Hi ther: As I posted elsewhere, my offline Gateway computer that I use for calculation programs, failed. It would shut down and infrequently would allow a start-up. Thanks again for all of you gave helpful advice. After consulting a BIG box computer store's service department, and a BIG battery supplier with out any help, I looked in to the computer myself. Inspite of 15 years use, nothing burned, smelled or was dirty. However when replacing the covers on the bottom, I noticed two screws right below the power cord attachment jack, and tightened them. Retried the normal start -up procedure, the computer came to life again and has functioned flawlessly for several months! Now back to hornresp. and the LDC7 speaker program. Maybe this experience can help someone else...regards, Michael
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Those screws may have been for the AC power line safety ground connection to the chassis.
You might want to clean all of the filters and vacuum out the dust bunnies in the cpu heat sink.
Back up all of your data, you are running on borrowed time. The aluminum electrolytic caps in the power supply and on the switching regulator on the CPU board are drying out. It will fail, it is only a matter of time.
At work we figure most Al caps are good for 10 years (even the 105C rated ones, as they are used in more stringent designs). For Fail-safe, we aren't even allowed to use them. Tantalum caps are even worse.
Back up all of your data, you are running on borrowed time. The aluminum electrolytic caps in the power supply and on the switching regulator on the CPU board are drying out. It will fail, it is only a matter of time.
At work we figure most Al caps are good for 10 years (even the 105C rated ones, as they are used in more stringent designs). For Fail-safe, we aren't even allowed to use them. Tantalum caps are even worse.
gateway laptop computer repair, update
Hi there: Regarding my posts concerning a Gateway (WIN'7) laptop which had an intermittent start-up situation. For several days last week, it was not starting. However, over the weekend, while wandering the house during sleepless night, I noticed a blinking light on the exterior case. Still did not start. Used the most curious* advice from the internet...turn the computer upside down push and hold start button. Success, restart. However, curious note was on the screen..."You have been experiencing startup trouble, do you want Windows to try to fix-it. It will take several minutes and may restart your computer several times." So MS, has been watching my computer or reading my questions asked over the internet and/or here at DIYAUDIO. Let MS do it's thing for several retries. Did not appear accomplish a fix. Tried the curious* procedure again, after this restart, everything was working, including charging the battery..no more plugged in not charging messages either. So, thanks for all of you comments. Regards, Michael, PS: along the way, MS ran several "39,864 updates, do not turn your computer off, will shut down and restart...configuring Windows, do not turn your computer off" secessions. Do not know if this had anything to do with start up situations over several months. JMD
Hi there: Regarding my posts concerning a Gateway (WIN'7) laptop which had an intermittent start-up situation. For several days last week, it was not starting. However, over the weekend, while wandering the house during sleepless night, I noticed a blinking light on the exterior case. Still did not start. Used the most curious* advice from the internet...turn the computer upside down push and hold start button. Success, restart. However, curious note was on the screen..."You have been experiencing startup trouble, do you want Windows to try to fix-it. It will take several minutes and may restart your computer several times." So MS, has been watching my computer or reading my questions asked over the internet and/or here at DIYAUDIO. Let MS do it's thing for several retries. Did not appear accomplish a fix. Tried the curious* procedure again, after this restart, everything was working, including charging the battery..no more plugged in not charging messages either. So, thanks for all of you comments. Regards, Michael, PS: along the way, MS ran several "39,864 updates, do not turn your computer off, will shut down and restart...configuring Windows, do not turn your computer off" secessions. Do not know if this had anything to do with start up situations over several months. JMD
Fairly unlikely on a 15 year old machine.
Older windows logged "start success", times startup began and completed. If startup never finished, that was logged. Generally your next attempt would invite Safe Mode or Repair. Safe Mode skips many frills and gets you to a state where you may be able to edit-out whatever driver is causing a problem. Repair seems to re-install many key Windows files and quick-checks some basic configuration. (Both may utterly fail, especially if the hard drive is losing data.) Some repair ops may put you back to an un-updated state, and eventually you will be prompted for those updates.
If this were Windows 10.... I doubt MS has time or spy-power to watch your forums postings, but Win10 DOES constantly tell MS what you are Searching and much diagnostic data. I don't know if that does you any good, since I decline to have Win10 in the house.
I had never heard of long-press on Power button at turn-on. Thanks! (Long-press on Power will usually turn-off if a laptop's Windows or CPU has gone brain-dead and will not shut-down under normal methods. A separate chip monitors the power button and will force-down power if CPU control does not do so in a few seconds.)
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That's normal when the system detects unusual shutdown/startup behaviour, can get it with just an incorrect shut down procedure ,if it causes an issue for startup like file corruption. It will detect a problem and give messages like this and a repair option.
I dose not indicate any contact with MS, or any spying. You have nothing to worry about from this message.
I never bother with automatic start up repair, it takes forever and usually doesn't help in my experience.
Booting from the installation disk will give you a number of repair options including system restore. This is for Win7, that's where I stopped upgrading, but did try the free upgrade when it was available and i didn't like it so reverted to 7.
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That shut down would be the CPU thermal protection being triggered, you can set it to different temps in the BIOS. Not the power supply as such.
Edit: unless I'm missing something here, and is likely without having dealt with this particular machine and It's issue first hand. So I might be wrong in this instance. I don't even know if it was a laptop or desktop, a white box build of a brand name box. So I'm only speculating.
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