My P6860FX died! No support from Gateway!

Hello.. I used to be a very happy customer since I got my P6860FX until 2 days ago when I turned it on and I found gateway logo on the screen fuzzy and colors like fading then I got a long beep followed by two short beeps then nothing on the screen.

I tried everything like resting the coms by removing the battery , tried to remove the removable parts like wifi , memory and hard drive but still getting the same thing. I looked up the beep code mean and I found out that it's something wrong with the GPU .

Finally I decided to contact gateway support...first try I got somebody looks like not from here and doesn't know anything about computers which suggest to take the laptop to the nearest technical support near from my house !! I told him I am sorry but doesn't Gateway support and service their products I found him saying thank you for using our products good bye!! just like this I was in a shock.

After I calmed down a little bit I tried one more time and this time who answered me said since your laptop is not under the warranty there is nothing they can do and I should try to buy the parts from this store , www.mundocorp.com when I check the store while talking with him I didn't find any motherboards which I assumed that what I need since the GPU already on the motherboard, I told him there is no motherboards for sale on the site so he gave me this site which is the same as the first one http://www.skyline-eng.com So i told him there is no motherboards for sale their either , doesn't gateway service their products anymore I would pay for the computer service since it's not covered by the warranty! I got the reply with thanks for using our products blah blah.. the same recorded message!!
Right now I don't really know what I should do with it.

I also feel so mad at myself I gave my money to a company like this. now I learned the lesson to pay more for a company that stands behind their products .

I am not really surprised that this company is bought by Acer and I am sure gateway name is going to disappear from the market soon if they keep treating customers like this.

I wish anybody can have any solution or show me the way I should take to make this laptop work again.

 

I'm sorry for you man. I guess once the warranty's over, they won't do anything about it.

 

My best friend just had this happen to him just last week!

Anyhoo, he was given no help from Gateway cust. support and thankfully he purchased the warranty at bestbuy and they swapped out the laptop with a Asus equivalent with a gtx260 in it.

 

Just adding for others to know. Hope you get it fixed.

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/INTEL/m00060/beepcode.shtml

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/intel/m00061/beepcode.shtml

http://support.gateway.com/s/motherbd/intel/4000463/4000463faq12.shtml

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/INTEL/2514753/251475355.shtml

 

I had some trouble finding parts for my P-6831FX too. I only needed a keyboard and battery, but didn't want to go on eBay. When I contacted Gateway, they also sent me to that Skyline-Eng site which had no parts, and they later directed me to use their pay-support to place an order for parts.

 

DIY:

Buy a heat gun from a HW store (used to strip paint).
Set it to 300C, point it at the GPU and heat it up for 60 secs.

Look on youtube for BGAreflowing/BGAreballing/BGAreworking.
You will see lots of info.

So that is one thing to try before getting a new motherboard.

 

THE BEST ADVICE EVER!!! I tried it and it worked man . I am typing this reply now using it !! I followed the videos on youtube as you suggested and I found out there are so many people having this problem even people with XBOX 360 having it!!
Do you suggest to under voltage the GPU or I should be fine now? Hardware Monitor is giving me 42 C .

Thank You so so much man.

 

Wow, you have more guts than me. Most people I suggest it to, never try it.

I still suggest undervolting, that fix may only last a week unless you keep it extremely cool.

So what exact steps did you take?
I think others could benefit from your experience.

 

Sorry man for being late to give the details!! It's not really guts as it was desperate after i looked for the motherboard prices Here is an example http://www.partstore.com/Part/Gateway/Gateway/4006258R/Refurbished.aspx?s=froogle .

1- what I did is that i followed this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=382408 (many thanks to azrickster ) to take the laptop apart so I can reach to the GPU.

2-The first thing I noticed once I reached to the GPU that the compound is leaked from under the cooler all around the GPU ( it looked like boiled!! ) so I had to clean it .
3-I got foil and put it on the motherboard then made a cut around the GPU .
4- I used the hair blower on high(Hot) on the GPU for around 3 min . I let it cool for like 5 min.
5- I connected the power and the monitor to the motherboard then tried to turn it on and viola it worked .
pretty simple but scary .
It worked fine for 2 days after that then it did the same thing again so I turned it off then turned it back on and it worked again and still working until now even with using it on high settings on L4D for around 5 games at least everyday . The temperature is 39C on idle and around 78C while playing .
Hopefully it will stay like this.

I forgot to mention that I replaced the compound on the GPU and the CPU with Arctic Silver 5 .