Not sure if I need a new Motherboard or ????
Cyn M
Gateway welcome screen. I have tried the F8 key and restored it to
factory settings and it was working fine for a few days. I installed
the regular updates and it turned off and then went right back to the
Gateway welcome screen and none of the Function keys will work at all
now it is just stuck on the welcome screen no matter how many times I
try to reboot. Would replacing the hard drive and or processor fix
this?
Any ideas?? Any help would be appreciated! :)
Paul
Will it boot from the CD/DVD drive ?
See if you have a bootable CD in your collection. This is an example
of a CD that boots, and it's around a 200MB download.
http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208282163
1. Iso image of Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 (196 MB)
Using a program like "Imgburn" or Nero, you can convert the
ISO9660 file into a bootable CD. You'll need a blank CD or DVD,
to do the burning.
That would be for the purpose of proving the computer can run
an OS for a while. This is called "booting an alternative OS".
The Kaspersky page, also describes how to prepare a USB stick for
booting. I'd try the CD way first.
That CD is actually for antivirus scanning, and it can get an update
of the virus definitions, if the laptop was connected to an already
working broadband modem and router. (The CD only knows how to use
DHCP to get an IP address from the modem and router. The CD does
not support dialup networking.)
An alternate kind of test media, would be the disk test from the
disk manufacturer. Turn off the laptop, remove the big battery,
and remove the hard drive cover plate. Look at the brand of drive
present in the bay. It could be Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba,
Hitachi and so on. Then, go to the web site of the named company
and download a diagnostic. There may be a CD version available.
Note that, these don't always work. The one for my current motherboard,
won't boot. So don't be surprised if this doesn't work. If it did,
you could actually run a diagnostic on the hard drive, and determine
if the hard drive was healthy. In some cases, the diagnostic uses
a copy of FreeDOS and sets up a RAM Disk to hold decompressed utilities.
*******
My immediate reaction to your symptoms, is it is not the processor.
You can see the welcome screen, and you can't "draw" a welcome screen
without a processor. Could the processor get too hot, because the fan
is jammed with dirt or hair ? Yes. Could other parts of the laptop
overheat ? Yes, it could happen. If you take the machine to a shop,
they'll likely try to hit you up for a $300 motherboard.
I see no reason to immediately suspect the hard drive, but if you
can get the diagnostic running, you'll be in a better position to
judge that for yourself.
The 200MB Kaspersky CD can do an AV scan for you, if you thought
that was the issue.
Paul
Cyn M
Thank you so much for the quick response. I have tried the CD that
came with my Computer to recover the system but it doesn't do
anything. And your right, I took it in to Staples and they told me
they would need to me they would need to send it in because he has no
idea at the moment what was wrong with it so it would run around $400
dollars and then they could hopefully fix it. He mentioned a new
motherboard which is why I wanted to ask and see if there was anything
I could try first. I am going to look into the ideas you have posted.
Thanks again :)