[snakeyes37]

Hi, I've been having this problem for atleast two months now. I tried fixing it myself for several weeks, but I finally gave up and sent it into gateway so that they could fix it. I got the computer back about 2 weeks after sending it in and almost immediately the same problem happens again no more then about an hour or so after opening it up out of the box. This problem started happening about two months ago, I reformatted the hdd and re-installed xp using the blue oem cd the gateway gave me with the computer. Okay so after all the formatting and installing windows I got all the windows updates, sp2, installed all my spyware, anti-virus, turned on the sp2 firewall on, etc etc. So after doing that for a few hours I put the computer into standby mode. Leave it off for about 8 hours or so. I turn it back on and maybe 30 minutes or later the computer really seems to be lagging alot, it eventually freezes and locks up. I have no choice but to press the power button and manual shut it off, okay. So now I press the power button and it boots back up, but it seems to stop and freeze at the Gateway Splash screen for maybe like a minute or two, after that a black screen comes up with the following error message.


PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
Copyright 1985-2002 Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
All Rights Reserved

BIOS version 38.00.35
System ID = 31662677
Build Time: 03/12/03 12:39:09

CPU = Mobile Intel® Celeron® CPU 2.20GHz
503M System RAM Passed
256K Cache SRAM Passed
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed
Mouse initialized
ERROR
0211: Keyboard Error
ERROR
0260: System timer error

Press F1 to resume, F2 to Setup


I tried pressing F1 and F2 but nothing works. Sometimes I can get lucky and actually boot up to Windows XP and it seems to work fine for about 30 - 2 hours before it totally locks up and requires the power button to be pressed, and then I get the same error all over again. This is a really weird boot error I seem to be getting. I've tried re-formatting the hdd and re-installing windows xp 4 times already with no success. I just continue to get the same error message over and over again. I've tried reseating the memory ram and the hdd, still I get the same error message. I have a Gateway 400VTX notebook, Intel Celeron 2.2GHz processor, 512mb ram, 40gb hdd. Running Windows XP Home. Any help would greatly be appreciated. I've come to several conclusions of my own, the hdd could be bad or the motherboard could be bad. Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks.

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Quick suggestions -

First off, always start from the easiest possible causes and solutions, and progress through to the most difficult. So, don't waste time reinstalling xp numerous times.

The error message was in your bios - it points to problems with the mouse and keyboard. Why?

Do you have external input devices connected to your laptop - usb or otherwise? Did you ever?

Have you tried replacing your CMOS battery - tricky with laptops, I'd be surprised if Gateway didn't do that as a matter of course, when you sent it to them. If the battery is running low, bios often reports faults/errors.

It hard troubleshooting remotely, but I would say the clue is in the bios error message, may point to something minor, maybe major. Have you spilt liquid on your keyboard - doesn't need much to short one?!

Just a few suggestions

DaveB - LinuxWannabee

[linuxwannabee]

Quick suggestions -

First off, always start from the easiest possible causes and solutions, and progress through to the most difficult. So, don't waste time reinstalling xp numerous times.

The error message was in your bios - it points to problems with the mouse and keyboard. Why?

Do you have external input devices connected to your laptop - usb or otherwise? Did you ever?

Have you tried replacing your CMOS battery - tricky with laptops, I'd be surprised if Gateway didn't do that as a matter of course, when you sent it to them. If the battery is running low, bios often reports faults/errors.

It hard troubleshooting remotely, but I would say the clue is in the bios error message, may point to something minor, maybe major. Have you spilt liquid on your keyboard - doesn't need much to short one?!

Just a few suggestions

DaveB - LinuxWannabee

[snakeyes37]

I dont know why it says keyboard and mouse error. The mouse and keyboard work when I'm lucky enough and can boot into windows that is. I haven't tried replacing the CMOS battery, I wouldn't even know how to do it on a notebook, I know how to do it on a desktop though. And I haven't pulgged in any external devices into the computer in some time. The notebook freezes even when I'm in the BIOS.







Thanks.