Any computer experts?

I have two computers, one of which is not working very well.

It is a standard Gateway computer that is about three years old and runs Windows ME.

Most of the time when I turn it on the power light turns yellow/orange and nothing comes up on the screen. After ten or so attempts I can finally get to the main screen but every once in a while it will say that the hard drive was not detected.

Since this problem kept occuring, I wiped the hard drive and then reloaded everything (basic programs) back on to it. I have also ran a scan disk and it did not detect any problems.


Any ideas what the problem could be? I have a new computer but would like to have both of them set up. Is there something I can do to see what the problem is, or is it not worth the money/time? Thanks...

Try replacing the power supply with one you know is good from another computer.

Take everything apart and clean out all the dust......

Dust creates more problems than anything else...

Thanks....I will try those options when I get home in a few hours.

Hard drive not detected could also be a cable issue........

But usualy in my experinace, it's just dust on the IDE BUSS

If it has been hauled around a little, it's possible that the hard drive is in bad shape. That happened to mine while I was driving cross country - they seem to be pretty susceptible to vibration. Anyway, it's just a thought.

Thanks...Since I won't be able to get home and try this stuff out for a couple of hours, I just have one more question.

Does the power light on the computer being yellow/orange mean anything?


About 1 out of every ten times the power light will be green and when that happens the computer always boots up fine. However when the power light is yellow/orange or even orange/green it never boots up.

Thanks for your time...

Gameoz said:

Thanks...Since I won't be able to get home and try this stuff out for a couple of hours, I just have one more question.

Does the power light on the computer being yellow/orange mean anything?


About 1 out of every ten times the power light will be green and when that happens the computer always boots up fine. However when the power light is yellow/orange or even orange/green it never boots up.

Thanks for your time...

Click to expand...

Yellow/orange usually means "STAND BY".

There could be a problem with your MBR (master boot record).

Did you do a clean installed?

Run fdisk (from a floppy if you made one already), then format the drive and create/add your Primary drive again.

And re-install your WinME again.

***Could be your PSU as well.

its not the MBR if its not getting past POST

try taking out the RAM and cleaning it

do the same with the graphics card.. contacts get corroded over time.

and yeah dust sucks

Thanks for the extra tips. I took off the shell and blew all the dust out. There was a lot of dust on the inside. I did not remove the cd/floppy though, so maybe I should do that as well.

I can not try the power cord because my other computer is a notebook and the power source is a different shape.

When I turn it on, I am still getting yellow/orange or orange/green four out of five times before I get a green.

I guess I could always call someone but I am not sure it would be worth it. Thank you to those of you who helped out.

The power light sounds odd. Like someone said earlier, you might check your RAM. other possible problems could be the motherboard, any power connections maybe, or you might have a bios problem. Corruption or something.

If worst comes to worst just start replacing stuff.

Could be the hard drives circuit, if it has been working fine before and is now suddenly fucking you about the way you described i would first check all connections,then replace the power supply if the connection check fails.
If that fails, id replace the HDD and do a clean install.

3 years is a long time to keep a computer really and the thing that gets used the most is mechanical things such as the fan's and HDD, if your cpu fan is getting clogged up and doesnt cool the cpu properly any number of weird things can happen, and hard drives are uncertain, they could last 2 weeks or 10 years you dont actually know.

Also:
Make sure the cooling fan on the cpu is clean, use a q-tip and carefully get all the scum off of the blades of the fan.