OMG Help!

[Katla]

My husband, God bless him cause I am going to kill him, brought home his father's Gateway Astro XL PC. His father had taken it to a computer repair store, the guy there told him the power supply was going bad, but wouldn't replace it for him. Soooo, hubby said "Katie can fix it for you, no problem". DOES not ask me first, just assures his father that I will fix it.

I can't even get in the thing!! I have taken out every screw, tugged on it, yanked this way and that, but CAN'T get the back off. I have googled and googled till my eyes and mouse bleed, and can't find anything on how to take the *$&$#*^* back off. Heck I haven't even searched to see if I can get him another power supply.

Pleeease someone out there HAS to know how to get into the thing.

/wimpers

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Katla on 12/17/04 06:42 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

LOL, been there, accomplished that with all sorts of cases. Hidden latches are fun!

Do you have a picture of that case?

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[randy66]

sorry , never had one of those all-in-one units apart , but, have you verified that the problem is the P/S.

 

[vagabond]

Killing your husband is alot easier...*LOL*

From where the powercord is connected, looks like the monitor's housing has to be removed. Nice and neat but this all-in-one PC reminds me of a Pontiac Fiero w/ a V6 engine. You can't get to the bottom row of the V6 w/out jacking the car and have Plasticman arms.

My 1st advice is still a lot easier!!!

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.aspx?member=120067" target="_new">My System</A>

 

[bossnoodle]

Had some fun with my friend's HP like that. Here's what you do... Take the CPU, RAM, HDD, and Optical drives out, get your sledge hammer, and beat the shell until you're satisfied. Then put the whole mess into a decent case with a good PSU. Yes that sounds stupid, but its the best thing you could do.

 

[vagabond]

Hey Crash,

I believe<A HREF="http://support.gateway.com/s/Astro/3500708/350070801.shtml" target="_new">this</A> is what she's talking about.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.aspx?member=120067" target="_new">My System</A>

 

[Katla]

Okay so this morning, I get up and go to turn the thing back right side up. (I had it sitting screen side down looking for hidden latches). Guess what?? The bottom (note the picture provided by Vaga), just slipped right off. There before me sits the guts, in the bottom half and the PS is up with the monitor, and has some sort of retaining plate, great more puzzle to figure out. Man I never though it would be possible to hate a Gateway more.

Randy, I am going on what the computer repair shop guy told my father-in-law.

Well I will keep you guys updated on the progress. I have a feeling this thread will be bumped for months to come...Lord I hope not.

 

[RichPLS]

Please be carefull if the picture tube and components are exposed! There might be capacitor contacts containing very high voltage that if shorted can fry computer and you!
Opening up monitors are for experienced users, I am not one, or for soon to be sorry users.
Good luck, be vewy vewy carefull...

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

Oh, the OLD one! Yeh, I have one of those here. I found the board was shot and ended up using it as a monitor by adding a VGA extension cable and running it out the exhaust fan hole.

The back doesn't come off those first, the bottom splits from the top first. I think it had 4 screws in the bottom.

When you split the thing, you end up with a mini system in the base and a separate, working monitor. The monitor is switched on and off by the VGA signal.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>