Help me to find Equivalent Power Supply

[DakotaBlue]

Thanks anyway, but Stephen already got back to me with the instructions.

Spencer

[iplayguitars]

I posted in March that I bought a new power supply but my computer hadn't blacked out once I got it. That lasted until June 1st. I replaced the power supply with the new one I got from Skyline engineering. It didn't even make it a week and it's worse than the original ever was. I didn't even use the woofer as we are using external speakers. I put in the supposedly revised power supply. I have no idea what to do now. For reasons we can't really explain, my wife and I both think the TV tuner may have something to do with it. If I can figure out how to get it out, I will remove it.
anyone have any good advice, please let me know.
thanks
JD
studio9@alltel.net

[rudebutt1]

hi all from Oz , have same prob as all of you!!
isnt 610 a wonderful product ! LOL!!
am awaiting new psu from skyline but am interested in the external option !! does anyone know or have instructions on an EXTERNAL power supply and how 2 fit it?
please email me rudebutt1@yahoo.com
thanx

[iplayguitars]

As in my post on June first, the 610 was in blackout mode most of the time. That lasted about 2 days, we were ready to buy a new computer computer. Now it's been almost 3 weeks and it hasn't flickered even once. I don't know what's up with that. These 610's are a strange computer.

[DakotaBlue]

Mine acts particularly bad (blinks like crazy) when the tv tuner is used. Especially if this is the first thing you use after coming out of standby mode. I have not upgraded the power supply yet.

I posted in March that I bought a new power supply but my computer hadn't blacked out once I got it. That lasted until June 1st. I replaced the power supply with the new one I got from Skyline engineering. It didn't even make it a week and it's worse than the original ever was. I didn't even use the woofer as we are using external speakers. I put in the supposedly revised power supply. I have no idea what to do now. For reasons we can't really explain, my wife and I both think the TV tuner may have something to do with it. If I can figure out how to get it out, I will remove it.
anyone have any good advice, please let me know.
thanks
JD
studio9@alltel.net

[iplayguitars]

Well, it's now been a month and the 610 and new power supply haven't as much as flickered. Maybe it had to burn in or something, who knows, all I know is it's working fine and I don't have to replace the computer for awhile yet.

JD

[DakotaBlue]

New power supply is in and all seems to be normal. No blinks or problems at all.

Well, it's now been a month and the 610 and new power supply haven't as much as flickered. Maybe it had to burn in or something, who knows, all I know is it's working fine and I don't have to replace the computer for awhile yet.

JD

[Chastize]

I also have a problem with my 610xl. I haven't run into the PSU problems yet, but that may be due to my media center being in active for the last couple years. My hard drive has failed to the point of not being able to reformat, and I just can't find the location of the hard drive to change it out. Anybody able to give me guidance where it is located?

[aftrshock]

I also have a problem with my 610xl. I haven't run into the PSU problems yet, but that may be due to my media center being in active for the last couple years. My hard drive has failed to the point of not being able to reformat, and I just can't find the location of the hard drive to change it out. Anybody able to give me guidance where it is located?

I would recommend that if you haven't done in-depth repairs yourself, you probably shouldn't attempt this due to the likelihood of breaking something else.

However, should you feel comfortable, this link http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:...lnk&cd=2&gl=us

should help.

Keep in mind, this is a google cache of the actual site, and pictures are not included.

I myself have delved into this gateway 610 in taking out the PSU, breaking down the tower, and getting into the LCD, however, I stopped before I got to the LCD panel / mobo teardown. The mobo is located directly behind the LCD -- there's an access door on the right side of the unit as you're looking at the back of it that swaps out RAM, and by my guess is the mobo and not a daughter board. I would imagine that if you looked inside & pulled the back of the LCD panel / system panel off, you would find the HDD, probably next to the DVDRW drive.


Good luck.

I have the same blinking issue w/ the 610. I received the machine secondhand, in a non-working state. The blinking screen was supposedly repaired twice. The PSU is 185 wt, Rev 01 just like the skyline part they talk about here, this was built by Delta. Dunno if its the same company or not.

I have swapped out the old PSU in favor of an external, but the pins are not an exact match -- standard PSU power is a 20 pin or 24 pin for a mobo power; the 610 has it split into an 8 pin and a 12-pin connection. Guess I took the easy way out & just sliced thru the 20-pin connector. Thus far, I have boot time issues w/ the PSU cycling -- clicking on and off. I did have the system powered on for a few hours before then. Could be that the PSU I'm using is bad, or my board could be bad. Will keep everybody posted. I've been a techie for over 10 years, this is a fairly big headache, but not the worst that I've faced. Easy fix for the screen blink: suspend w/ the suspend button, then hit the keyboard repeatedly, and the screen comes back on. This gives me 30 or so mins of life, but again, a new / better working / more carefully modified PSU may work for me.

[Chastize]

Thanks, I appreciate your reply, I'm decent w/ computers, but initially when I too the back off the 1st time, I didn't want to continue unless I had some idea of what to do, thanks again I'm sure this will help alot.

[aftrshock]

There's something else to consider as well; the all-in-one unit is only an all in one unit. Should you decide help is fruitless, you can always rip everything out and just build it up as a regular desktop.

I noticed something interesting while playing around with suspend / resume on mine -- when it resumed this one time, it found multiple USB devices (card reader and dvd drive, among others).

