Gateway Laptop

[coius]

My sister-in-law is going to be giving me her old Gateway laptop on monday. I am not sure what the specs are, but it's supposed to be a pretty decent machine. Anyways, I am most likely going to be using it for class.

This is what I am guessing

>1.8Ghz Pentium IV

or

>1.7Ghz AMD

It's a pretty recent machine though, because it came with Windows XP after Service Pack 2. So it will be nice.

The only problem they have with it is a loose display hinge. Which I am not sure what the problem is, but I am guessing I can fix it. It may just be a screw.

 

[bsod]

Or you can stack up a pile of books behind the display, to hold it in place [] ]'> . Had a girl who came into the college helpdesk I work who had a severe problem with her laptop's hinges... and she did just that.

 

[coius]

It think it's actually just a screw coming loose. She says it seems to lift the display up at the hinge a bit when she does it. It stays in place, but it has wiggle room.

I will take the screen off and check the hinges when I get it. If I have to, I will just buy new hinges on ebay and that should fix it.

If there aren't any hinges on ebay, I will look for something else to fix it.

 

[coius]

Sweetness! I got WAY better than I was hoping:

Gateway 7500 Series

CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon 64 4000+

Freq: 2.6Ghz

RAM: 2GB (2x 1GB PC-4200 RAM), Expandable to 4GB RAM

100GB SATA HDD (5400RPM)

DVD+RW DL (not Dash-R which sucks, since i use Dash-R. Luckily, I found an old +R Disc I had lying around to make the recovery disc)

Radeon Mobility X600 w/ 128MB VRAM (well..SHARED vram, but w/e)

15.1" Widescreen LCD @ 1280x800 Rez

CF Flash Port, SD Port, PCMCIA, ExpressCard 3/4 Slot, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 (8 ports), NEW BATTERY!!!

Anyways, I am happy, but I found out the screen is having the hinge issue which is common. On top of it, it seems to be pinching the LVD LCD Cable, causing the screen to turn on and off whenever the screen is moved. No big deal. Later I will go into it and fix it (There are ways to do it) which generally involves re-seating the display and tightening the hinges (easy steps)

All in all, I am happy

 

[Christopher]

Wow, dude. I worked on a gatway 7442gx, peiece of crap and it has the loose display issue. whats the fix?

 

[coius]

Generally, it involves taking the screen apart. the issue is under the bezel where it has the problem. It is most likely caused by the screws being loose. On top of that, you need to adjust the springs/tensioners on the hinges. It's tricky, but I have done it before

 

[coius]

Well.. Just an update. I did fix the screen issues with the display turning off. I might need to get a new Display ribbon depending on how long it goes without needing to be fixed again, but I can almost safely say the display issue is fixed. Except... which tightening the screws did help a *little*, it didn't fix the issue. It turns out all the displays on these machines are a bit sloppy, and it's something Gateway never seemed to have fixed. In fact, as far as I see, they still have the issues. It has to do with who made the display hinges, and Gateway still hasn't switched makers and they still make defective hinges. Such a shame, the laptop feels sturdy except for the hinges

Well, if anything, the display doesn't turn off anymore. I stripped down the system display and checked everything. I also took out the keyboard and heat shield and looked into the machine. I found the graphics chip to be hot as hell, and the fan wasn't running. I am not sure what to do on that, but if the laptop dies, I will just part out the machine and get enough to buy a new one.