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1 Yr. Old Gateway Crapped Out
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1 Yr. Old Gateway Crapped Out Lorene 01-28-2005
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Posted by Lorene on January 28, 2005, 12:10 am
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 I have a Gateway M305CRV two weeks out of warrenty that simply stopped dead
in its tracks.
I wasn't doing any thing out of the ordinary and all of a sudden nothing
worked. The mouse froze up. The CTRL-ALT DEL would not bring the Task
Monitor up or allow me to reset. So I turned it off and back on again.
Now it only lights up the LEDs above and to the right of the on/off button.
In fact it circulates through the LEDs. The fan also comes on. That is all
it does. Nothing on the screen.
It seems as if the BIOS is in a loop waiting for something.

I have tried the following not necessarily in this order without success.
Plugged the monitor from the desktop into the back -- didn't help.
Took the battery out and let it set for an hour. Plugged the AC line in --
didn't help.
Reseated the RAM -- didn't help.
Reseated the HD -- didn't help.
I took what I assummed to be the CMOS battery out and turned it on without
the CMOS battery -- din't help.
Put the Diver CD in the drive and turned it on -- didn't help.

My questions are"
1. Does anyone know what order the BIOS does its work?. I would assume it
checked the RAM first. It knows when the battery is running low because I
let it set there circulating through the LEDs until the battery lite turned
a blinking red and finally shut down.
2. Does the BIOS normally, or can it, write to the display without RAM being
present. Nothing gets displayed at the moment.
3. Does anyone have a source for the Service Manual for the M305 laptop. Do
I really have to pay for it. IT would seem to me if Gateway won't help fix
it they should at least provide a source that tells you how to take the
thing apart correctly.

Please don't suggest talking to Gateway. I tried that and all my arguments
fell on deaf ears. I believe I have a case for the machine still being under
warranty since I had a months worth of trouble when I first got it. But I
get the distinct feeling from my conversations with their support people
that they really don't give a grunt.

Reading through the news groups and internet it seems like I'm not the only
one whose laptop ended up in this state. But so far I have found no
solutions.

Right now I purposely took out the CMOS battery and let the main battery run
completely down and am going to let it set for a day or two.





Posted by bobb on January 27, 2005, 5:20 pm
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 wrote:

>1. Does anyone know what order the BIOS does its work?.


Huh?

Can you get into the BIOS at all? when you are in it, what does it
say? amount of ram? recognize HD?




Posted by Lorene on January 28, 2005, 2:51 pm
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> wrote:
>
> >1. Does anyone know what order the BIOS does its work?.
>
>
> Huh?
>
> Can you get into the BIOS at all? when you are in it, what does it
> say? amount of ram? recognize HD?
>
>
I cannot get into the BIOS at all. I was asking if any one knew which order
the BIOS does the testing. Under normal circumstances it displays a version
number on the display and then tests memory. At least that is what I would
see on the display. Now I see nothing. It is lighting the LEDs in sequence
and checking the battery. It seems as if it is waiting for someting -- like
a hardware bit to set before it goes on. I thought if I knew the sequence
it tests hardware it would give me a better idea of where to start.

JW




Posted by bobb on January 28, 2005, 11:12 am
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wrote:

>I was asking if any one knew which order
>the BIOS does the testing.


Oh I have no idea.

I suggest try booting to bios with the absolute minimum:

Completely disconnect HD
Take out the CDROM/Floppy drives if you have them.
Take out battery, AC only.
Disconnect all peripheral devices.
Take out all ram sticks.
Unplug KB, can-air the contacts and re-plug.
While KB unplug, clean it.

Hopefully u can get a bios screen now.




Posted by JW on January 28, 2005, 7:31 pm
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> wrote:
>
> >I was asking if any one knew which order
> >the BIOS does the testing.
>
>
> Oh I have no idea.
>
> I suggest try booting to bios with the absolute minimum:
>
> Completely disconnect HD
> Take out the CDROM/Floppy drives if you have them.
> Take out battery, AC only.
> Disconnect all peripheral devices.
> Take out all ram sticks.
> Unplug KB, can-air the contacts and re-plug.
> While KB unplug, clean it.
>
> Hopefully u can get a bios screen now.
>
>
Thanks Bobb,

I'll give that a try.

JW




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