Re: Gateway Solo 2500 no backlight

Oh boy, I was curious what type of equipment I should have to properly repair this type of PCB, in case my repair ends up failing in the future. I reviewed the equipment and techniques forum and found the work stations link. That's quite a setup and funny that it's just about exactly what I had envisioned. I was thinking that hot air or perhaps preheating the board must be the correct way to de-solder and re-solder these multi pin microchips. I have fought with them in the past with my clumsy soldering iron and yesterday I really sweated destroying...

Re: Gateway Solo 2500 no backlight

I really appreciate your help Iti. Your input, the link to tech data on the H2 gate and your clue to voltage at pin 2 being low, was the final piece needed to get me to a solution. I was wrong about the fault being at pin 2 of the H2 gate. I thought it was there because after working in that area, the backlight powered up and worked for a while with no further intervention. Then it stopped working again and no amount of fiddling around pin 2 helped. I went back to following the trace away from pin 2. I traced it to where it passes through to the...

Re: Gateway Solo 2500 no backlight

Played with the trace coming from pin 2 of the H2 gate and now I have a visible screen. The trace runs out towards the down left direction under L21. There appears to be a break in the trace just below the L21 stamp on the PCB. I'll play with it a bit more to pinpoint the break then solder it.

EDIT: The break is at the pin 2 connection to the PCB. Now just figuring out how to solder this thing. Even my smallest tip seems like a tree trunk when held next to this tiny thing.

Re: Gateway Solo 2500 no backlight

Okay, I tried applying 4.9 volts to pin 2 of gate H2 and voila! I have backilght. So, aside from this part obviously being hot at some point, it does work when the correct voltage is applied. Now, I just need to find the voltage drop to pin 2.

Re: Gateway Solo 2500 no backlight

Thank you Iti, for your response. Yes, that looks like the right part and I see what you mean that voltage at pin 2, IN A is a little lower than IN B. It could be that the difference between IN B and IN A is causing it not to activate, by what I can discern from the function chart. Though 3.27V is still above the minimum at Vcc 4.5V. I admit though that I don't clearly understand the terminology. I may try to insert 4.95 at pin 2 and see if the gate activates. The thing was obviously hot though so I won't be surprised if it's dead. I will also...

Re: Gateway Solo 2500 no backlight

I performed a pin out voltage test on the part I suspect of being the cause of no enable signal. The pins in my drawing are laid out as in the photo in my last post. Pin C appears to be ground. I'm thinking that pin A should be passing on the 4.95V supply voltage when the gate is activated, which it would seem to be by the 3.27V signal at pin D. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I'm about to start looking for another old laptop. I would love the satisfaction of repairing this one and keeping another piece of electronics out of the scrap heap....

Re: Gateway Solo 2500 no backlight

I'm not giving up just yet. I understand that technical information from Gateway is hard to find. I think I have traced the loss of the enable signal to the part marked K2 in the upper middle of this photo. Please bear with me on picture quality. I spent some time trying to get the best clarity I could. I hope you can see the hot area around the part I'm referring to. The puzzling thing is that I have 3.3V at the middle terminal on the RH side(as viewed in the photo). This would be the enable signal, but I can't find any continuity between this...

Re: Gateway Solo 2500 no backlight

Update: I tried a test using a 9V battery to apply power to the enable circuit of the inverter. I was concerned that the .9V I was seeing there wasn't enough to activate the IC. With power applied from the battery, the CCFL lit up. This shows me that the inverter is okay. I now need to trace the enable circuit back to see why I'm only getting .9V. I keep wishing I had a schematic diagram for this unit. I am going by visual indication of power flow and guessing alot.

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum but have had success in the past repairing the CCFL inverter in my LG Flatron monitor, using helpful information found searching this forum. The Flatron's failure was due to failed caps. Now I am trying to solve a similar issue on my ancient Gateway Solo 2500 laptop.

There is a specific purpose for which I need this laptop. I am an automotive diagnostic and engine performance specialist and I run a programmable EFI controller in my own project car. The EFI system is older(1999) and uses DOS based Calmap software for programming. The software is...

Re: New Members - please post your introductions here

Hi everyone. I have used this forum as a newby, read only, resource for many repair projects, the latest of these being the CCFL inverter board in my LG Flatron monitor(the very one I'm using right now thank so very much). I am as my user name implies, a dummy of electronics technology. I do know a little. My profession is automotive diagnostics, which has me spending most days with my awesome new Snap On Modis Ultra lab scope, scanner combo in hand, diagnosing electronic engine control gremlins in all makes and models of automobiles....