Hello all,

SPECS:
Gateway 7422GX.
Windows XP Home
AMD Athlon 64-bit 3400 2GHz, 1MB L2 Cache
BIOS -> Phoenix
AGE: 20 months

Last week I was at school doing some work running on battery mode. Before I left, I put it in standby mode and when I got home it had shut down. I pushed the power button and nothing happened. I took out the battery and plugged in the power cord. Still no power. I tried several outlets, receded the memory, and let it sit for several hours and still no. The currenty battery is only 4 weeks old. I also tried the old battery with no luck. No power meaning no charge light, no fans or HD running.

I took it to Geek squad and they had a universal connector which did not work, ruling out the power cord. I took it to several PC repair shops and they told me they can not diagnose it without it being able to power up. They have also told me the first thing to replace would be the power connector. At least $160.

From what I've described, what are the chances that replacing the power connector would fix the power problem? One reason I think its not the power connector is the battery had a 75% charge before I put it in standby mode when I shut down.

How do you diagnose a problem like this? I'm limiting myself to $350 to fix this problem. More than that, and I'll buy a new laptop. Should I buy a new power cord from Gateway to be sure I don't have a defective power cord?

Any help or suggestions diagnosing this problem would be appreciated.

Try to borrow a volt meter which can measure whether electricity is being conducted by the power cord and whether the battery is dead or not.

If you can't borrow one you should be able to buy a cheap one at Radio Shack or somewhere similar for a few dollars.
Such as this one:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...rentPage=family

Unfortunately if the power cord is good it sounds like your power supply/electric converter (or if you are lucky, maybe just the on switch).

Look up the price of those parts at the manufacturer's site and you can get an idea of the possible repair cost.

I have heard that the "Geek Squad" is very expensive and you may do better taking it to whatever local shop has a good reputation or one of those in your area that represent the manufacturer for warranty repairs, not that yours is in warranty but that would imply some degree of legitimacy to the shop.

Well let's see, you said you have taken it to many shops who test for these things, ok first off, if it were the battery then you would be able to boot it with just a power cord, thus we eliminated both the cord and the battery. Since you left the computer on... I'm actually going to have to say there's a possibility it overheated. If the motherboard is toast, then nothing will work. Of course, you could ask a technician if he could check the motherboard for you, but this seems to be one of the most logical places to jump to first.

The Geek Squad are rank amateurs who don't know a byte from a hole in the ground, at least that's been my experience. Find a good local shop like Enthusiast said.

Famous Quotes from the Geek Squad (I swear it's true):

"I think it's broken."
"Let me call tech support."
"Why not just buy a new one?"
"The internet must have crashed."
"Skuzzi?" (SCSI)
And, if they're really perplexed, the standard answer:

"You need more RAM."

I regret any offense to any good Geek Squaders out there.

Oh no believe me, i've bested the geeksquad more than once and i've charged at most half, just ironic that they don't want to hire me I suppose...

T'aint hard to beat the Geek Squad - but you've gotta realize where their emphasis is.

Their emphasis is on fixing the problem quickly or elevating it elsewheere (sorta like a mini-subset of Enterprise management). They can't afford to spend a lot of time troubleshooting, plus there's only certain things that they're certified to do without elevating it (sorta like a mobile Tier 1 support call center).

FYI - Tier 1 support is that person that you get on the phone when you first call Tech Support - the one who reads to you from a script and can't do anything else to help you - except refer you to someone else.

Given that, and the constraints that their bosses put on them (things like giving them only so much time on a call, restricting what they can and cannot do, how many calls they must do each day, average $'s made per call, etc) - I can't see that I'd be able to do a whole bunch better than they do (but my ego says differently!).