Is my laptop dead?

The VCR King

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
My Gateway MT6730 has been having serious issues lately, and I'm pretty sure it's finally bit the dust.

It will not charge above 4%, and when it boots it enters CHKDSK and deletes about 100 "corrupted registry entries". After it boots and I log into windows, the fan speeds up and it begins to run really hot. Then the screen flashes white and the system just loses power and shuts off. The hard drive is also now making a loud squealing sound when it runs.

Note: laptop is upgraded to Windows 7, and it has no updates, antivirus, or firewall.
 
This sounds like a sum of multiple issues for a system that was not maintained properly.
 
Oh and one more thing, I ran Linux on the system a long while ago and a SMART test said the HDD had 1 bad sector.
 
How old is this laptop? The laptop may be fine as I've seen bad hard drives turn laptops off. Try reinstalling windows on a spare drive and see what happens. If its stays on then you should be fine. Remove the dead battery before it does any damage to the laptop, if it hasn't already.
 
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I read this online and it it sounds exactly like my issue:
"may stop charging and or the laptop may turn off. This is often caused by the power plug that connects from the charger to the laptop failing. Sometimes the cable breaks where it joins the plug. This can occur if it has been sharply bent or is repeatedly been bent at this point. Generally wiggling the end of the cable will cause the battery to charge then not charge. Beware though this fault is often as a result of the internal laptop socket failing."

johnb35 said:
How old is this laptop? The laptop may be fine as I've seen bad hard drives turn laptops off. Try reinstalling windows on a spare drive and see what happens. If its stays on then you should be fine.
Click to expand...

I don't have any spare drives and the laptop is from 2007/2008.

The VCR King said:
I read this online and it it sounds exactly like my issue:
"may stop charging and or the laptop may turn off. This is often caused by the power plug that connects from the charger to the laptop failing. Sometimes the cable breaks where it joins the plug. This can occur if it has been sharply bent or is repeatedly been bent at this point. Generally wiggling the end of the cable will cause the battery to charge then not charge. Beware though this fault is often as a result of the internal laptop socket failing."
Click to expand...

And I have to hold the cable at an angle for it to charge.
 
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If it doesn't charge above 4 percent then the battery is shot, remove it from the bay. Remove the bad hard drive. Only use the power charger, does the laptop stay on?

Edit, according to your last post, your charging port is most likely bad or the cable itself. Need to find out which.
 
johnb35 said:
If it doesn't charge above 4 percent then the battery is shot, remove it from the bay. Remove the bad hard drive. Only use the power charger, does the laptop stay on?

Edit, according to your last post, your charging port is most likely bad or the cable itself. Need to find out which.
Click to expand...

It still dies running off the charger only. I'll post a video Of the laptop.
 
Please remove the bad hard drive and see if it stays on.... Bad hardware can and will make it shut off.
 
And if you have to hold the power adapter at a weird angle, it's because the DC jack is broken.
 
I cracked open one of my external hard drives and put the disk into the laptop. I reinstalled Windows and so far the system has been up and running for two hours. I'm streaming Netflix on it right now!
 
Yeah, I thought so. I've seen bad hard drives and cd drives cause systems to power down.
 
So just to clarify it seems to be working OK now there's a different HDD in it?

Are you still having issues charging it?
 
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