My friend's PC won't power up! He's bugging to use my computer!!! What could be wrong with his?

[ETan]

He has a Gateway book pc, really small footprint... It's like Celeron 600 or so... About 1 1/2 years old.
<Edit:> It says FLEXATXSTC BRO ESSENTIAL 933. It's actually a PIII 933. I couldn't find anything on gateway.com, as it kept saying the serial number is invalid. This sucks.</EDIT>

His power supply fan kept making noise, and stopped working, so I gave him a panaflo of mine, watched him switch it out, and then put everything back on... Plug the power cable in, heard a small noise like something started, then tried to turn it on, and nothing happened.. Just nothing.

Now he's bugging to use mine tonight so he can chat with his girlfriend or whatever.. I'd really rather go to bed or study for my test tomorrow morning...

Anyway, I want to help him but have no clue what could be wrong... Any advice?

What kind of power supply does a book pc take? If he somehow broke the PS, then I told him I can try to find a replacement for him at the FS/T forum, but I need to know what kind it is first (couldn't find out much from the label).

Also, he's worried his components could be fried... He did not unplug everything out (mobo, hd, cdrom, etc) because it was all hidden in there as the book pc is so small... What are the chances of that happening? What could be damaged?

Advice / help / suggestion much appreciated. Please help!

 

[Frosty3799]

do you have a model #?

you can usually get most of the info with that off of the gateway web page

 

[ETan]

anyone? pretty please?

 

[ThaGrandCow]

Gawd I hated selling those damn flex cases. They were so horrible. I think your friend missed the boat though, he probably got one without a parallel port. That was the biggest joke between all of us at the Gateway Country store. "No sir, your old printer won't work with this brand new system. Yes I know you just spent $1500 on a new system but you need a new printer also."

I worked in sales and sometimes technical support at a Gateway Country store until a few weeks ago. What a crappy job.

AFAIK the Flex case takes a 230 watt power supply, but its a weird PS. I think they were custom for the flex cases. Don't bother replacing the PS with something you get in the store. Just call up gateway (yes I know the hold times suck, you could always take it into a Country store and drop it off there) and tell them the power supply died. Since you know how to work on comps they will just send it and UPS return labels to you. Install the new PS, drop the old one in the box that the new one came in, slap on teh UPS return stickers, and call up UPS to pick it up from you. Gateway knows that the Essential systems were crap. They replace parts on them all the time. When I was working there that damn case (integrated EVERYTHING) was about 75% of all the problems we serviced.

EDIT: If his system is a year and a half old I think he's just before they dropped their warranty standard from 3 years to 1 year, so he should be ok.

 

[ETan]

Thanks for the advice GrandCow.

I'll tell my friend to give gateway a call tomorrow...

Btw, do you think his warranty is still ok, since he did open up the PS, switched the fan out, etc...?

Can he just tell Gateway to send a new power supply?

And also, how can we know for sure if it IS indeed the power supply (I think it is)?

 

[AzNmAnJLH]

don't tell them you open it up just get rma

 

[ThaGrandCow]

<< Thanks for the advice GrandCow.

I'll tell my friend to give gateway a call tomorrow...

Btw, do you think his warranty is still ok, since he did open up the PS, switched the fan out, etc...?

Can he just tell Gateway to send a new power supply?

And also, how can we know for sure if it IS indeed the power supply (I think it is)? >>

IIRC (w00t, first time I can use that ) gateway dropped their warrantys from 3 years to 1 year standard just over a year ago. So if his system is 1.5 years old it's definitely under warranty. Their policy always has been you can open up your system and play around in there (within reason) but if you fry a component they won't cover it. Power supplies go out pretty easily in the old flex cases so they shouldn't give you too much gruff about it. Just put the old one back together the way it was before. When you send it back more than likely they are just going to toss it out without even looking at it. PS's are cheap. It would cost more to have a tech look it over than it would be to jsut toss it and send you a new one. To make sure, there's not much you can do. Have you tried putting your nose near the fan slits on the PS itself? If something literally fried in there (75% of the time this is what happened) believe me you'll know when your nose gets close. Other than that you could try a different power supply. If you've got an extra ATX laying around plug it in and just sit it on top of the case. I don't believe a non-gateway PS will even fit in those cases. See if the computer boots up with the new power supply. If you don't have an extra or it doesn't boot up you might have to go through some troubleshooting with a Gateway phone rep (this will be majorly ghey, Gateway phone techs are almost always dumber than rocks, but sometimes you get the good person). Make sure you are polite and don't get mad or raise your voice with the tech on the phone. Remember, it's their judgement call if you get replacement parts or not. I've seen (and I'm sad to say I've done it myself) a tech get pissed because someone on the phone is taking their whole bad life out on the phone tech. The person bitching over the phone then gets a "not covered under warranty, go to a local computer store and have them charge you $500 for your IDE cable that got loose to be pushed back in" message. So be nice to the tech Chances are he's already had a bad day and if you treat him nicely he'll be very willing to help you out. Good luck

EDIT: By just over a year I mean about a year and a month ago.