Archive for April, 2010

Desktop As Audio Gateway For Laptop

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Sometimes your laptop can experience some malfunctions and then youfeel the need to use auxiliary means in order to do some activities. For example one day when you want to listen to music on your laptop you realize that you have no sound coming out of the incoprorated speakers, so you are really upset because you wanted to listen to music badly or watch a movie or something like that and now you are very disappointed and also worried because you will have to fix the audio problem of your laptop soon.

In this case you look for the closest and easiest solution. This is using a desktop as audio gateway for your laptop. You know that the desktop monitors that were released in the last period of time have also incorporated speaker, which their older counterparts didn’t. And, because they are considerably larger than laptops, their speakers will be, too, so one more reason why you should use it as an emergency solution.

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In fact it is pretty easy to make the connection because, fortunately, both laptops and desktop monitors have a lot of wires and cables and other means allowing you to connect them with any possible device. In this case you can use the desktop as an external monitor for your laptop and thus use the special VGA cable to do this. You might also need to make the necessary setting changs, that is to adjust the display resolution to match the diagonal of the desktop and it might be possible to be necessary to click the second monitor in the display settings if you want to be able to also see the image on it.

So, you can both use the desktop as audio gateway for your laptop and have the image on both devices at the same time. Once you suceed this connection you can go even further and adjust the quality of the sound, the balance, the beat and so on if you want to. But this is only possible if you are at home and you also have a desktop computer and monitor available there. Or you could just use the headset. There are more options in every possible situation and you just have to pick the one that sounds better at the time being.

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Of course that you can choose another simple solution and just transfer the music or video files from your laptop to your desktop computer and this way you will feel a lot more comfortable being able to enjoy everything on the wider screen and also being able to benefit from the external audio system you may have attached to your desktop, like a six speaker combo plus a sub-woofer for a surround effect. How about that? But if you want to connect the laptop to the desktop monitor only to use it as speaker, it’s fine, too, as you can do this and a lot of other stuff with the nice working machineries that are now part of our lives.

Gateway Laptop Setup Could Not Find Hard Drive

Friday, April 30th, 2010

All the components in a laptop have their own roles to play and they are all important for the good functioning of the device. However, some of these components, the most important ones, make the laptop stop working and you will have nothing displayed on the monitor.

However, sometimes, when other components except the processor, the memory or the motherboard get damaged and can’t work properly, you will get a message on the laptop screen telling you something that will give a clue about the possible problem or troubleshooting.

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For example When your Gateway laptop setup tells you that it could not find the hard drive, it only means one thing: your hard drive can’t be recognized because it’s too damaged and it simply does not work. Hrad drives can get broken when being hit or dropped by mistake or when there’s a power failure and then the energy comes with a higher value than the normal one, when there’s a short circuit or any other possible cause. When one of thise accidents happen the hard drive is broken and unable to work.

This hardware device is rarely repaired, as it is not possible most of the times. So the only solution to this problem is to replace it with a new hard drive. And since you have to buy one, why don’t you buy a bigger one, an improved version that is able of storing more information and data that you want to save on your laptop.

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So your laptop’s software works as its brain, recognizing a problem, setting the diagnostic and telling you the conclusion. That is the intention of the message that your Gateway laptop setup cannot find the hard drive. It can’t be found as it is unable to work properly because of malfunction. Of course you won’t be told directly this, but if you have some experience with computers, you will start learning the language used in messages and you will immediately understand the origin of the problem when such a message is displayed on your laptop’s monitor.

The hard drive is an important part of a laptop, as it represents the physical location where you can store the information and documents that you want to save on your laptop. You can lplace here the digital photos, the music files, your favourite movies and all other important data that you want to keep with you all the time. But the most important function is that of hosting the operating system and all the necessary files and folders it needs for a good functioning. So you can only imagine that the laptop can’t run the operating system if it can’t have access to these files. The result is that it does not work and displays the above mentioned message.

Gateway Laptop Quit Working

Friday, April 30th, 2010

The most unpleasant and frustrating feeling at the same time is the one when your Gateway laptop quits working all of a sudden and you have no idea what caused it. There can be a zillion causes, as when a major component of your laptop is unable to work properly, it will stop working. All you have to do if you do not want to take your laptop to a repair shop and want to do it yourself, is to start looking for the tiny little details that might suggest the origin of the problem.

