# Gateway 610XL



## aftrshock (Feb 20, 2007)

Not sure if this is the right area for this post, but here goes anyway.

These Gateway 610XL media center PCs have this issue with screen blinking -- that is, the screen will randomly power off and come back on sometimes. I can always make the screen come on, for however limited a time, at boot time, or from resuming after suspending. One time from this suspend/resume, the unit found new USB devices, the built in card reader and I think DVD, but this doesn't happen every time.

Multiple fixes have been suggested: upping the PSU, changing for a revised PSU, unplugging the subwoofer, changing the spread spectrum in the BIOS, one person even suggested it could be from magnetic fields in the home or wiring.

I've checked out the writeup on PSU's and used the 'lite' configurator to see what my system should take. the 185 watt shipped w/ the machine definitely isn't enough.

The system is using the 180watt Rev 01 PSU that is recommended. It's been changed out from the original at least twice, per the user who owns the system.

So far, none of the super fixes have worked, although per the write up on PSU's, I may need > 300 watts for a PSU -- I'm wondering if its inside wiring. The 20 pin mobo connector is split to an 8 pin and 12 pin, and the standard P4 4pin. That's it, to power everything! No adapter even! Subwoofer, board, chip, RAM, DVDrw, 200gb HDD, LCD panel, firewires, USBs, card reader, IR receiver, TV card, AM/FM receiver... that's a lot of devices for those cables to be powering. 

Maybe I should hit 350 or even 400 for a PSU?

Or, let's look at the issue at hand: my screen shuts off. Not a 'no signal' display, but the LCD panel itself goes out. Suspend and resume brings it on, but I can never be sure how long.

Ideas? Or should I be posting elsewhere?

Machine stats: Gateway 610XL media center
P4 3.0 ghz + 512mb DDR400 RAM
128mb AGP ATI vid
15" LCD panel
PSU: 185 watt Delta Rev 01 model, also used a Delta 250 and an Allied 300, custom modified to fit the power connector.
not sure what else would be useful in here.


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## CSantoriello (Feb 11, 2008)

I hope someone provides an answer for you. I have been living through this 'blinking screen' nightmare for years. 3 times I sent the unit (under warranty) back to Gateway for repair. Each time they (against my stated wishes) formatted my hard drive before (obviously) replacing the power supply and returning it. I had backups after the first time - but restoring all our games and software and settings is still a lengthy process. The last time this occurred, the unit was out of warranty. I followed instructions that someone had posted online for obtaining a new (rev 2) power supply and my husband replaced it. The unit worked for about 3 weeks before starting to flash again. It only seems to be happening so far when running software that uses the sub-woofer (such as watching tv on Media Center) 

We'll try taking it apart again and not connecting the sub-woofer - but from the sounds of your posting you may have done that and still have problems.

What infuriates me is that Gateway - not once - during my in-warranty years admitted that it was a problem with the power supply. They kept claiming it was the hard drive or other issues.


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## aftrshock (Feb 20, 2007)

Hi CSantoriello,

it's true that Gateway's support is absolutely pathetic. Check out the MFP1400 (I think that's it), an LCD gateway sold for 2001. Constant blanks within 2 years on the screen.

Gateway's modus operandi appears to be to build crap hardware to work for a year or two, then fail to a degree that you have to replace the unit.

My 610 had already had a rev 1 powersupply.

I do not believe the problem is a faulty power supply. I have done much hardware work in the ways of LCDs and panels lately and believe the problem to be solely to a weak LCD inverter.

However, due to the nature of the 610, I would not recommend anyone but a professional to tackle this.

The reason is this: I tear down laptops all the time and can rip it apart to mainboard out of the case and the thing in pieces and back together inside of 30 minutes. I had trouble with the 610, and it would require documenting and presumably photos to get the wiring and harnessing and screws back in their correct places. But, if you're feeling brave...

