Need Help With an Older Dell.

SilverTsunami · 12-23-2007, 07:19 PM

I agreed to help a friend fix his older Gateway laptop. I was under the impression that it would at least take me to the BIOS or to some sort of an error upon startup, but it doesn't even get that far.

I power it on and basically nothing happens.

You can hear the hard-drive working, but nothing at all appears on the screen. My first thought was that the display was shot. So I plugged in my 22" widescreen Samsung, but no luck. It stll wouldn't show on either screens.

At this point, I am stumped. It's pretty much as far as my knowledge goes. I'm more of a desktop guy myself.

Does anyone have any ideas that could help me? It's running XP Home. It's a Gateway of some sort, I'm not even totally sure what kind, although it does have the model number and serial.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

EDIT: Topic says Dell, but it's actually a Gateway. Sorry for any confusion.

SilverTsunami · 12-23-2007, 07:31 PM

Forgot to add. The power might be an issue as well.

The battery is completely depleted, but if you run off of adapter/wall power, if you move the laptop at all and move the adapter plugin, it shuts off. It's pretty touchy. I'm not even sure if the battery is charging or what... :/

12-23-2007, 07:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
SilverTsunami Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2 OS: Win XP SP2	Need Help With an Older Gateway I agreed to help a friend fix his older Gateway laptop. I was under the impression that it would at least take me to the BIOS or to some sort of an error upon startup, but it doesn't even get that far. I power it on and basically nothing happens. You can hear the hard-drive working, but nothing at all appears on the screen. My first thought was that the display was shot. So I plugged in my 22" widescreen Samsung, but no luck. It stll wouldn't show on either screens. At this point, I am stumped. It's pretty much as far as my knowledge goes. I'm more of a desktop guy myself. Does anyone have any ideas that could help me? It's running XP Home. It's a Gateway of some sort, I'm not even totally sure what kind, although it does have the model number and serial. If anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks. EDIT: Topic says Dell, but it's actually a Gateway. Sorry for any confusion. Last edited by SilverTsunami; 12-23-2007 at 07:34 PM.

12-23-2007, 07:31 PM	#2 (permalink)
SilverTsunami Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2 OS: Win XP SP2	Re: Need Help With an Older Dell. Forgot to add. The power might be an issue as well. The battery is completely depleted, but if you run off of adapter/wall power, if you move the laptop at all and move the adapter plugin, it shuts off. It's pretty touchy. I'm not even sure if the battery is charging or what... :/