I always compared the diagnose of a laptop troubleshooting with the diagnose of a disease when a human goes to the doctor. It’s not enough just to tell the doctor that you do not feel well and can’t do the things you normally do (you “quit working”) because there can be a lot of possible causes and diseases with this outcome.

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But the right diagnostic can be finally be established by asking the right questions and studying all the symptoms of the illness (”malfunction”). It’s the same with laptops. You must pay attention to all the details, the symptoms and the parts of the laptop that are still working and then, little by little, you will be able to eliminate the possible diagnostics one by one until you get the real one.

When a major component is not working, the laptop will stop working, too. So if the processor , the motherboard or the memory are broken, your Gateway laptop will quit working. If it’s the CPU, your laptop won’t even boot up, if it’s the motherboard the laptop will have energy, but it can’t work – you will see the power light on, but nothing happens. You can easily find out which of the three components is damaged if you measure them to see if they have any power on. The damaged component will not show any sign of tension and you will know that is the problem.

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Sometimes, the solution to this problem can be very simple – the laptop does not show any sign of functioning and has no lit lights because it does not get the energy it needs. And this can happen because of a damaged battery, power cord or adaptor.

If your laptop is on battery only and it won’t start when you press the power button, the battery may be dead. You can check it by removing the battery and connecting the laptop to the wall plug directly through the AC adaptor and power cord. If it the laptop starts working – buy a new battery. If it’s either the power cord or the adaptor, find a similar one and replace it and you will see if this is the problem immediately.

There is one more possibility which is almost hilarious because it’s so simple that you won’t even consider it: maybe the wall plug is toasted because of a power shock and does not supply the necessary energy when your laptop is connected to it or maybe it’s a simple power failure. Check all these before panicking and thinking you must buy a new CPU. Or it may be a loose cable or a faulty connection. Open the laptop and check the circuit carefully and you will find the problem in the end.

But if you exhausted all possibilities and you still have no idea about the problem, swallow your pride and go to a specialist immediately.

Gateway Laptop M7315u Bios Reset

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Every computer has a BIOS memory that stores the information about the hardware components of the system. You have access to this information and you can adjust the settings as you see fit, according to the particularities of your system and to your wish.

But sometimes, after you perform a hardware upgrade or just want to return to the original settings , you want to reset the BIOS of your Gateway laptop M7315. Well, now the next reasonable question, especially if you are not a computer expert, is how to do this? It’s not very difficult to answer that, but if you do not know the inside components of your laptop you’d better take your laptop to a specialist from a repair shop in order not to risk damaging anything.

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The older versions of laptops had a BIOS battery that supplied the necessary power for maintaining the settings in the BIOS. When you wanted to reset the BIOS to the factory settings, all you needed to do was to remove the battery and then put it back together and that’s it. When the BIOS memory was without power to keep the settings, it could not maintain them and so reset them all.

It was really easy to recognize the BIOS battery when you wanted to perform this operation, as it looked like a watch battery, that was not connected to the motherboard, but rather, placed there and fixed with a similar mechanism like the watch. Other models of laptops had this battery fixed to the motherboard and you had to remove it with the help of a soldering gun.

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But this Gateway laptop M7315 is new when compared to the others and it does not have a BIOS battery any more. Instead, there are two open ways on the motherboard, looking like two metalic dots on the motherboard, right beneath the memory of your laptop. So if you want to reset your Gateway laptop M7315u BIOS you will have to open up your laptop in order to do it.

You know by now that you first have to turn off the laptop and remove all the cords and cables, also the laptop battery . Even after that it is a good idea to press the power button twice so that you can eliminate any left amount of energy inside the laptop. Then gently remove the laptop’s memory. It is easy, as it is not soldered to the motherboard, but it is placed in a special slot.

After you do this you will be able to see the two ways or dots as I described them above. They are not connected by any circuit, but you will have to do this if you want to reset the BIOS. You will be able to do this by using a screwdriver that will help you connect the two and cause a little short circuit. After you have performed this operation, just put everything back in place and restart the laptop and the BIOS will be reset.

Gateway Laptop Adp 90hb Power Adaptor

Friday, April 30th, 2010

You know how complex are laptops, so you can have some idea about just how many components are inside one. Starting from the case and finishing with the power cord that connects the laptop to the wall plug, all these components are produced somewhere, by a certain company.

