Gateway All In One Shuts Down And Starts Up Randomly

ftlaudmom · Dec 15, 2016

I have a gateway all in one zx6961 that started shutting down randomly. It also starts up on its own as well. It wont actually go through a complete boot up most of the times. I have to hit the power button numerous times and sometimes it will actually boot up but most times it just beeps and appears to be starting up and then powers off. I have changed the hard drive thinking it was a bad drive and it does the same thing. I don't want to go to the trouble of changing out anything more if its a motherboard issue - in which case I'll just trash it. Is there any scan or diagnostic test that I can run that will identify the problem component? It has been reset back to factory settings and is still doing the same thing. Thanks for any help.

TimW · Dec 15, 2016

If you are getting beeps at start up, go to the Gateway site and find out what the beep code is.

Eldon · Dec 15, 2016

If this is a desktop PC, you need to check the switch behind the power button.

ftlaudmom · Dec 15, 2016

I did check the beep codes and a single beep means normal function. Eldon I'm not sure what you mean by the switch behind the power button. If you're referring to the voltage switch its in the correct position. It says 115

plodr · Dec 15, 2016

All-in-one computers, like laptops are susceptible to overheating because all the computer components are crammed into a tiny area behind the monitor.

The fact that is shuts down as if you pulled the plug when you try to boot up might mean it is overheating. Have you taken canned air and tried to clear dust from any openings you see? If there is a fan, like a laptop, and that is only working intermittently, the computer might shut down when the fan doesn't turn on to coll the components.

Here is a 2 part video on taking it apart. You could blow the dust out better.

Computers attached to a wall plug and using an ethernet cable will turn on if a wake-on-lan settings is set. I had an old all-in-one computer that did that years ago. Before I figured out what was turning the computer on, I attached it to a power strip with an on/off switch and I turned the power strip off.

ftlaudmom · Feb 20, 2017

Update: I took the computer apart using the video shared in the previous post. I left the back off for a few days while I purchased a new hard drive thinking that it would help. To my surprise it started working fine without even changing out anything. I've been using it with the case open for a couple of months now, since my last post actually, and its been fine. So last week I decided to put it back together and wouldn't you know it started to do the same thing all over again. Random shut downs and then it wouldn't boot up at all. I'd press the power button and the light would come on as if it was going to boot and then nothing. So I took the case back off and voila, its working again. The case isn't stopping anything as far as I can see but clearly something is preventing it from booting up that I cannot figure out. So I'll just leave the back off until I figure this out. I did a google search and I've not been able to find any other posts where someone has experienced this weird issue.

Just Playin · Feb 20, 2017

Is the CPU cooling fan working?

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Gateway All In One Shuts Down And Starts Up Randomly

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