Gateway W350I/T-6842 Troubleshooting

The laptop will only turn on when plugged in to the power cord.

First, ensure that the battery is properly installed in the laptop by following the battery replacement guide. Once the battery is properly installed, try charging the laptop with the appropriate charger for at least fifteen minutes. Then, unplug it and try to turn it on. If the laptop still will not turn on, a damaged battery may be the case. You can find replacement battery parts for a Gateway T-6842 at the following link.

If the laptop’s battery does not charge when connected to the power cord and the light on the power connection doesn’t illuminate when plugged into the power cord, the power connection may not be functioning properly.

The computer crashes when loading the Operating System or shows an error message.

Symptoms indicating issues with the RAM include errors on start up, a stop error (The Blue Screen of Death), sluggish performance, and crashing when running memory intensive programs. When these symptoms arise, the RAM card may have come loose or become faulty. See RAM replacement to ensure the RAM card is correctly installed or to replace malfunctioning RAM.

There could be an error on the hard drive due to an unexpected shutdown. To resolve this issue, boot your laptop from disk. This process is done by inserting disks that should have been included with your laptop from purchase. If booting from disk does not allow the computer to boot correctly, the hard drive may need to be replaced.

The monitor does not display anything when it is turned on.

If the display is cracked, has dead pixels, or has permanent isolated color distortions the entire screen needs to be replaced. Follow these display replacement steps to replace the screen.

The keyboard keys do not respond when depressed or are missing.

If there is no response from pressing any of the keys, then the keyboard may be broken or have become disconnected. The keyboard replacement guide is here: keyboard replacement guide.

If the keys cannot be pushed down, there is a possibility that something is underneath the actual key preventing it from being pushed. The problem key needs to be taken off from the keyboard. The underlying area needs to be wiped of any debris that may be causing this malfunction.

If the keyboard is missing keys, then replacement may necessary to correct the issue. Information about replacement keyboard parts can be found under Additional Information on the Device Page.

The computer gets hot to the touch and shuts down.

Computers can become excessively hot due to debris stuck in the fan or air ducts. Properly wiping down the air ducts and fan will solve this issue. Another problem that may arise is the fan stops working. To replace the fan use the fan replacement guide: Fan Replacement.