doing. There are capacitors inside that can kill. The only thing I repair on a power supplies is a fan,simple wiring, simple soldering, repair something like a rubber grommet come loose. Repairing stuff in computers like actual soldering on a component level or recapping etc it really isn't cost effective even for someone like me. I would like to have a electronic repair bench, but just no room for it and it costs oodles of start up money. It's easier to just buy a new one and be done with it.

Anyone in this field probably would remember back in the day of bad caps and the ordeal they had with those. I remember having a motherboard from ASUS that had like 15 flawed caps on it from some off brand company. Most was swelled, but others so bad they leaked fluid out all over the motherboard. The recap costs would run more than the board cost new. Needless to say I scrapped it for gold and moved on.

originally posted by: wildtimes
reply to post by LordDrakula

 

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