Gateway hasn't said it's the PSU; I have contacted them, Sony, HP and others with issues and been told there are no issues -- even when I'm on the friggin website, looking at the exact issue on the machine.

All of these steps worked for some people, limiting voltage, etc -- if you want to rule out your PSU, get a good UPS system in place -- this will ensure that your voltage is just fine. If there is an issue beyond that, you could get a 300+ watt PSU, and that should take care of any possibility of it being a power issue; it may be a draw issue or resistance in the wiring, bad caps, etc.

I personally think a new inverter board would take care of this issue, however, I no longer have a 610 so that I can find out. 

Let me know if I can do anything to help.

Regards.


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## noelaudio (May 9, 2008)

I have a Gateway 610 for quite some time now. A year or two ago I replaced the PSU with one from a mfg in China that was doing the newest revision of that form factor. It solved my blinking screen problem directly...until now 
Just today it started doing it again. I just moved recently into an older home so I thought it was maybe a supply voltage to the computer and so I put it on a APC UPS, but that didn't make any difference. I've also unplugged the sub (which helped last time) no improvement. So I'm left with either an under powered PSU (I have recently put in two gigs of mem though I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if the current draw across another ram module is enough to drop the total current in the system that much.) or a bad inverter board. 
My question is how varied are the types of inverter boards inside these machines and will buying a replacement from an online site be a proper solution, or are all of these inverter boards inherently faulty for this set up?

Note: while writing this email I reminded myself that I didn't have both pieces of memory in the computer until recently as MemTen sent a bad module and I returned it so I've only been operating on 1 gig until today. I put the 2nd module in and then I started having the screen issue. 
I just removed the module and it seems the blinking has stopped!

So IS this a power supply issue? Would it be best to go get a larger PSU and run it outboard of the computer. I remember this being a solution when I had this problem the first time around.

Has anyone done this recently, can I merely extend the PSU connections to a new power supply? It has been quite awhile since I've really dabbled in computers so if this is a solution could someone point me towards the proper type of PSU to purchase.

Sorry for the lengthy post as it seems I've found my problem, but I am still curious about the sustainability of replacing the LCD inverter.

Thank you

Noel


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## aftrshock (Feb 20, 2007)

Noel,

I believe it is a power issue, but not directly a power supply issue, seeing as how in my case, I hooked up a 450wt known working PSU that should put out way more than enough power, and still had an issue.

I believe the 610's were faulty pieces of garbage, as so many gateway products are.

Also, per my work on laptops, you actually draw less voltage when you have more memory -- reason being, less virtual memory (hdd space) being used, so less power goes to the harddrive for performing normal operations.

I don't recommend anyone without a lot of patience and documentation abilities and hopefully some experience attempt a teardown on these machines; it's a difficult one, filled with lots of wiring harnesses and cabling.

There appears to be no solid rhyme or reason; my unit already had the Rev 1 power supply, and I used multiple different supplies; never made a difference. I believe the inverter or screen was going out, and I'd be more likely to say the inverter. Keep in mind, with the screen on the dimmest setting, I got it to work just fine (for a while), but putting it up in brightness would almost always cause it to fritz.

My diagnosis: shoddy production and inferior support means the root cause of this issue will never be found. Could be wiring, could be damage by early revision PSU's, could be shoddy components elsewhere. If I were to be certain I fixed it, I would swap every part, minus the housing.

Again, multiple 'fixes' have worked for people. The woofer, for some, replacement PSU for some, external PSU for some, swapping out RAM for you... seems too randomized to just be one thing causing this issue.

Regards.


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## noelaudio (May 9, 2008)

Thanks for the quick response. I really do like this 'gateway' product even though they were just a reseller in America (I first saw them in Kuwait many years ago under a different distributer) But the whole screen issue makes the unit pretty useless.
Cheers and have a great weekend!


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## aftrshock (Feb 20, 2007)

Cheers.

At least someone likes gateway. I'm fairly certain they're gone /dissolved now, though I do know there was some form of merger between Gateway & eMachines. eMachines makes about the worst garbage imaginable.