And it’s only natural that each component is made by a certain company that is specialized in that particular field: company X makes the best AC adaptors, company Y makes the best laptop batteries and so on. You can’t expect Gateway to make all the components and accessories of a laptop like making all the component parts of a coat for example in the same tailor’s workshop. These adaptors have different models and sizes in order to fit the size of the input port of the laptop.

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A certain model of adaptor, like this one for example – Gateway laptop ADP 90HB power adaptor – is compatible with a few Gateway laptop models, but not with all of them. The one you can see in these two pictures is compatible with Gateway 2521997 2521997R 6500706 6500722 ADP-90AB ADP-90HB adp-90sb bb pa1900-15. It comes together with a power cord that is six feet (almost three metres) long and that is plugged to the power supply (the wall plug) leading the power up to the adaptor.

This circuit of the electrical current id very important because it guarantees the safety of our laptops. Withour this adaptor, if the laptop were connected just by the power cord directly to the plug, it will be fried up instantly. This is because it can’t support the energy delivered by the wall plug, which has 220 or 110 voltage depending on the geographical area where you are or travel.

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It is too big for it and besides, the wall plug supplies alternative current (AC) which is incompatible with the laptop functioning. The Gateway laptop ADP 90HB power adaptor has the role of transforming this AC into a DC (dirrect current) of a lower voltage – in this case 19 V. That is it “adapts” the high voltage to the lower voltage supported by the Gateway laptop.

The other end of the adaptor gets into the laptop and supplied the necessary energy for recharging the laptop battery. So, as insignificant as it may seem, it is still a vital laptop accessory becasue once the battery is low you have no other possibility of using your laptop except for using this adaptor.

It is sold for a pretty fair price , somewhere between $18 and 45, depending on the store selling it and its condition (new or used). If you are interested in purchasing this exact model of Gateway laptop ADP 90HB power adaptor, feel free to follow these links: www.dealtime.com, www.shopping.com, www.smarter.com, www.amazon.com, www.prontotech.com and www.nextag.com.

I can assure you this is a good investment, as this adaptor is protected from overheating and also won’t allow the battery to get overcharged even if it is left plugged for a long time. It will charge only the quantity of energy needed.

DELL Laptop Battery Gateway Laptop Power Supply Notebook

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Laptops are somewhat similar , as they have the same main components and they all have the same kind of keyboard. Besides, all the components look a bit similar and perform the same functions. So, even if you did not have a certain brand of laptop before, you will know how to use it.

SO, it does not really matter if your laptop’s brand is Dell or Gateway or Acer or another one because you can operate them all in the same way. And this is for the benefit of the user, so it’s ok. But when it comes to components and replacement parts things are a lot different.

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You can’t use the spare parts from another laptop brand , even if it has the same size, because it won’t fit. It’s a matter of compatibility and design. And each model of laptop is designed so as to serve its purpose best, to make all the components stay fix and comfortable at the same time , in a place that offers the maximum of performance. SO even a small difference of one or two milimetres won’t allow the other component to fit precisely in its place and this can lead to malfunctions and must be avoided.

Somebody asked the laptop users on a specialized forum if you can use a Dell laptop battery and a Gateway laptop power supply on a notebook. The answer is quite simple, even if it’s not the one expected probably, since he asked this question:”NO”. All laptop components must belong to the same brand because they have certain designs and certain ways in which to best connect the other components of the laptop produced by the same brand. There are different numbers of pins allowing the perfect connection of the battery inside the laptop and if these pins are not perfectly allined, the battery will not be able to charge properly.

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The same thing goes for a laptop power supply cord from a different brand. It does not have the exact shape and size needed for that particular model of laptop, so the laptop will not be properly supplied with power, even in the eventuality that the cord will get in the laptop.

That is the exact reason why all laptop users are strongly recommended to be extra careful when ordering a certain replacement component for their laptop. They must find the exact match, the one that is perfectly compatible with the system and the laptop model. That is why you have to search the Google for “Gateway laptop NV5409H battery” for example and not simply “Gateway laptop battery”. Even if both batteries are produced by the same company and used for similar laptops, they will be slightly different.

So never attempt to mix brands and laptop components together because nothing good is ever going to get out of this. The result can be only a lame hybrid that stands no chance of working properly and honestly it’s not worth the effort. Similar components have more or less similar prices, so why bother trying a different brand?

