[ghosthunter83]

I have a Gateway Solo 2500. It worked fine the other day. I went to turn it on today, and had problems. The green power light comes on and stays on. The computer reads the CD-Rom for a short time, then stops. The hard drive does spin up. The screen stays blank. I tried hooking up a external monitor to it, nothing. Then the green power light stays on, and everything stops. It doesn't even try to boot from the hard drive. Any suggestions or ideas??

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I was looking at a manual on-line for a Dell Inspiron 2600 and I noticed that it has a 'reserve battery'. This is for BIOS/clock settings. This is similar to the coin cell that desktops have. I'm wondering if your Gateway has a similar battery and perhaps it died. I think I've got a website bookmarked for laptop manuals online. I'll look for it....

If you loose the BIOS settings the laptop won't boot....

[macten]

I was looking at a manual on-line for a Dell Inspiron 2600 and I noticed that it has a 'reserve battery'. This is for BIOS/clock settings. This is similar to the coin cell that desktops have. I'm wondering if your Gateway has a similar battery and perhaps it died. I think I've got a website bookmarked for laptop manuals online. I'll look for it....

If you loose the BIOS settings the laptop won't boot....

[macten]

Did you try a boot disk?

[ghosthunter83]

Cool, let me know if you have the bookmark! I turned it off Sunday night, all was fine. I bought a new wireless network card, was eager to install, when the thing wouldn't power up. The battery on the mainboard makes sense. I can't use a boot disk mainly because I can't get that far. The thing has power, green power light, it will access the CD-Rom, then stop. The hard drive does spin, so that rules out power issues. No display, nothing but the green power light. I work on PC's, but laptops are a new thing for me.

[macten]

Laptops are new to me also. I'll look for that site later today. I'm wondering if something came loose? Did you move it between when it worked and when it stopped working?

[ghosthunter83]

Yes. I unplugged it, and moved it to the family room. I have a padded bag that it was in. I also read somewhere that it might be the Video Card. I don't know about that. It can't get past the Bios information. I don't know if it would give any errors, like beeps, if the video was bad. If this thing was a PC, it would have already been fixed. I can get a video board for $29. But installing it is another matter entirely.

[macten]

Two things I've learned recently: Always remove the battery before working on it and the screws in the bottom are usually of different lengths. Make sure you mark/indicate which screw goes in which hole. Puting the wrong screw in the wrong hole could damage something if it's to long.....

[ghosthunter83]

Thanks for the info! I started to take it apart yesterday, but I took out 12 screws and wasn't any closer to having it apart than before I started, so I gave up. I have learned in the past to draw a diagram of things you take apart, alot easier to reassemble this way! I do have an older Gateway laptop, so I am going to take out the CMOS battery, if it has one, and see if that will boot up. If if does the same thing, most likely that is my problem now. I have no problems tearing that thing apart and not being able to get it together again.

[macten]

I've had no luck finding the manual. If you have a volt meter, you can check the voltage on the battery. How old is it?

[ghosthunter83]

I have one, and I will check it tonight. It is a Gateway Solo 2500. It was made in 1999. It does have a CMOS battery that plugs in. I am trying to find a break down manual for laptops.

[ghosthunter83]

PROBLEM SOLVED!! I finally tore the beast apart, and the problem was that the cable from the monitor was useated from the motherboard a little bit. I pressed it firmly back in place, and she fired up. Just thought I would let you know.

[MOLEXRULZ]

I have to say thats kind of funny. Its always something simple.
Congrats on fixing your PC