Computer Repair - Gateway ZX4250G

[marty]

Sent question to seller.
"Does motherboard come with documentation, directions for installation and clearing BIOS passwords?"

Got answer to question.

No, this listing is for the motherboard only. Please be sure to confirm your original motherboard part number before ordering to ensure compatibility in your system.

 

[Ykick]

Figured the eBay seller might be a long shot, and it was…

But wouldn’t somebody love to buy one of those MB’s from that seller and find out they’re stuck in the same boat you're in? Due diligence...

Good on you for trying. I have set stuff aside for a while and revisited later if/when ‘maybe read or hear a tidbit of something new to try?

 

[TheBeastie]

Have you ensured the SATA cable is good? like swap them around etc?
If its a dodgey SATA chipset on the motherboard, you could just buy a entry level SATA card and use that instead... As long as no drive is plugged into the MB it should just jump to your external card.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-E-Express-SATA3-SATA3-0-6Gb-s-eSATA-SATA-III-Card-ASMEDIA1061-/231378681315?hash=item35df3e7de3:gYgAAOxypeRR7imQ

For installing Windows 10, you can suck it off the microsoft web site directly and it will offer to install on USB or DVD or ISO file.
Then install and see if it works..
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[marty]

At my shop I got a Known Good Windows 7, VA202UC - HP Compaq dc5850 Small Form Factor PC. Use it mostly for music and looking at service manuals. To let it be Known I am not happy about using this computer as a test computer in my house because now I have no computer in the shop. Nelson, I blame you for this :wink:

Removed buggered up hard drive from Gateway computer and put it in HP computer. Sata and power cables fit no problem. Using SeaTools for DOS to erase hard drive and remove ALL demons.

My plan here is to install a operating system onto the Gateway hard drive with the HP computer and then put it back into the Gateway computer. What operating system would you all recommend for the best chance of success and the least chance of hardware issues? Here are some disks that I have.

• Windows 7 Ultimate. I bought it and own it.

• Gateway Desktop ZX4250 System Disk, Windows 8, 64 bit. This was given to me by the owner of the Gateway ZX4250G. She got it from the "Guy in India" Also got 3 recovery disks and a language disk. Not sure what these are for?

• Any version of Ubuntu.

• Any other ISO file available on the the internet. I am good at burning CD/DVD disks.

I myself am bothered by Windows 8, Seems to me that it is for touch screen computers of which the Gateway is not. I only have a little experience navigating Windows 8. Been using Windows 7 with no problems. Love Ubuntu. The owner of the Gateway would be happy with ANY operating system. All she wants to do is look at the internet and email.

Give your children Windows and they will be like all the other children. Give your children Apple and they will be one of the rich kids. Give your children Ubuntu and they might learn to write software.

 

[marty]

Progress report - Put Gateway hard drive into HP computer. Install Ubuntu 14. Ubuntu works fine in the HP computer. Did not test all hardware features. Put hard drive back into Gateway computer. No boot from hard drive. Problem is same as before.

Remove Gateway mother board. THINK I FOUND JUMPER POINTS On BACK of mother board near battery see 2 triangle blobs of solder. See C9 in picture.

Here are instructions from similar Acer computer that I posted earlier.

Picture shows similar mother board with battery removed.

With board out and all caps dead, you could try shorting every available pin or solder pad to the 1st, second, and third closest pins or pads. Generally they will be in an identifiable sequence. Possible this may NOT work with no CMOS battery installed. Scan board carefully for any notation of CMOS, PW, CLEAR, or similar.

Should I jump two triangle blobs of solder with battery in or out? Should I connect mother board to AC adapter before jumping? Should I measure voltage anywhere? Should I wait a few days or weeks? Because my two triangle blobs of solder are on the back of mother board I want to jump once and jump the right way. I do not want to have to remove mother board again.

For show and tell I show you my Magnifier Workbench Lamp 808-F300

This is the tool that I should have dragged out a few weeks ago. Stuff on mother board is small and hard to see. Picture of 2 triangle blobs of solder labeled C9 was taken with camera looking through the Magnifier Lamp.

 

[marty]

On burning ISOs, do you use IMGBURN? If not, get this free program, absolutely the best disk burner prog there is. It does not fail, Mainly because burning optical disks is the ONLY thing it does, it has no other function. I do not burn disks with anything else.

