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laptop HD dead?

T

teapot

Junior Member
i have a gateway mp8708 and while i was booting it back up from hibernation the screen just froze and a long buzzing sound created from the sound card......i turned it off and restarted the laptop and the HD dont boot up anymore but since the HD dont boot up i would still think i should see the bios screen show up....i dont see a bios screen prompt.....this is the first time i had this happen to a laptop.....if it is just a HD problem then i can just buy one but since i dont see a bios prompt im thinking it could be that my bios is corrupted too?...maybe my screen burnt out? (cuz when i reboot it just a blank black screen).........anyone had this happen before that can shed some light as to what the problem is?........if its unfixable then i rather just go out and get another laptop instead of wasting money to buy a HD then to realize i need to buy a new laptop. thanks
 
If the screen is dark, the buzzing noise suggests once possible cause is the backlight inverter. The inverter is the circuitry that provides the proper voltage for the backlight. If you're not an experienced tech, you'll need some professional help to repair it. Is the machine still under warranty?

BTW -- Check your battery. This page on Gateway's site lists your model as one that could have come with one of the faulty, flaming batteries from the October 23, 2006 recall. :shocked:
 
no its not under warranty anymore....i did remove the battery and and check and it shows fully charged.....i generally use this laptop at a desktop meaning i have it plugged it at all times so i rarely use the battery. i opened up my hd and ram just to remove it and place it back in again and i also checked the tiny battery inside to make sure there was battery left.
 
The battery has nothing to do with the inverter that powers the flourescent backlight. That is a separate circuit that converts the power from the battery OR the wall wart/charger to a higher voltage required by the backlight.

I found mention of it when I searched Google for problems with buzzing in your model.

Whether or not you use the battery, IF you happen to have one of those that were recalled, you should contact Gateway for a replacement. They were recalled due to incidents of spontaneous combustion, even when the machine was not powered.

Your battery may not be one of those recalled, but it's better to know for sure before, rather than after it goes Chernobyl.
 
i tried using a external monitor and nothing shows up using my desktop lcd monitor or my lcd tv........i removed the battery pack and just tried to power up with the power cable and my lights all shows up and my dvd drive powers up and i inserted a xp disk but still blank screen and HD is not powering up
 
Too many possible variables. If you think it's the hard drive, two things to try:
  1. Remove the drive, and connect it as a slave to another computer, either by putting it in an external drive box or a SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 adapter cable like this.
  2. Borrow another hard drive to test in your machine. You don't have to write anything to it. You just need to see if doing it gets you to the first screen to get to the CMOS.
If you can't manage any of that, you need a tech with the right tools to test your system.

Good luck. 🙂
 
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