Power Problem with Gateway G6-350

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

I've been trying to get a friend's Gateway 6-350 back into usable order.
One thing led to another, and I ended up totally replacing her 10 GB
Maxtor hard drive with a Maxtor 40 GB hard drive, adding a CD-RW drive
and installing Windows XP. Everything finally seemed to be working okay
together. I kept it for about 10 days after the upgrades to do software
installs and updates, etc. It was working fine when I turned it off and
took it to work to hand back to her.

I got a call from her that same night. They system wouldn't power up at
all. I took the computer back and had no luck getting it to power up. No
fans, no lights, nothing. I tried several power cables. I opened the
case, checked all the cables, cards, and plugs, tried again. Nothing.

I tried unplugging both the new hard drive and the new CD-RW drive to
see if they might be the cause of the trouble. Still no go. I bought an
Antec power supply tester, pulled the power supply and tested it. The
power supply fan spun up quite happily and the tester gave me a green
light.

All I can figure now is that either the power switch has gone bad,
something got knocked out of kilter or damaged when I was moving the
computer, or the motherboard has given up the ghost. Any suggestions as
to what I should try next? The computer repair book I have suggests
pulling everything to a bare bones motherboard and then trying the
power, which seems a lot of work (some of these plugs and cards are
damned hard to pull). And I'm not sure how to go about testing the power
switch.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm tired of looking at this
machine.

Ann

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

You can test the power supply switch by removing the wire lead to the front of
the case and shorting the two power pins with a screwdriver. Be careful doing
so, and also make sure you know which two pins to short out... Ben Myers

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 00:19:27 GMT, Ann Berry <aberry2@earthlink.net> wrote:

>I've been trying to get a friend's Gateway 6-350 back into usable order.
>One thing led to another, and I ended up totally replacing her 10 GB
>Maxtor hard drive with a Maxtor 40 GB hard drive, adding a CD-RW drive
>and installing Windows XP. Everything finally seemed to be working okay
>together. I kept it for about 10 days after the upgrades to do software
>installs and updates, etc. It was working fine when I turned it off and
>took it to work to hand back to her.
>
>I got a call from her that same night. They system wouldn't power up at
>all. I took the computer back and had no luck getting it to power up. No
>fans, no lights, nothing. I tried several power cables. I opened the
>case, checked all the cables, cards, and plugs, tried again. Nothing.
>
>I tried unplugging both the new hard drive and the new CD-RW drive to
>see if they might be the cause of the trouble. Still no go. I bought an
>Antec power supply tester, pulled the power supply and tested it. The
>power supply fan spun up quite happily and the tester gave me a green
>light.
>
>All I can figure now is that either the power switch has gone bad,
>something got knocked out of kilter or damaged when I was moving the
>computer, or the motherboard has given up the ghost. Any suggestions as
>to what I should try next? The computer repair book I have suggests
>pulling everything to a bare bones motherboard and then trying the
>power, which seems a lot of work (some of these plugs and cards are
>damned hard to pull). And I'm not sure how to go about testing the power
>switch.
>
>Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm tired of looking at this
>machine.
>
>Ann

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

Could you give me an idea which two pins to short out? The switch
consists of the on-off button and two leds on a plastic plate that is
screwed on to the front panel with six wires leading down to a 12 pin
connector on the mother board. There seems to be several exposed pins up
by the switch itself, and there's the 12 pins down on the mother board,
but it isn't obvious to me which pins are the ones I need to short. Also
I assume I should have the power supply plugged into the wall when I do
this, but nothing I've read expressly says this.
I've got a schematic from the Gateway site, but I'm not well enough
versed in things electronic to figure this out intuitively. I'm guessing
this isn't the sort of thing I should be doing by trial and error.

