Gateway E4000 will not turn on

[[email protected]]

I found this computer in a vacant house where I was working. They
were tossing out all the furniture and stuff in there. It was a
complete computer, with monitor, keyboard, mouse. The monitor works,
but the computer will not power up at all.

I plug it in, the power switch has a green LED that lights, and
another LED on the motherboard lights. Pushing the power switch does
nothing.

Ohm meter verifys the switch works. No voltage on any of the 5v and
12v leads for the drives. Not sure what wires to test on the MB
connector, but none seem to have any voltage at all, using one of the
black wires on a drive plug as the ground.

I suspect a bad power supply, but the fact the LEDs light makes me
question that. This is no common power supply either, weird shaped
thing and so far I am not sure how to even remove it from the case.
It's not like the old computers were a few screws took out anything.
I have other power supplies that would plug into the MB, but there's a
4 wire special plug that is not on the common PSUs. If another PSU
works, I'd just transfer the whole guts of the computer to another
more common case, because I'm sure that PSU would cost a fortune since
it's a custom job.

There are no other switches anywhere on the outside of the case.
There is a switch on the PSU that reads "Test Switch" and has a LED
next to it. Pushing it does nothing.

Any ideas where to go from here?

Thanks

 

[JW]

I found this computer in a vacant house where I was working. They
were tossing out all the furniture and stuff in there. It was a
complete computer, with monitor, keyboard, mouse. The monitor works,
but the computer will not power up at all.

I plug it in, the power switch has a green LED that lights, and
another LED on the motherboard lights. Pushing the power switch does
nothing.

Ohm meter verifys the switch works. No voltage on any of the 5v and
12v leads for the drives. Not sure what wires to test on the MB
connector, but none seem to have any voltage at all, using one of the
black wires on a drive plug as the ground.

I suspect a bad power supply, but the fact the LEDs light makes me
question that. This is no common power supply either, weird shaped
thing and so far I am not sure how to even remove it from the case.
It's not like the old computers were a few screws took out anything.
I have other power supplies that would plug into the MB, but there's a
4 wire special plug that is not on the common PSUs. If another PSU
works, I'd just transfer the whole guts of the computer to another
more common case, because I'm sure that PSU would cost a fortune since
it's a custom job.

There are no other switches anywhere on the outside of the case.
There is a switch on the PSU that reads "Test Switch" and has a LED
next to it. Pushing it does nothing.

Any ideas where to go from here?

Since several LEDs are lit, I suspect that the +5 stand-by is working. You
can try forcing on the power supply by shorting /PS-ON to ground on the
ATX connector with a paperclip or bit of wire.

http://pinouts.ru/Power/atxpower_pinout.shtml

It may not POST, but the power rails (+5, +12, etc) should come up.
If they don't, try disconnecting the ATX connector from the motherboard
and once again short /PS-ON to ground on the end of the power supplys ATX
connector. If it then does power on, you might have a shorted MB. If it
does not, it might indicate a bad power supply.

 

[Joerg]

Since several LEDs are lit, I suspect that the +5 stand-by is working. You
can try forcing on the power supply by shorting /PS-ON to ground on the
ATX connector with a paperclip or bit of wire.

http://pinouts.ru/Power/atxpower_pinout.shtml

It may not POST, but the power rails (+5, +12, etc) should come up.
If they don't, try disconnecting the ATX connector from the motherboard
and once again short /PS-ON to ground on the end of the power supplys ATX
connector. If it then does power on, you might have a shorted MB. If it
does not, it might indicate a bad power supply.

Sometimes the only thing that has become bad in the power supply is a
resistor that sort of "kick starts" the main switcher. It supplies power
to the switcher chip directly from the rectified mains voltage, for a
few hundred milliseconds until enough power is supplied by the helper
winding. Kind of like the starter on cars which is not made to operate
more than a minute or two per event. If this resistor has deteriorated
and drifted up in value the main converter in the power supply may not
start.

Now this is on the mains side, high voltage, dangerous turf, so if you
are not familiar with such situations it may be better to invest a
modest sum into a new power supply.

 

[TTman]

SNIP

I suspect a bad power supply, but the fact the LEDs light makes me
question that. This is no common power supply either, weird shaped
thing and so far I am not sure how to even remove it from the case.
It's not like the old computers were a few screws took out anything.
I have other power supplies that would plug into the MB, but there's a
4 wire special plug that is not on the common PSUs. If another PSU
works, I'd just transfer the whole guts of the computer to another
more common case, because I'm sure that PSU would cost a fortune since
it's a custom job.

There are no other switches anywhere on the outside of the case.
There is a switch on the PSU that reads "Test Switch" and has a LED
next to it. Pushing it does nothing.

Any ideas where to go from here?

