Gateway Battery Flash

I've got a Gateway NV7802u in front of me. The owner says that he's been having an issue charging it and he was told by a computer repair chain that the battery is shot and to replace it. He did, but the problem of charging persisted. He said that he would have to lay the computer on its jack to charge. He brought the computer back to this chain who told him it must be a damaged power cord and told him to buy a new one. He did, and he still cannot charge the computer. He gave it to me to diagnose saying that he now thinks there is an issue with the DC jack.

I took the computer apart and found the jack to be fixed firmly to the mother board. I looked at the rest of the connections and nothing seems severed. I did notice that the spring inside the DC jack is flattened which now makes the cord useless since there is little to no contact. I gently pried the spring to make contact with the jack and reassembled the computer.

Plugged her in and now I am seeing a battery light issue which I do not know nor could find online.

Here is what it looks like:
1. Power plugged in, power light turns purple...


2. then both the power light and the battery light turn and flash slowly red...


3. Then the power light turns off and the battery light slowly flashes red.


So, the question is, what does the above flash code mean and the resolution?

My theory is that not only is the DC jack shot, but I believe the motherboard is as well. The owner also told me that he's had few accidents with the notebook, having dropped it a couple times but the computer has been working until recently when this power issue began.

Anyone's thoughts?

 

See the info in this link. Gives you clues why the light is blinking. http://www.fixya.com/support/t1744600-gateway_m_6834_battery_light_blinking

 

Thank you for the link but that doesn't help. The response mentioned there (and I've seen that before) does not apply here. As I wrote in the initial post:

1. We have a brand new battery.
2. We have a brand new cord.
3. The DC Jack is still connected and receiving power. I realize it may need to be changed, but there has to be other issues occurring for the various light codes being witnessed.

I've ordered a replacement DC jack via ebay and plan on soldiering it in. I just hate to waste my time doing that if the mother board is shot.

Other suggestions?

Also, I haven't mentioned it, but when I take the battery out and rely solely on the AC plug, nothing happens when plugged in. Pushing the power button with AC power has no effect, no power. Having the battery in is the only time I am seeing any power in the computer, but no boot and no apparent charge.

 

Hi,

If the comp runs OK with the battery out the AC ADAPTOR and the Jack are OK. MAYBE?

Good Luck, Jim

 

Thank you for your response but the computer does not run period. Regardless of battery or AC.

 

New batteries need to be charged and the laptop, for whatever reason can not do it. If you can get it charged, probably hard to find another laptop of the same model to put the new battery in and let it fully charge then try it with AC power to see of the laptop can boot.
The purple light means the battery is charging. The fact that it goes out, indicates the battery is NOT CHarging.

One last ditch effort, reseat the RAM. It might do nothing to help but it won't hurt to at least try.

If the battery is fully charged and the laptop will not power on, then the motherboard is probably shot.

I also found these instructions for laptops.

 

The battery is new and was charged prior to this incident. The owner drained it while using it. I concur that the computer is not charging the battery. And I also believe there might be something wrong with the motherboard. It's the flashing lights that confuse me.

These computers beat out a code where there is a fault much like the check engine light codes. Battery in, AC plug in, power light goes to purple, the both power and battery flash red, then only battery flashes red. The flash cycłe is also very slow. Approximately 3 to 5 seconds between flashes.

Also, the computer does not turn on when running on only AC power.

Resetting the RAM was done while disassembling and re-assembling. No effect. Normally an un-seated RAM card would give off an error sound, at least they used to.

 

AFAIK Gateway don't release service manuals or error codes, I've even checked for your model they simply say contact Gateway support on page 26 of the user manual.

http://support.gateway.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?tab=1&modelId=2384

There's no universal code either each model does something a little different make it almost impossible for a none Gateway tech and it would appear Gateway want it that way:confused

http://support.gateway.com/answersby/answers.aspx

If you haven't reset the cmos,disconnect the power,remove battery,disassemble the laptop and find a small coin shaped battery,remove for 20 secs then replace and power up.

 

Thank you for the idea. I'd try removing the cmos, except I think it's soldiered to the motherboard. When I get the new DC Jack, and soldier it in, I'll check that battery out.

Bummer on the code. I can only hope that this computer's motherboard isn't fried. It's my boss' computer. :crap

 

Yes they often are,look around where the battery is connected for a jumper,move it over one pin and leave it for a few seconds then move it back,laptops often don't have one because the board isn't accessible to the user.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?num=...nw=191&start=0&ndsp=9&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:69

It's much easier to cut one wire in the middle,bare 10mm off each end then once it's been cut for 20 seconds twist the two wire ends back together and tape up,you can do this without a soldering iron but soldering them back together is more reliable.Soldering directly to the battery is dicey.

They sometimes have battery clips underneath the heatshrink,you can cut the heatshrink off,the battery clip will fall off,just replace and put fresh heatshrink back on it and the cmos is reset.