:wave:


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## Underclocker (Aug 13, 2007)

From the first post, it seems those 610XL systems run AGP video cards. Therefore they require a power supply capable of 18A output on the +12V rail to run properly. The blinking LCD issue could be a result of the graphics card not receiving enough power and not outputting video properly. The 185W Delta PSU is definitely not enough for any system made in the last 5 years. You should be looking at the very least at a 300W unit capable of the AGP power requirement.

P.S. Gateway was acquired eMachines in 2004, and was itself eaten up by Acer late last year.


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## aftrshock (Feb 20, 2007)

Went to a 430wt PSU w/ 80% efficiency (2 diff kinds, one standard, one 80% efc.) and no changes; also swapped out AGP cards, to no avail. Also, on my unit, changing the brightness would effect the blips; turning it down resulted in fewer blips and longer sustained picture; turning it up would mean the LCD wouldn't display anything.


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

I followed the advice here to hack my 610 back to life with a regular 350W power supply. It is not pretty, but it works!!!

I had to cut he P1 and P2 connector from the original supply and splice them onto the new one based on color - worked fine. The ATX 12V 4-pin connector is the standard one so I did not have to splice that. Pictures attached.

(of course, the subwoofer is gone, I am using external speakers instead).


http://picasaweb.google.com/jrsifontes/Gateway610#5248235767160695538

http://picasaweb.google.com/jrsifontes/Gateway610#5248235766210682434

http://picasaweb.google.com/jrsifontes/Gateway610#5248235767254617058


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## aftrshock (Feb 20, 2007)

You could buy cable extentions so you could put the woofer back on and mount the PSU under your desk..


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

Yes, mounting the sub again is a possibility. 

With this machine I must admit I am borderline superstitious that activating the sub would be bad luck (somehow it could screw even this 350W PS). 

The other issue is that I already soldered the funny looking P2 and P1 conectors (12 and 6 pins ea) - I am not sure I would be able to find extension cords for those (do you know a source?)

Cheers,

N


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## noelaudio (May 9, 2008)

I also just finished replacing the powersupply with a 305W and got my screen to work again. I also have not plugged the subwoofer and speakers back in, I plan to, but haven't yet, hopefully hooking them back up doesn't kill the screen again.


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

I tell you - the subwoofer amp is cursed. I powered the sub's circuit board to drive the monitor speakers (actual sub not connected) and now I am getting intermitent no-sound situations (instead I get noise). It is random.


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

*Re: Gateway 610XL and Vista*

Has anyone successfully installed Vista on this machine? 

I get a "need CD criver" message right at the beginning - which is weird because it is reading teh Vista DVD fine to get there. Any ideas? what Vista drivers are available for this machine, if any? 

I did see a youtube video of someone in Europe that got it to work, but no details of how.

Namikis


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## chc57802 (Oct 1, 2008)

My father has a 610s which has recently had the same issue. I got down to troubleshoot it and have noticed two things which may or may not help. When the computer is running in normal mode, the damn thing blinks every few seconds - off more than it's on, but in safe mode, I can diagnose and other things for a few minutes before it turns off/on. Also in Safe mode, it mostly only does the off/on thing when there is a spike in memory usage, i.e., opening/closing a new proram, clicking on a link in browser, etc., but I ran a RAM diag. that showed no problems. 
Is there much difference in Power Consumtion between Normal and Safe Mode?


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

*Re: Gateway 610XL - Random Noise Solved*

To follow up on my random noise situation and no audio: I restored the system to an earlier state and the noise disappeared. Some registry value was messing up the audio. So so far it has been working ok with the amp driving just the monitor speakers.


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

*Re: Gateway 610XL - DVD Movie Playback*

Oh this machine is a jewel designed to keep any PC tech entertained continuously. 