This has me wondering again about power issues. 3 separate power supplies, including the revised model & 2 others (250 watt, 300 watt desktop psu's), but I haven' t figured how its related, or how it may be related. I also looked thru the bios and found that both HD and CDROM are IDE drives, but with no standard connection coming out from the PSU to plug them into, I'm assuming there's a daughter board inside that powers from the mainboard. I may rip into this thing further to see if thats the case, and if it is, to modify it. Still going on this power issue as being the main cause of the screen blink. Interesting how it always comes back on after a suspend though, even if only for a while.

[DakotaBlue]

Well after a couple of months of no screen blinking, my 610X has started up again. Even with the revised power supply, it is happening again.

I agree the power save feature seems to have something to do with it. It does blink (not always) when coming out of power save. However, it also now blinks (sometimes) when the TV tuner is activated.

I have tried getting into the BIOS setup at boot, but everytime I hit F8 (or whatever key it is), the computer locks up and it will not go any further. I would like to try disabling the "spread spectrum" feature or whatever that is to see if it helps the blinking.

One more thing, those of you that have added external speakers - how did you do it?

TIA!

[DakotaBlue]

...One more thing, those of you that have added external speakers - how did you do it?

TIA!

D'oh! I just remembered the audio ports on the back!

[aftrshock]

Well after a couple of months of no screen blinking, my 610X has started up again. Even with the revised power supply, it is happening again.

I agree the power save feature seems to have something to do with it. It does blink (not always) when coming out of power save. However, it also now blinks (sometimes) when the TV tuner is activated.

I have tried getting into the BIOS setup at boot, but everytime I hit F8 (or whatever key it is), the computer locks up and it will not go any further. I would like to try disabling the "spread spectrum" feature or whatever that is to see if it helps the blinking.

One more thing, those of you that have added external speakers - how did you do it?

TIA!

F2 is the key to enter setup. F8 is the key to get to windows 'special' boot options.

When I turn my brightness down all the way, the screen only shuts off maybe 20 mins, maybe 4 hours. If I turn it up at all, consistently, it blinks off. It doesn't 'blink', it just shuts off.

Power supply unit didn't do it, or spread spectrum, I don't even use the TV tuner. Mine is in 10 pieces on my work bench. Still functioning, of course.

And for the girl who wanted to replace the HDD, you have to fully disassemble the machine in order to get to the harddrive -- not recommended for those without a technical or engineering aptitude and attention to detail, as every one of those cables are detached, the back housing taken off, etc.

[DakotaBlue]

I was able to disable the "spread spectrum" in the BIOS, but that didn't help.

The blinking is worse than ever, maybe even worse than before I swapped out the power supply. I haven't tried adjusting the brightness on the screen.

One thing I did notice yesterday, when I scroll screen with the mouse wheel, the screen would blink with each notch on the wheel. It makes me think the USB port(s) have something to do with this. Anyone else seen this particular problem?

DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO FIX THIS THING?????

[DakotaBlue]

I just found a series of BIOS updates and other updates on Gateway's site for the 610, 610 & 610XL computers. Has anyone tried these?

[aftrshock]

I made the attempt w/ the bios updates. No good for me. Mine is a 610XL rev 1 / a. Part # 29000021 or something like that.

For me, turning the brightness all the way down is the best method, however, my screen doesn't blink -- it just turns off, consistently.

I did notice once when resuming from standby that it found USB devices -- the cardreader. This could be evidence that the board itself is underpowered, but again, I've ruled that out, unless my PSU is malfunctioning.

The PSU I'm using has a combined wattage of 180 for the 12v and 5.5v -- these are the only ones needed for this specific unit -- so I'm certain that power should not be an issue, unless it is the fact that I'm using a switching powersupply, which apparently works by gulping current when needed.

Since my 610XL is in 10 pieces right now, I'm assuming I'm going to put it in a new case, maybe without the LCD at all unless I can rig a separate power supply for the LCD.

Ideas for a case / case mod anybody?

[DakotaBlue]

I updated the bios, but no change. Turning down the brightness did help, but it is not a consistent fix. I am pretty much convinced it is a power issue.

Skyline-Eng. would not replace the power supply I bought from them. They offered me a slight discount on another one. But, like I told them, the computer worked great for a little over a month before the blink returned. They said it must be something else.....

Has anyone tried replacing the inverter for the LCD? Did that relieve the blink?

[aftrshock]

The PSU I'm using has a combined power for 5.5v and 12v of 180 watts. There's no way, for me, that it's a power issue -- combined for the original powersupply is 100 watts in those voltages (all the system uses). 180 max. Mine's a 350 max Antec PSU, a good unit.

I have something interesting too: I recently downloaded and attempted Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I get a cursor, but no screen. Could be video driver, then again, could be an unsupported card.

I'm going to swap the standard 9200 out for a separate video card and see if that helps. Some people have replaced the LCD inverters with no difference. I have not yet replaced or attempted to replace mine, since I'm not sure how cost effective that is a fix, plus, my buddy with 20+ years IT experience and an expert at all levels of teardown (including mobo components, PSUs, LCDs, laptops, ETC) says it isn't the LCD itself with an issue since the picture still exists.

Weird thing on my setup tho, the card is supposedly a radeon 9200, however, per ATI's site, the standard hookup on the 9200 is VGA, not DVI, which is what is on my system along w/ the s-video. Gateway says 'Custom ATI Solution.'

I think this quirky / mismatched / unsupported video card may be the culprit. I will be swapping it out for a different one tonight, and we'll see if it helps or not.

[DakotaBlue]

I got the impression the video card is an odd size/shape to fit in the casing. If that's not the case, I am very interested to know if swapping it out is the fix. Please let us know!

TIA