Yes have been using ImgBurn for years. Love ImgBurn. It tells me jokes.

They don't generally look triangular, but then I don't think I have EVER seen a similar solder blob on a mobo. They are usually smaller and either square or round.

Other than that they are near the battery, do you see ANY indications that these are the correct pins? They might just short the CMOS battery, but, those are cheap, and, that may be the clear method.

The only reason I think that I found the CMOS jumper points is the triangle shape. Here is a blown up image from the Acer Aspier service guide service guide.

What EXACTLY happened with the Ubuntu boot attempt? No boot device, linux error msg, what? This may be tied to specific PC configuration differences between HP and Gateway, one reason I keep suggesting the Boot CD is that they are designed to boot regardless of hardware config.

Black screen - This BIOS is exclusively for Gateway only
Press F1. See Gateway screen [Press del to enter setup] for a second or two.
Press Delete. See [Enter Password]

Remove RAM. Remove WLAN. Remove all connectors. Remove mother board. With battery in, jumped CMOS jumper points labeled G2 using a small flat blade screwdriver. Put it all back together. Problem is same as before. Enter Password.

Wondering if because my CMOS jumper points are on the back of the mother board I could only leave the RAM, AC adapter, power button connector, and monitor connector connected. No fan. No copper thermal module [thing that moves the heat from the processor to the fan]. Working on the mother board upside down follow the instructions in the Acer Aspier service guide to clear password?

Acer owns Gateway. Will try calling them and tell them I NEED A SERVICE MANUAL!

There is some writing on the back of the mother board. HannStar is the manufacturer of this mother board.

 

[marty]

Called Acer Customer Service. Girl says - "We don't give out service manuals due to PROPRIETARY reasons".

Yes tried to boot without pressing DEL. Press F1 with linux disk installed see this for a second or two.

Text at the bottom left says...... Press Del to Enter Setup

Two triangle points on my mother board are labeled C9 not G2

Don't know the manufacturer of mother board in Acer service manual?

Thanks for telling me about how not to cook the processor.

Put computer temporary together with tape. Mother board upside down because the two triangle solder blobs are on the back of my mother board. Heat sink and fan installed and working. Monitor hooked up with Converter Connector and LVDS Connector. No hard drive or CD/DVD drive. As per the instructions.
1. Remove AC adapter.
2. Locate the CMOS jumper points.
3. Short each point.
4. Plug in AC adapter.
5. Restart the system and press F1 to enter BIOS Utility Setup menu.
6. If no password prompt is shown, BIOS password is cleared.
7. If password prompt is shown, repeat steps 1 through 5.

Repeat steps 1 through 5 after letting computer run for a few minutes. My thinking was this might work with the mother board warmed up. IT DID NOT WORK. Problem is same as before. Can not get into BIOS because of the password.

At this point, I think that either I am shorting the wrong points, not shorting properly, or this computer is broke and will never work again.

Here is a mother board forum. Same light blue layout as this one. phpbb.com
The Mother Board
Wonder if my mother hangs out there?

 

[marty]

Did try to boot from a KNOWN GOOD optical disk. I really did. That was the first thing I tried. From the first post on page one.

What I tried to fix this. Windows 8 on a DVD, Ubuntu on a CD, and SeaTools for DOS on a CD.

Windows 8 is a operating system that I don't like. This is what the computer came with when it was new in 2012.
Ubuntu is a free operating system that will sometimes install when Windows is all buggered up.
SeaTools for DOS is a wonderful free program that runs off the RAM and erases the hard drive.

I have a external DVD drive that plugs into a USB port. Tried the same 3 disks that I used in the internal DVD drive. Hear spinning but nothing happens.

3 disks and external DVD drive that plugs into a USB port are all KNOWN TO BE GOOD.

Look here:
Acer Laptop Repair Guides » Acer TravelMate 6500 Aspire 9510 9520
Note triangles in picture.

PIN Pad: Bypassing Password Check, Keep shorting G3(2 triangle pad) as above PIN pad and then powering on the system will force the BIOS to clear Supervisor and User passwords. That means both the power-on and setup passwords are all cleared.

If I comprehend these words correctly? Short pins while powering on computer. Will try this.