Thanks

OK the 5V keep alive is working so the PSU 'should' be good..
Yes, pull out all the cards and the memory and then see if the PSU comes
alive when you push the on button....
Main fan should come on... If it does, take it from there, putting stuff
back one by one...
When you push the on button, do you see any of the fans 'kick' and stop ?
If so, there is a PSU short somewhere.
Look for bulging tops on caps on the motherboard..... If they're bulging,
they probably need replacing...

 

[[email protected]]

SNIP
OK the 5V keep alive is working so the PSU 'should' be good..
Yes, pull out all the cards and the memory and then see if the PSU comes
alive when you push the on button....
Main fan should come on... If it does, take it from there, putting stuff
back one by one...
When you push the on button, do you see any of the fans 'kick' and stop ?
If so, there is a PSU short somewhere.
Look for bulging tops on caps on the motherboard..... If they're bulging,
they probably need replacing...

I did what everyone said on here. I found a Gateway website that says
to disconnect all the wires to the drives, motherboard and everything
else, but leave the hard drive connected. Then push that TEST button
on the power supply and the LED on the power supply should light. It
does nothing. I disconnected EVERYTHING including the hard drive and
nothing happens. I put meter on every power supply wire on motherboard
connector, got 5v on two pins. Thats all. This tells me the power
supply is dead. As soon as I can figure out how to get it out of this
stupid case, I'll open the power supply.

According to some web articles, it appears that Gateway is known for
power supply failures, and this model was even replaced with a
slightly stronger model power supply. I'll try to fix this one first.
I'm a retired electrician, so I know how to handle 120VAC safely.

Being a pentium4, that extra 4 pin connector I mentioned is on all P4
systems, and powers the CPU. I have not worked on any P4 systems
before now. My spare power supplies are all P3 or earlier, so they
dont have that connector. I'll see if I can fix this power supply.
Otherwise this computer will get parted out. I'm not investing around
$70 in a computer that may have other problems and is old too. Of
course there is always Ebay if I find a cheap used one.

No bulging caps on MB......

Thanks

 

[[email protected]]

Don't know whether it applies here, but some PSU's won't power-up
without connection to a MB... there's a jumper on the MB which enables
power-up.

...Jim Thompson
-

Ummmmmmmmmm.........

I'm trting to rationalize what you said here.
If the PSU is not connected to the MB, what good would a jumper on the
MB do to make the PSU power up? This dont make sense, because the MB
is completely out of the picture as far as the PSU is concerned....

Did I miss something?

Thanks

-----------

BTW: There is a switch on the case that is pressed when the cover is
on the computer. Its connected to the MB. I taped that down just to
eliminate that from the any possibility of it causing a no power
situation. I should just put a jumper across that plug. Just another
useless feature of these newer computers intended to protect us from
"nothing" since there's nothing (voltage wise) inside a computer that
can harm a person, unless they open the PSU.

 

[ehsjr]

Ummmmmmmmmm.........

I'm trting to rationalize what you said here.
If the PSU is not connected to the MB, what good would a jumper on the
MB do to make the PSU power up? This dont make sense, because the MB
is completely out of the picture as far as the PSU is concerned....

Did I miss something?

Thanks

Yes. He said "some PSU's won't power-up without connection to a MB"
IOW: with some PSU's a PSU-MB connection is required for power-up.

 

[Jamie]

Ummmmmmmmmm.........

I'm trting to rationalize what you said here.
If the PSU is not connected to the MB, what good would a jumper on the
MB do to make the PSU power up? This dont make sense, because the MB
is completely out of the picture as far as the PSU is concerned....

Did I miss something?

Thanks

-----------

BTW: There is a switch on the case that is pressed when the cover is
on the computer. Its connected to the MB. I taped that down just to
eliminate that from the any possibility of it causing a no power
situation. I should just put a jumper across that plug. Just another
useless feature of these newer computers intended to protect us from
"nothing" since there's nothing (voltage wise) inside a computer that
can harm a person, unless they open the PSU.

Yes, you missed something..

The power switch goes through the mother board as part of the power
management.

The little green wire must be connected to common (black) to have it
turn on.

Jamie

 

[[email protected]]

Yes, you missed something..

The power switch goes through the mother board as part of the power
management.

The little green wire must be connected to common (black) to have it
turn on.

Jamie

So you must be saying that one of the wires connected to the MB by the
20 pin connector must be grounded to switch on the PSU, right?
You said GREEN. Are they all green? Mine has one green and several
black which I assume are the grounds.

Thanks

 

[josephkk]

So you must be saying that one of the wires connected to the MB by the
20 pin connector must be grounded to switch on the PSU, right?
You said GREEN. Are they all green? Mine has one green and several
black which I assume are the grounds.

Thanks

Certainly some wire, often but not always green (i think i have seen gray
for this as well). Since you have a green it should be reasonable to try
it.

Oh and that switch is a case intrusion switch for security reasons, rarely
used really.

?-)