Now the DVD drive works for CDs but does not recognize DVD movies for playback. I confirmed that the region is set properly to region 1, the CODEC is there, and I installed a couple of different DVD players looking for a solution (PowerDVD, etc.). Any hints on what may be causing this "Disc format not recognized" message?

Thanks,

Namikis


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## chc57802 (Oct 1, 2008)

chc57802 said:


> My father has a 610s which has recently had the same issue. I got down to troubleshoot it and have noticed two things which may or may not help. When the computer is running in normal mode, the damn thing blinks every few seconds - off more than it's on, but in safe mode, I can diagnose and other things for a few minutes before it turns off/on. Also in Safe mode, it mostly only does the off/on thing when there is a spike in memory usage, i.e., opening/closing a new proram, clicking on a link in browser, etc., but I ran a RAM diag. that showed no problems.
> Is there much difference in Power Consumtion between Normal and Safe Mode?


Follow up: [ Please forward to any Gateway Engineer you might know, maybe they can learn something ] 1. There is another string on this site that suggested removing one of the memory sticks for the 610, which I did, and poof, it has been running for several hours without doing the blink off/on thing, keeping my fingers crossed. and 2. prior to the memory stick, I used the S-Video Out to hook the computer to my plasma screen. The 610 screen would blink off/on, but not the plasma tv, it worked just like normal.


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## noelaudio (May 9, 2008)

*Re: Gateway 610XL - DVD Movie Playback*

I have a not so easy solution to this: Remove the tuner board. I had the same problem (Along with the power problem) I took apart the system and installed a 305W power supply and removed the tuner card (as I don't have a compatible cable system) and poof the DVD player started working just fine again! I even then upgraded it to a DVD burner out of a GFs dead laptop and that works just fine as well (though I don't think Media Center likes it, but I don't like Media Center so that is just fine with me)

Just to recap, I had upgraded to 2 gigs of ram and then I started having the flashy screen issue, I put the two sticks of old ram back in and the screen acted normally. When I upgraded powersupplys I put the 2 gigs back in and haven't had any issues for about a month now. FYI my screen has a power off setting of 10min so I don't have the screen sitting on for long periods of time & hopefully this will keep me from having to do any monitor upgrades for awhile.

Best of luck.



Namikis said:


> Oh this machine is a jewel designed to keep any PC tech entertained continuously.
> 
> Now the DVD drive works for CDs but does not recognize DVD movies for playback. I confirmed that the region is set properly to region 1, the CODEC is there, and I installed a couple of different DVD players looking for a solution (PowerDVD, etc.). Any hints on what may be causing this "Disc format not recognized" message?
> 
> ...


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

*Re: Opening Up a Gateway 610XL and Ubuntu*

An update on my Gateway 610: the hard drive died. So despite reading horror reports about how hard it is to get to the drive I went ahead and opened it up. 

It is friggin horrible, but not as bad as a Macbook Pro, mostly because Gateway uses the same size screw everywhere. First, you have to disconnect all the cables going to the little board at the base of the stand. The good news is all the plugs are unique except two - the IR cable and the audio input for te game port. The IT cable is labeled somewhere in the jacket as such, though. 

The stand itself is held by six screws under a couple of plastic covers. remove those, remove the stand and get the mass of cables through the small hole. Remove all the screws from the plastic back cover, remove the cover. Remove a few screws holding the RF shield underneath, remove that. Remove the four screws holding and metal spine to which the stand was attached. Under that you can figure things out on your own. It is amazing how Gateway packed the stuff together to create a theramal failure time bomb. The hard drive is essentially at the center of an oven. 

I took out the 120 Gb and threw in the only spare drive I had, an old 30Gb WD. Yes, it sounds stupid not to put a new drive, but I did not have the energy to go buy one and in this economy I also did not have the dough to spare. 

I put everything back together and decided to try installing Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron instead of Windows, since I had little space to spare in the new (old) hard drive. It works ok. As noted elsewhere, the graphics card in the 610 is weak, so it can barely handle Compiz effects in Hardy Heron. 

