Hi guy's, I have a problem that some of you guy's might have some suggestions on. For the last few years my wife has been using a gateway pc thats about 8 years old. She just uses it for mailing and simple things. It was being used very frequently up until a month or so ago when we changed the house around. Today I went to set it up for the first time in about a month and basically it's not working. There doesn't seem to be any power getting to it. It won't start at all. When the power cable is plugged in and I hit the "on" switch on the pc, nothing at all happens. Strange this has been working for years and now out of nowhere it's broke. As far as I know it didn't take any knocks or bangs since it has been out of use. Any suggestions on this? Thanks sandisk
is there an on\off switch on the back of the psu? is the voltage slide switch showing the right voltage for your area as in 220v for europe & 115v for north america?
Hi ddp, no there is no other switch on the pc at all, just the one at the front. Yes the voltage switch is at 230. It's a strange one alright!! I'm not that well up on the internal of a pc but I opened it up just to make sure no loose cables, and everything seems to be ok.
disconnect all cables to drives & remove all cards except for videocard. reseat videocard & ram. try clearing the cmos as have found that to work a few times. check that the capacitors on the motherboard are flat topped not domed & are not leaking brown stuff.
Thanks ddp, I'll give that a try in the morning as I'm off work. Just want to try clarify this a little as I'm a little lost So I'll disconnect all cables including to the hard drives and dvd/cd rom drives and re-connect them ? Take out the video card and RAM and place it back in ? I didn't know what the cmos was until I just googled it lol, so the cmos is the "circle" shaped battery, like a watch battery only bigger, is this correct ? So I just clean around this? I also didn't know what "capacitors" were either until I just googled lol Thanks for the help ddp, I'll check those things tomorrow and post back comments. Thanks Sandisk
don't reconnect the drives yet as 1 of them might be causing the problem. takeout & put back in. check user guide\motherboard manual for location & proceedure to clear cmos. cappacitors are the can shaped objects on the motherboard.
Grand, thanks. Only problem I have is no manual for the motherboard to clear the cmos. When I open it up I'll try find the make of the motherboard and google it and hopefully find a manual to it online. Can I just ask you, what does clear the cmos mean ? Does it mean take out the battery and replace it back in ? Thanks Sandisk
what is the make & model# of the computer or motherboard so can see about manual. battery takeout does same as the cmos chip looses power briefly til reconnected & defaults back to original bios manufactured date.
Hi ddp, yeah I tried those things today but still no luck. I don't see any of those "capacitors" at all on the motherboard. Doesn't seem to be anything leaking at all though. I also took out the cmos battery for a minute and put it back in but no luck. There's a plate on the motherboard, it says "AMD 756" and underneath that "AMD 756AC". Would this be the make of the motherboard? And on the back of the pc it says, "Gateway 650, serial no. 0001528828, mfg date 03/05/00 I tried the gateway site with the serial but no joy. When I was in getting my blank dvd's today, I mentioned it to one of the tech's and he said I could try a whole new power unit. It would cost €10 to buy it or €60 to have it installed. I'd probably get a better pc for the €60. Do you think I should try a new power unit? Any suggestions on this? Thanks Sandisk