Boot Gateway Laptop To Bios

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Every computer and every laptop has its own features that define it, its performances, name and are its characteristics. All the features of the hardware components that make up a laptop and all the settings you make for this laptop are stored in a chip that is located on the motherboard. When you access the information on this chip it means that you accesses the BIOS of your laptop.

You can find there the features of every component if you are not sure about it or you just wanted to see if your information is accurate and all these features characterize your laptop as a combination of certain hardware components. I have always associated BIOS features with the physical description in the case of a person: blond haired, blue-eyed, 1.80 m tall and so on.

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If you didn’t have the BIOS settings saved on your laptop, you would have to set them up every time you open your laptop and it would mean a waste of time and a lot of stress. But this way when you open your laptop it will only load the information in BIOS and move fast to the Windows display.

It is very easy to enter the BIOS, but it differs a lot depending on the type of computer you have or even on the motherboard on your laptop. Usually when you turn your Gateway laptop on you will see a dark page with something written in white. When you can see that just press quickly F8 repeatedly or sometimes wait until the display screen is on and press the following combo of keyboard keys at the same time: Ctrl+Alt+Esc.

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Try both variants if you do not know which one works for your Gateway laptop model in order to help you boot your laptop to BIOS. You will know you got there when you can see a dark blue page full of information about your laptop. Once you got there, you can navigate through the menu entries and make the necessary changes, for example setting up the date and clock of your laptop or something similar. Save the changes made and then reboot the laptop in order for the changes to be applied.

Some laptops allow you to establish a password for those who attempt to enter the BIOS of your Gateway laptop , but if you are the only user there’s no need for it. Besides, if you are a little absent-minded, you can forget your own password and then have a lot of trouble when you want to boot your laptop again. But it can prove really useful when there are some unexperienced people having access to your laptop and you want to avoid some really unpleasant surprises.

So getting to BIOS is not such a big deal and also not very difficult, but once you get there you must know what to do and what settups you have to make in order to make the best of your laptop. So first learn and then apply, or at least never attempt anything new without having a more experienced user next to you.

Can I Update My Gateway Laptop To Dual Core

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Gateway laptops are very useful and nice devices that can help you work or play or whatever you might want to use them for. The best feature of Gateway laptops is the fact that they are upgradable. You buy the laptop model that you like and if you want an improved performance of your laptop, you can upgrade the components that can be upgraded, as this is not always possible.

Somebody asked if he could upgrade his Gateway laptop to Dual core and the answer is “yes”, but with certain amendments. All laptop processors can be upgraded to a superior model but only if the motherboard recognizes it and is compatible with it.

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Because the motherboard connects all the main components of a laptop together, it must be compatibe with each of them and also makes sure that the new processor is the right kind in order to allow a good functioning of the system. It is very important to keep this balance and use only compatible components because the system only works when these components can work together.

Otherwise, if you put together incompatible components, the system will not be able to work. So you can’t remove the old processor and replace it with a dual core just because you want to and because you heard that Dual Core processors are good.

The first basic condition is that the old processor also belongs to the Intel family of processors, so you can exclude from upgrading to Dual Core all the Gateway laptops that have an AMD CPU. The next step is to make sure the motherboard of your Gateway laptop is compatible with the Dual Core processor and recognizes it, I mean is able to work with it. You can find this by searching the model and series of the motherboard on the producer’s web site.

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There you will be able to see what kind of CPU it supports, so you will know if you can upgrade it to Dual Core. You can find out these details about your laptop’s motherboard if you enter BIOS and navigate until you reach the section with the physical details of the motherboard.

If the conditions above are satisfied you can proceed to the upgrading. So just buy the wanted Dual core CPU and replace the old one with this one. It may be a good idea to do this in a repair shop, as processors are very sensitive components and if you are not very careful or you don’t know very much about laptop’s insides, you can end up by damaging it. And once you did this you might also consider a memory upgrade in order to have a very fast and multi-tasking laptop.

If you do not want to be wrong about this upgrading you’s better call a specialist, maybe Gateway contact phone or somebody on the specialized web sites because they have all the experience they need to give you the best advice. So try to find one on IT forums or the support sections of Gateway and then you will have to do whatever they tell you to.

