Gateway 6860FX Won't Start/Post

So last night all of a sudden my laptop started making a loud grinding noise that sounded like it was coming from the CD-Rom, so I hit the button and try to eject but it won't work. So I then try and CTRL + ALT + Delete to get to the Task Manager, but of course, that doesn't work either resulting in the only option of a hard shutdown by holding the power button. Well since I was watching a movie, I didn't turn the laptop on, however when I get home from work today, I go to turn it on, and I am left with just a blank black screen and nothing works except for the keys lighting up. I haven't even had this laptop for a month either.

 

Is the fan spinning up? Could have been the fan going, which could have killed your cpu.

 

i might be missing something here, can the 6860 play a dvd without booting the os?

 

Johnny - When I start the laptop up, the fans spin for about 2 seconds and then quit spinning. I've tried taking the hard drives out and reseating the RAM and everything to no avail.

Accord - I have no idea? My laptop was on when that happened last night.

 

i think you misunderstood. he went ahead and kept watching his movie and didn't turn the laptop on. to his horror the next day it didn't boot.

and to OP. yeah check your cpu. also try and find out how to reset your laptop.

 

ahhhhh . . . i did miss it. COMPLETELY. wow, ok so you were watching a movie seperate to you laptop when you noticed it have an accident. i must have been excited cause i thought our 6860s couldnt play movies without os. my sentiments for causing any confusion.

 

i would say don't bother fix it yourself, the laptop should have 1 year warranty, go to BB and get a new one, from what you saying, it's clearly not your fault

 

Yeah even if you didn't buy and extended warranty you should have a 1 year warranty automatically from Gateway so send it back. As soon as you open your computer and start messing with your CPU from Gateway's point of view you just voided your warranty, even though it was messed up before it will end up being your word against their's (and they will win).

 

b4 taking it back,
disconnect power cord remove battery remove all ram, attach battery , connect ac, boot - any beeps ?

once again with only on ram module, if fails try the other module.
if can post with one module add the other one.

always disconnect power cord + battery before doing anything inside your laptop.

however if it was mechanical noise it might be that the fan got stuck and then something got fried inside, if so service is your only way.

 

royk50 - I tried that as well to no avail. I am bringing it back to Best Buy here in about 30 minutes and hoping that they still have another system in stock. I hate the Geek Squad guys there, and they are usually the ones in charge of any returns, so hopefully I don't get any stupid remarks or hassle from them. I will inform you all if they give me a new one or not.

Thanks for all the help people have tried giving me though.

 

Went to Best Buy, exchanged it without problem (was 24 days, so I was thankful for that) and then I kinda watched as two Geek Squad guys took a look at it. They were as confused as anyone else.

 

It doesn't usually take much for them to be confused. Glad to hear it went well for you though.
Seanno

 

I just realized that I returned the laptop without the hard drive in it. I called my dad and told him, and he said the hard drive was still sitting on the counter. So I guess my next step is to learn how to format the hard drive and install it so I can have (2) 320 GB drives. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.

 

It is really easy their are instructions to install a hard drive in the fx series lonuge. Once its in your computer You'll have to activate it in administrator tools and you can set up the format there as well. Hopefully BB freaksquad, whoops I mean geeksquad does'nt realize after the fact, that you voided the warrenty by taking the drive out.
Seanno

 

Sweet, I will have to check that out when I get home. If they do realize it's missing the HD, I doubt they can do anything about it, correct?

 

I'm not completely sure about that. They can't take your laptop back from you but they (potentially) could void your warrenty on the replacement laptop. Hopefully and probably they won't though most of the geeksquad people at the BB store that I go to would miss it. A couple of years ago my wife bought a laptop there and it had 5 pixels out so i returned it. They gave me a hassle about it and I had to speak to the manager but they took it back. When we got home we realized that we didn't return it with the battery. So, we ended up having a extra battery for the new one and they never figured it out. Good luck
Seanno

 

Well I guess the worst that could happen is they bill/charge you for the battery, but like seanno alluded to most retail chains aren't the most thorough with returns since some will simply ship them back to the manufacturer as-is. Hopefully they don't just throw it back in the stock room.

I guess I could be the bad guy here and say the honest thing to do is return the HDD. lol.

 

karma is your best friend and worst enemy.