7405gx - Fixed my flicker

Well, I attempted Compman55's flicker fix, albeit with some modifications. Rather than rewiring the whole thing, I simply disassembled the laptop, reseated the inverter plugs, and hot glued the sucker like there was no tomorrow. I've attached some images and a movie of the hinges in action.

Here's the laptop running without the LCD frame. For some reason it reminded me of Terminator:



Here's the left hinge, where a wire connects the motherboard to the inverter:



I pretty much just doused the sucker with hot glue. I positioned the wire where I wanted it, pumped hot glue all over it, and then squirted some on top of the inverter connector itself for good measure. It looks like a lot of glue, but it can easily be removed by an Exacto knife if need be (good thinking there Compman55). Here's a shot of the right wire, which outputs to the LCD itself:



I did a much better job on that one; you get used to handling a mini hot glue gun pretty quickly (99 cents open box at Radio Shack, lol). I made a short video of the hot-glued wiring job in action here: (under 1.5 megs, ignore the background sounds)

http://www.wiredbynature.org/gateway/flicker/hinges.wmv

And for the geek in all of us, a wallpaper of the CPU fan and bezel, complete with Gateway logo: click here for full-sized image

So far it is working very well, not one single flicker. Of course, it may decide to fry tomorrow, so I'm not calling it a real fix just yet. So far, so good! Props to Compman55 for the pioneer work and tutorial!

Good news, my laptop is still flicker free, even after my move this week. Enjoying it so much I'm not even using my external monitor Thanks again for the guide Compman55!

Going into March and I'm still golden. I'm calling my 7405gx good for another year Hats off to all the pioneers in this area!

Honestly it's not that hard. It looks hard and sounds dangerous, but it's not. As long as you don't go yanking things apart and you keep careful track of what parts go where, you'll be fine. One trick I learned with taking things apart came from when I was learning to work on cars. Put the parts you take out in clockwise order - make a circle of parts as you take them out. Then, when you put them back in, you just have to go back around a circle. You'll never again have to wonder if piece X went before or after piece Y. I'm going into April and I'm still flicker free; I'm quite happy with the results. I can't guarantee that you won't break your computer or that this fix will even work for you, but if you have a spare computer or external monitor in case you break your laptop, I'd say go for it.

Heh thanks Glad to hear it helped you guys out! Drove me nuts for a year...I kept wanting to send it back to the factory but never got around to doing it; I use it too much lol.

kirby, there is no way this laptop is outdated. The only thing I can think of it being outdated for is for hardcore gamers, but then, why would you have a Gateway laptop I'm debating even upgrading this year because it runs so fast. It really screams with the 2ghz a64, 2gb ram, and 7200rpm hard drive. Then again, a desktop with a dual-core proc and some OC'ing is calling my name...

Haha I know what you mean. Both my laptop and my brother's laptop hinges cracked at about the same time late last year. Bummer but what can you do...bondo + silver hobby paint?

Haha! Yeah, I saved a good chuck of $$ going with the Hitachi. But MAN does this thing get toasty, thank goodness for my iCurve!