Getting wireless to work is a pain - note that you have to install the ndiswraper for the Broadcom BCM4306 - a bit tricky; but iyt can be made to work fine. 

MythTV is still not working. That is my project for today. I need to load drivers for the Avery Media 150 card and get all the other Myth backend stuff to work. Will post on that later.


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## billman (Nov 2, 2008)

Hi just wondering if anyone has some photos of the motherboard??? I had to replace my 610xl motherboard and there are 3 4 pin plugs that I am not sure if I have plugged into the right sockets. Please help anyone... I keep getting a check video cable error on boot up with no signal  I know something is not plugged in right. Any insight or photos would be great. I didn't think to take them before ripping it apart .

Bill


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

I should have taken pics but did not - sorry. I was racing to get the whole thing done. If I tear it apart to install a larger hard drive I will take pics. 

I ended up removing Ubuntu and installing Windows Media Center again. I could not find adequate drivers for the Aver Media card in Ubuntu. I was able to get a very poor picture quality using one set of drivers, but gave up after a few days. 

Once I return to media center problems returned as well. The 610 will boot up 1 out of 5 times. On the other occasions it will freeze at the BIOS splash screen. It is a bizarre problem. Why would the OS choice make a difference at the BIO splash screen stage? Could be the current draw imposed by the early boot cycle activities of MCE makes a difference? Who knows... The 610 is a marvel of bad engineering design. 

N


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## billman (Nov 2, 2008)

Do you remember where the Clear Media card reader plugged into?? 

Just curious what socket it goes into, either 1 of 3 plugs by heatsink fans, or the socket under the video card/hard drive area??


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

billman said:


> Do you remember where the Clear Media card reader plugged into??
> 
> Just curious what socket it goes into, either 1 of 3 plugs by heatsink fans, or the socket under the video card/hard drive area??



No I don't. I was able to replace the hard drive with minimal messing with the cards to the side.


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## Namikis (Sep 20, 2008)

Question for all:

My 610XL makes a distinctive relay-clicking-like sound just before the screen freezes and I have to reboot. Any idea what part inside may be doing this? Seems to be connected to the screen, but the image stays, while the graphics are frozen. Thanks, N.


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## Fritzedward (Aug 3, 2009)

On my client's 610, removing the memory from the rearmost slot allowed the monitor to stay on enough that I could use the computer, although it would still blink off (and usually back on) sporadically. I installed Logmein to allow me to use the machine by remote, whether or not the monitor was working. Then I tried several different things, but ultimately fixed the problem by reducing the graphics acceleration settings. (right-click on the desktop --> properties --> settings --> advanced --> troubleshoot) Here I found by trial and error that the highest hardware acceleration setting I could use without having any screen-blink problems was the third setting, "Disable all DirectDraw and Direct 3D accelerations...." I left "Enable write combining" on. In order to test these, I used the visualizations on Windows Media Player, specifically "Alchemy --> Random", at full screen. This is useful, because much of the time (even for hours) the display would work fine, even with an all white screen (all pixels switched on), which is what originally made me think it wasn't an inverter or power supply problem. With Direct 3D disabled, certain games and visualizations won't work, that's true, but full-screen video and "regular" apps still work fine, and that's all my client needs. Plus, now when something like Windows Media Player calls for an instruction that would otherwise cause the blink, I get a graceful fail message instead that allows me to go right back to work. I did double-check to see that the latest DirectX was installed, but that did not affect the issue. AMD has dropped support for this video card, and I suspect we may be dealing with an incompatibility between the video card/driver and a DirectX update. One could try digging up old versions of DirectX to see if that worked, but I didn't take the time for it.

Clearly, this is a workaround rather than a proper fix, but in my case there appears to be both something wrong with the rear memory slot and possibly a partial failure of the video card as well. The machine is not worth replacing motherboard, video card, etc. so perhaps for your 610 this will make it usable once again too. Good luck. -Jesse Kai, Wayne Computer Service ([email protected])


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