Gateway Laptop M-7301u Key Board Keys Wearing Out,why

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Usually laptops have black keyboards to match their black cover. However, there are still some silver models of laptop like Gateway laptop M-7301U that has a silver keyboard. So all the letters, numbers and symbols on the keyboard are printed with black ink. Somebody complained that the keys from his Gateway laptop M-7301U keyboard are wearing out and he wonders why.

Well, as far as I know the only possible reason for this wearing out of the keys is the bad quality of the ink used for printing. However, usually Gateway laptops do not have this problem because they use genuine good quality components, so my guess is that the respective person bought the laptop after it had already been used by somebody who replaced the original keyboard with a cheaper one , of a lower quality, made in Hong Kong or something like that. I use a white keyboard for my desktop computer and I have had it for some time – some good years by now, but there never was the slightest sign of wearing out.

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And I am using the computer for more than five hours every day. I might add some strange accidents with spilled coffee, kids colouring it with pencils and other surprises, but still the letters and numbers can be seen clearly. And I clean it with cotton and spirits from time to time.

So my advice for this person is to buy another keyboard, as they are not that expensive, somewhere around $20-30, but this time make sure the producer is a reliable one. But if you are not willing to spend any money on this, just use a permanent black marker and the problem is solved. In case the laptop is brand new and still under warranty, it means you were unlucky enough to buy a laptop from a bad lot, so go to the shop and ask for a replacement. It should be shipped to you immediately.

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Except for wearing out, sometimes there may be other problems with laptop keyboards. The most frequent one is when only one or two of the keys get damaged by an unfortunate accident ( a kid with a hammer ) and you just don’t want to replace it all for only one or two missing pieces.

Well, the good news is that I found a couple of online stores that sell only the keys that you need for the laptop model that you want. Just eneter the web sites (www.ebay.ca and www.laptopkey.com) and choose the laptop brand and model and choose the letters or numbers you need on your kes. Each key will cost about $4-5 and they are sent together with the rubber and retainer clip that fixes each key to the keyboard.

If you want to order the whole keyboard for your Gateway laptop M-7301U, here are some web sites that can help you: www.sunvalleyus.com, www.laptoppartsexpert.com .

You can replace the keys or the entire keyboard by yourself, as it is pretty easy. You just need a screwdriver and some engineering skills and maybe a helpful tutorial to guide you every step of the way.

Boot Disc For Gateway Laptops

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Boot discs are those removable media storage devices that are used when you want to run an operating system or an utility software directly from this device. They are used mainly when you want to install the Windows or another operating system on your laptop , when you need to recover some data you lost by mistake, when your laptop is experiencing some kind of mafunctioning or troubleshooting or simply when you want to show how some software application works (in front of an audience for example).

In the past there used to be the floppy disks for booting an operating system, but now they are no longer used, so they were replaced by boot CDs or even DVDs for your Gateway laptop. A great improvement in re-installing an operating system is the fact that you can now do this by using the files on your laptop’s hard drive or any other removable storing device like an USB memory stick, provided the lalptop allows you to. Usually you can choose that option in BIOS, by pressing a certain F key.

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The boot disc is different from the recovery disc and you must make one at home yourself. Just make sure you make it impossible to alter and do not allow anybody to modigy it in any way, as it will fail to install your operating system when you need it.

There is a different boot disc for every operating system version for your Gateway laptop. It will allow you to install or re-install the operating system (for example Windows XP or Windows 7), but also solve the possible troubleshooting that may appear. This boot disc might also be called sometimes a startup disc, as it contains the startup files that you laptop needs to start the Windows operating system. Usually these startup files are also stored on your laptop’s hard drvie but they might be corrupted or even deleted when your laptop is attacked by a computer virus or when something happens and they are deleted by mistake. In both cases you will need a boot disc to reinstall the op[erating system on your laptop and return to the factory settings.

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Back in the time when people used boot floppy discs, there was a major inconvenience to this: every time you inserted the floppy disk by accident in your laptop, it would boot up and you or whoever did this could have instant access to your files. That is why nowadays the boot CDs are secured and can’t boot up automatically and also have access to all the files on a laptop.

The Windows installation disc that you purchased when you first installed Windows on your laptop can also be used as a boot disc, as it allows you to access Windows directly from the CD.You can use it if you don’t have a special boot CD and your laptop experiences some software problems. Here is a very useful web site that offers you free boot discs for different operating systems: www.bootdisk.com.