Need Help with Gateway Solo 9550...

[jayfunk]

Ok heres my problem...

I'm trying to fix a friends Gateway Solo 9550. But I am having some trouble to figure out what the problem is... Let me give you the General problem description...

Problem Description:
Unit will power on (Green LED Powered on Status Lights), Will give a few seconds of Hard Drive Activity (Orange Status Lights), but no P.O.S.T beep. There is no display at all what so ever.

Thing's I've Tried
I took whole unit apart and pretty much reseated everything, changed CMOS battery (incase had Boot Password or Bios Password). There was no phsycial appearance of burnt / fried components. I have tried hooking an External monitor up to it and switching between LCD / CRT but will not budge. Tried messing with Caps Lock, NUM lock, but doesnt look like its accepting (which i think possibly a bad Keyboard). This model allows you to play CD's while the unit is shut off which wokrs FLAWLESSLY. The unit also seems to charge fine with power adpater.

Conclusion
I've come to the conclusion that the unit could have 3 possible problems, defective LCD, defective motherboard and defective keyboard. I dont normally fix Gateway notebooks therefore I couldnt really interchange parts, because I dont have any gateway parts laying around... Any input from anyone would be great... I think I've covered everything

Quick Specs
Intel Pentium III Mobile 1066Mhz
15.7 +SXGA
512 MB SDRAM PC133
30 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
nVidia 32MB GeForce2 Go
ESS ES1988 Audio w/ Toslink out
56K v.90
10/100 NIC


NEW UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention unit SAYS its charging (via indicator lights), but in actuality it is not.

 

[Frightcrawler]

have you tried calling tech support?
they usually know what to do. i hope you have warranty.

 

[jayfunk]

Real Men Dont call tech support

naw... im a technician but (i guess not really a good one)... all they will tell me is, turn computer on insert restore CDs, make sure power cable is plugged in and I am actually using the right button to turn it on... then once they cant fix it... send it in for warranty repair... which I believe is probably already outside the warranted period.

 

[Bekker]

I don't know much about the innerworkings of notebooks, but the symptoms sound suspiciously like my desktop when the memory failed. Do you have any way to check that? Best of luck, Bekker

 

[beaumodr]

Hey I had practically the same problem with my gateway laptop. I first thought that I had a bum dsiplay but it turns out the computer was stuck in some hibernate mode. The gateway technician fixed mine so I dont know what he did to fix it but you might want to mention it if you talk to someone at gateway. Good Luck.

-Derek