Gateway p6831fx: no power

Last night I was browsing the web, with the laptop on my laptop and plugged into AC.

It suddenly turned off, without a battery warning or anything. I disconnected the psu, and tried it on battery power and nothing. I plugged the PSU back in, and nothing. No lights whatsoever on the laptop.

I noticed the PSU light was off on the psu brick. I disconnected the psu from the wall and the laptop, and then re-connected it to the wall, and the psu brick light came back on. However whenever I plug it into the laptop, it goes out again.

So my suspicion is that there is a short in the laptop...What do you think? It could just be the dc-in on the laptop, but then would that affect the battery? Is it worth looking into getting another dc-in?

 

try and get another DC, it looks like its cant power the laptop sod it shuts down to save laptop.

try to open it and look for bad capacitors. this happens to me once with my desktop PSU and laptop DC. even thought since i have changed the capacitors the are working fine for few wears now.

 

Hm, that sounds scary mate.

If you want to take a risk, remove the battery and start the laptop on AC only.

I say this because I had some problems a few times that the laptop wouldnt start: the lights go on, but no picture.
Running the laptop for a while (a few hours till a day) without battery fixed the problem for me so far.

 

Although that sounds theoretically correct, it however does not explain why the laptop cant run on only the battery.

 

The laptop doesnt run on AC only - with or without the battery connected. The second I plug the PSU in, the PSU light goes off.

I might try getting a 2nd psu, but I suspect the problem lies in the laptop rather than the PSU - i.e. a faulty power jack?

 

ok i thought that battery was empty.
take it apart and try to power it on with no HDD no keyboard no mouse pad etc.
it looks like there is something is making contact in electric components that shuts off you entire system to save

 

Okay I took the whole damn thing apart. Nothing worked.

However if I disconnect the 'small board' that holds the DC-in/ethernet/usb ports from the motherboard, the psu does not turn off. So this makes me think the problem is with the motherboard?

In which case - is it possible to get a new motherboard? Is it worth it? Are they known to be a weak link?

 

i don't know, a component has failed or has fried this is all i can think now. without proper instruments its hard to guess sometimes but i have a friend that fixes laptops lol. it you where in my country he could have help yoy.

how much are you willing to spend. there are lots of gateway parts on Ebay.

 

Maybe you just need to change that "small board" that holds the DC-in/ethernet/usb ports?

In case you need a new mainboard it is possible to have it fixed by Gateway, but it will most probably be a very lengthy (3-4 months?) process and you'll need to send in the laptop (because they cant help you via phone/email, due to lack of common sense, anyway ....).

Its usually not worth getting a new mainboard if you are out of warranty. Most people spend just some more and get a complete new laptop.

Mainboards failures do happen; I experienced it myself (usually the laptop turns on, lights, fans spinning, but you get nothing on the screen/external monitor).

 

Any idea where (other than eBay) I could find spare parts?

 

There are various shops online that sell Gateway parts liek this one:

http://www.laptopking.com/searchmod...5, P-6831FX, P-6832, P-6836, P-6860FX)#boards

I have never done business with them though.

This looks like the part you were talking about?:
http://www.laptopking.com/kingpartdetails.asp?ref=783&category=dcjack


I have to say that I found the part I was looking for on Ebay.
I was searching for the small white ribbon cable that connects the powerbutton to the mainboard:
http://www.laptopking.com/partpicture_LK.asp?ref=1659&category=boards

I found it on Ebay which was much cheaper too.

 

Hey, check out this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=455734