[Xaisho]

Alright so I need some ideas because I'm pretty much stumped right now.
I have a Gateway MX7525 with the specs as follows; Athlon 64 4000+ 2.6ghz, ATI Radeon X600, 1GB RAM, and a 100GB HD.

This is the first time I have had any major problems with the laptop.
I was listening to music on it and everything appeared to be working just fine. Then it locked up on me completely. No blue screen or restart it was just frozen. I didn't think anything of it at the time so I just shut it off and set it aside for a while.
The next time I went to use it I couldn't get it to post.
When I power it on this is what happens.

Screen doesn't turn on, dvd drive spins up, and 10 seconds after I pressed the power button it turns itself off. Another 3 seconds and it turns itself back on, then about 7 seconds later it turns itself off again.

I have tried booting it up with and without the battery and with and without it being plugged in. Made no difference.

I'm thinking some sort of hardware failure happened but I'm not sure exactly what and if there would be anything I could do to fix it.
Earlier I did some quick searches on google and found a suggestion to try unplugging the monitor from the mobo and using an external display.
So I tried it but it was still showing the same behavior.

Any suggestions I can get would be great thanks for your time.

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Minor update.
I removed both sticks of ram from the computer and turned it on to see if I could get it to give me some beeps but no go it displayed the same symptoms as before. Right now my thinking is that the mobo is gone unless anyone else can give me some insight.

[Xaisho]

Minor update.
I removed both sticks of ram from the computer and turned it on to see if I could get it to give me some beeps but no go it displayed the same symptoms as before. Right now my thinking is that the mobo is gone unless anyone else can give me some insight.

[rshaffer61]

Faulty power switch or MOBO are the two options i see it could be.
Either way you need to take it to a shop and have them look at it.
Id it is indeed the MOBO be ready to either dish out alot of money for a replacement or buy a new Laptop.
No joy either way in this situation.
Don't trash the old system as you may still be able to retrieve your data on the hd.

[Xaisho]

Thanks for the reply.
I have every intention of finding a way to get my data off the hard drive before I do anything else with it.
Don't have the funds to take it anywhere, and it's not worth the money to replace the mobo anyway.

Now I just need to find myself a hard drive dock or something similar that will work with my 2.5" ide hdd.

[rshaffer61]

External enclosure and a friends free desktop that you can backup everything onto temporarily.
That would be the cheapest way.

Tigerdirect Start out at 10.00 dollars for 2.5 inch drive.

Newegg start out at 7.00 dollars

You will have shipping but even that will only amount to double the price total.

[Xaisho]

Awesome thanks for the links I appreciate it I'll probably get an external enclosure and just use my drive as storage for my next computer.
I would just put my drive in another laptop I'm trying to get working but it's PowerPC so I wouldn't be able to boot.
Actually that gives me an idea. I could just load up the Arch live cd or Debian and use that.

Thanks for the help.

[rshaffer61]

You are very welcome. I'm glad we could help and please let us know how everything works out for you.
If there is anything else we can do to help please feel free to ask. I appreciate that you allowed me to assist you with your issue and for your patience. Thank you for choosing GeeksToGo for help.
We will leave this topic open for further assistance for you.