P6831-FX SERIOUS RANDOM POWER ISSUES...will drive anyone insane!

Please read the following of what I did before the incident started, and when I discovered it:

I had changed the vista power settings so that when I closed the lid to the laptop, with the power supply plugged in, it would "do nothing", unless in battery mode, then it would "sleep". The reason for doing this was because I had it hooked up to an external monitor using a DB-15 cord. At that point, I was using ADOBE Dreamweaver CS4 running at a resolution of 1600x1200@85HZ. Mind you this was on an external Monitor, with the software setting set to use ONLY my external monitor, and has the laptop monitor disabled (the lid was closed this entire time). I was web editing with Dreamweaver CS4 for about 3 hours. After the 3 hours of usage, I had turned off the computer (using Vista software Shutdown) and went to bed (verified that it shut down, and it did). When it was shutdown the following things were plugged in, and left on overnight (~9 hours): Power supply, battery LED ON and steady(bright blue), DB-15 cord connected, and the LID DOWN.

This morning, before I went to turn on the laptop, the battery LED was still LIT as fully charged. I unplugged the laptop from the power supply, removed the DB-15 cord, and attempted to turn on the Laptop...nothing happened, but the battery LED was still lit (bright blue). I proceeded to do the following:

1.) Plugged the laptop back into the power supply, and attempted to turn it back on...NOTHING, no LED.

2.) Disconnected the power supply cord, removed the laptop battery, and reconnected the power supply cord...NOTHING, no LED.

3.) Disconnected the power supply cord, reconnected the laptop battery, reconnected the power supply...NOTHING, even this time there was no LED indicating that there was a battery installed.

4.) Disconnected the power supply cord, ran it with LAPTOP battery installed...NOTHING, not even a battery LED indication.

5.) Reconnected the power supply cord, reconnected the DB-15 cord, battery left installed, NOTHING, NO LED AT ALL.

The next day, I decided the tackle the issue (I use my desktop most of the time). I noticed that when I put the battery back in, and kept hitting the power button, it would eventually blink a RED LED for the battery. This does not make sense, because the battery WAS fully charged...and I KNOW it was because it said so in windows and I have NEVER had an issue with the battery.

Eventually I got the dash lights to turn on, but nothing else. Don't ask me how, as there is no logical explanation to any of this. After 15 minutes of constantly hitting the power button, VIOLA! The thing turned on. I reset BIOS time, and Vista booted right up. "Great!" I said, thinking the problem was solved...but it wasn't. While I got it working, I tested the laptop by using windows to power down, and it did. I hit the power button and it's working perfectly. While I had the thing working perfectly, I bought a NEW bios battery and updated the BIOS. Things went perfectly with this. Reset the time, Vista booted, and all LED's are working and stating things perfectly, as they ought to. I eventually went back into the power settings and changed everything back to default. ALL was working PERFECT.

At that point, I left the laptop on by itself for a few hours to go back to work on my desktop. I decided to head back to my laptop to checkup on it to see if I got any error messages, or if something was acting funny. Naturally, the laptop went into sleep mode. I hit the power button, and Vista came back on...THEN...everything stopped functioning. I couldnt move my mouse, the keyboard was locked, no sounds...just a locked screen. I held down the power button to turn it off, and nothing...I unplugged it...still nothing. But what was ODD about unplugging the power cord, was that the LED's stated it was still in POWER mode and not battery. The laptop at this point was OBVIOUSLY running off the battery. So, I flipped the beast over, took out the battery, and the thing, ofcourse, turned off.

I proceeded to plug everything back in, and NOW the symptoms have occured AGAIN, as stated above. This is where I am now. At this point I am daignosing this as a corrupt motherboard, it's quite obvious. I'm posting this in hopes to have someone call me a dumbass and tell me that I am very wrong, followed by an explaination of how to fix this problem as the most inexpensive resort and why something like this would happen.

If there's anyone else out there with a similar issue, PLEASE let me know. Everyone's and anyone's help is greatly appreciated. Thank You for taking the time to read this.

I was right. I just got my laptop today from the Gateway Depot. They replaced the motherboard. The part number for a P6831-FX motherboard is:

4006258R and also covers similar models:

P-6801MFX/P-173XL/P-173X FX

If your laptop is not under warranty, a person whom I found on ebay was selling this motherboard for $450. You're obviously better off getting a new laptop.

The odd part was that Gateway does not sell this motherboard yet. I guess they're waiting until majority of their customers are off warranty.

Good luck to all those handling power issues with your laptop. They're a real pain in the rear.

If it's still with in 1 year of the date you purchased the unit, then, yes, register your serial number with Gateway on their website. Once you register your serial number, call gateway customer support, and tell them what issues you're having with it. It will cost you approximately $20 to ship it to them, but they will cover the diagnostics, and ultimately fix the issue for free.

Good Luck. I hate laptops. I just recently sold mine so I don't run into similar problems later on down the road.

That's one of the reasons why I got rid of the laptop. I game occasionally, so I said screw it, and sold my laptop. Build yourself a desktop, or get a friend to do it for you. Laptops are absolutely USELESS unless you desparately need the portability. I ended up buying a IBM T43p for 100 dollars and fixed it all up myself, its only a Pm 2.13GHz, 2GB Ram, and the only reason I bought it is because I needed the portability for internet and business documents. It's perfect.

Getting a beefy laptop without the need of portability is a real compulsive move and a big waste of money. I found that out the hard way.

Good luck with your endeavors.