Notes on the battery. Early on in this repair, about a month ago I bought a new battery. Before my up side down mother board experiments I measured voltage in the new battery and the original battery. Wrote the numbers on a piece of paper and lost the paper. Both voltages were around 2V. Original battery was a little higher. Because battery holder is broke [battery don't stay in]. I used two little dabs of hot melt glue to hold original battery in. It would be easy to scrape off hot melt glue and replace battery.

Should I buy another 2032 battery?

Here is picture of original battery

 

[amberwolf]

Notes on the battery. Early on in this repair, about a month ago I bought a new battery. Before my up side down mother board experiments I measured voltage in the new battery and the original battery. Wrote the numbers on a piece of paper and lost the paper. Both voltages were around 2V. Original battery was a little higher.

A new, good CR2032 should be 3V or more. Typically I see up to 3.1V out of circuit for these. When I have experienced strange POST errors of various types that made no sense, or in one case actually seeing the clock run backwards (! ? !) while sitting in the first CMOS setup screen, I've found the battery voltage to be in the 2V or less range.

That doesnt' mean that yours is bad, or that replacing it again with one that reads 3V+ would fix your problems, or indeed that it has anything to do with your problmes.

I don't know what the useful voltage range is of these batteries, or what the CMOS memory of your board requires for a minimum voltage, etc.


In all cases I have ever tried it, running *without* a battery at all has worked perfectly fine as a test of if the battery itself is causing a problem. It just wont' remember any settings changes or the time, if it's powered off.

 

[marty]

Did you attempt the optical disk boot with no hard drive plugged in at all? Did not appear to be so. Also no mention of attempting to attach optical drive to SATA port currently used by hard drive, this may or may not be feasible but should be attempted.

The failed attempt to boot from the Linux hard drive should have produced some sort of error message. Have you pressed TAB or ESC while the Gateway logo is up? This should bypass the logo display and show POST test results and other info.

Been busy with other stuff. Eating Brookyn Brine Co. Damn Spicy pickles. Got back to this computer yesterday. No never tried optical disk boot with no hard drive plugged in. Hard drive and optical disk connectors look different. Don't think switching them is possible.

Tried assorted keys. Only keys I know of that do anything are.... Press DEL to enter setup. And F1 skip or resume.

Computer temporarily held together with tape. Mother board upside down because the two triangle solder blobs are on the back of my mother board. Heat sink and fan installed and working. Monitor hooked up with Converter Connector and LVDS Connector. No hard drive or CD/DVD drive.

Tried shorting C9 triangle solder blobs while powering up computer. When shorting the fan starts up fast like it always does. Never slows down and monitor don't come on. The more I look at this mother board the more I see. Also on the back are two more triangle solder blobs labeled G1. Note this is similar to G2 and G3 in the different instructions I found regarding triangle points. Tried shorting G1 with computer off and during power up. Tried shorting G1 and C9 at the same time.

Sad to say password won't go away. I give up! Computer parts are all going in a box. Will label all screws and put them in little plastic bags.

Think what I really need here is a SERVICE MANUAL. Isn't there some law requiring manufacturers to sell parts for a certain number of years after manufacture of product? Wondering if that law is for parts and service manuals? Anyone have a link to that law I am thinking of?

 

[amberwolf]

You might try a Gateway warranty approved vendor in your area, likely a few dollars would be involved. Just for the service manual, maybe $20.

Might not be relevant, but:

I don't know how they are nowadays...but before 2007, when I was still in computer repair at CompUSA (until they shutdown), the only vendors that would even provide shop-level techs with service manuals were Apple (for desktop/laptop stuff, ipods/etc had to be shipped to them) and HP (for printers), and then only electronically to just the Apple-certified techs (no one else was allowed to even see them, per Apple), and only for the units you actually had in for service at that time, which you had to submit the serial/etc info for to get the manuals. :/

IBM would provide plenty of good help over the phone, but would not send manuals.

Toshiba would send disassembly/parts info for their laptops, when out of warranty, but in-warranty none of the laptop makers would usually tell us a thing, and required they be sent directly to their factory repair center regardless of the problem, after we first wiped/restored it using the factory restore cd kit (if that didn't fix the problem).

The latter was how most of the manufacturers required we start out for any warranty-level repair, even if the issue obviously had nothing to do with software.