I have a 4 year old Gateway 7246GX laptop that worked fine (more or less) until now. There are 3 problems. When I turn it on, it will make a weird screeching sound that seems to come from the motherboard (?) then it will shut off instantly after about 1 minute of being on the desktop, even if the battery is fully charged. Also, the laptop’s fans won’t turn on at startup like they usually do. This started happening after it overheated last week and shut off.
The second problem is that the light on the laptop showing the AC adapter is connected will only light up if the battery is in. This happened once before a week and a half ago but seemed to fix itself after 30 minutes, but hasn’t fixed itself again and I don’t know why.
The 3rd problem is that the DC Jack (or something in/around it inside the laptop) seems to be loose. Even with the battery in, I have to jiggle the plug of the AC Adapter inside the jack to get the power light to turn on. I don’t think it’s a problem with the AC Adapter itself making electrical contact with the jack, as once I get the jack into the right “position” I can move the plug of the adapter a little and the light will stay on.
All of these things started happening around the same time, last week. I have opened the laptop with a screwdriver to try to see what’s wrong, and I know the screeching only happened before that, but I don’t know what caused this. Any ideas?
Before turning it on, hold the on button for 2 minutes with the battery and AC adapter out, and plug the AC adapter into a wall outlet.
Check where you’ve plugged in your power supply. High-pitched hisses or whines are typically caused by external electromagnetic interference. … If after you’ve moved the power supply and the noise continues, it is likely because you have a dry capacitor that needs replacement.
Remove battery and power cable, press and hold the power button for 60 seconds to discharge the laptop, now reconnect battery and charger and try booting up.
In some rare cases that the first step wont work, try removing the battery and charger, as well as the cmos battery and leaving the laptop to sit UNUSED for about 7 days. If the comos battery cannot be removed by yourself due to fear off breaking the laptop then extend the period of not using the laptop. I know this worked for a friend.