Many thanks for your help,

Ann


Ben Myers wrote:
>
> You can test the power supply switch by removing the wire lead to the front of
> the case and shorting the two power pins with a screwdriver. Be careful doing
> so, and also make sure you know which two pins to short out... Ben Myers
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

The G6-350 used an Intel-made SE440-BX or similar motherboard. The pins to
connect to the front panel are all arranged in a single row along the edge of
the motherboard. The pins are numbered from right to left (1 to 27), if you
have the chassis open with the front of the computer facing you. There are gaps
where pins 5, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21 and 25 would be. The power-on pins are the
right most pair of pins.

If the front panel pin arrangement is different from what I've described, don't
do anything except RSVP with your description of the front panel pins. If the
description matches what you see in the system, continue on.

Disconnect the wire lead covering the righmost two pins. With power connected
to the computer, briefly touch the two right pins with a screwdriver. If the
system powers up, you know that the power switch has gone bad. if not,
something more serious is wrong. In that case, I agree with another suggestion
to remove all cards from the system except the video card and to disconnect
power from all the devices (floppy, hard drive, CD-ROM drive), reconnect the
power switch lead and see if the motherboard powers up all by itself (with the
video card). If the motherboard powers up, power down, unplug the system from
the wall, reinstall one card at a time and power up again. Do the same for the
various devices, reconnecting power one at a time. This is a standard procedure
to isolate a failed device. If the motherboard still does not power up all by
itself with only video card installed, substitute another video card. ANY
working video card will do. If the motherboard still does not power up with
just a workimg video card, then you've isolated the problem to motherboard (most
likely), processor (next most likely) or memory.

This is the usual procedure I follow when troubleshooting a system with known
hardware problems. It is pretty easy if you have extra parts to substitute for
what is inside a computer. Another help is a Power On Self Test (POST) card,
very inexpensive these days, which gives indications of power voltages and an
LED readout of the POST codes emitted by the motherboard as it cycles through
its POST. If the board does not boot, the last POST code displayed tells which
step of the POST failed... Ben Myers

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 05:31:53 GMT, Ann Berry <aberry2@earthlink.net> wrote:

>Could you give me an idea which two pins to short out? The switch
>consists of the on-off button and two leds on a plastic plate that is
>screwed on to the front panel with six wires leading down to a 12 pin
>connector on the mother board. There seems to be several exposed pins up
>by the switch itself, and there's the 12 pins down on the mother board,
>but it isn't obvious to me which pins are the ones I need to short. Also
>I assume I should have the power supply plugged into the wall when I do
>this, but nothing I've read expressly says this.
>I've got a schematic from the Gateway site, but I'm not well enough
>versed in things electronic to figure this out intuitively. I'm guessing
>this isn't the sort of thing I should be doing by trial and error.
>
>Many thanks for your help,
>
>Ann
>
>
>Ben Myers wrote:
>>
>> You can test the power supply switch by removing the wire lead to the front of
>> the case and shorting the two power pins with a screwdriver. Be careful doing
>> so, and also make sure you know which two pins to short out... Ben Myers
>>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

Thanks,

I'm looking at Gatway's diagram now. It looks like the front panel
connector is a 2x8 with a 2 pin SCSI LED connector on the very right. If
nothing else, Gatway supplies plenty of views of this system.
http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/INTEL/m00264/M0026422.shtml if you
can get it to come up. Looks to me like pins 6 and 8 might be the ones I
need to short (PWR ON is silk screened just below). Correct me, please,
if I'm wrong. (The pins are so fine, I'm going to have to be careful.)

And thank you for the very clear and concise instructions for trouble
shooting from there. I took on this project partly as a learning
experience, which I'm getting in spades. (More spades than I expected.)

Ann

Ben Myers wrote:
>
> The G6-350 used an Intel-made SE440-BX or similar motherboard. The pins to
> connect to the front panel are all arranged in a single row along the edge of
> the motherboard. The pins are numbered from right to left (1 to 27), if you
> have the chassis open with the front of the computer facing you. There are gaps
> where pins 5, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21 and 25 would be. The power-on pins are the
> right most pair of pins.
>
> If the front panel pin arrangement is different from what I've described, don't
> do anything except RSVP with your description of the front panel pins.