Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Opening Gateway Solo 1400 Laptop case

Jan 21, 2005 2:21AM PST

AARGH! My Gateway has been giving me a lot of trouble lately, so I'm getting ready to do some repairs myself. It's 5 years old, past warranty, and...Gateway support is sometimes difficult at best.

The power connector is loose and refuses to hold the adaptor in as it should and needs adjusting, so I decided to get a little help.

A college instructor of mine and myself attempted to open it today and after removing all screws, were still unable to get the case completely open. Is there something that we're missing here...? Do we need to remove the keyboard, try and detatch the display, or what? I can't help shake the feeling that we're missing something obvious here...

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Gateway SOLO 1400
Jan 24, 2005 2:28AM PST

I am in the same situation and am having a very difficult time opening my case on my Solo 1400. My adapter will not charge my battery. The adapter is loose and I believe it has become un soldered on my motherboard. I took out all the screws and found that I couldn't get it loose where the CPU is. Can anyone help me as well? Gateway told me they would charge me $300 plus shipping costs. I am an a+ certified tech but this laptop has me baffled.
Any help would be great!

- Collapse -
Are there screws under notebook holding in keyboard ?
Jan 24, 2005 11:53AM PST

Many notebooks like my Compaq X1000/HPZT3000 have screws under the notebook (marked with a keyboard icon on mine) that have to be removed from the bottom in order to remove the keyboard. Then on top you have to move 4 spacers near the top of the keyboard and the keyboard lifts out to access the internals from the top.

I don't know if that is your situation with the Gateway but try examining screws underneath to see if you need to release something as normally your motherboard would be accessed from the top.

- Collapse -
Opening Gateway Solo 1400
Feb 3, 2005 3:04AM PST

I'm also an A+ certified tech, but I've done notebook service for a lot of years. I just finished opening up a Gateway Solo 1400 and it was NOT easy! There are no screws holding the keyboard on the bottom of the machine. You can get the case open about 95% and there will be one area stuck, in the back near where the screen cable goes into the unit. There is a hidden screw on the top of the case next to the hinge. To get to it, you have to remove the two screws that hold the plastic hinge cover and pry off the cover. I only managed to find it after removing the keyboard, the display, and the panel with the LEDs and power button. (The screws holding the keyboard are on the top of the machine, underneath the cover with the power button on it.)