Gateway 610....finished product

I finally got to finish that culprit of a pc, the Gateway 610 media center pc.  I took some pics of a few steps and procedures.  If you guys ever need any advice on how to undertake a similar project, just shoot me an email.  I can honestly say I feel good about accomplishing something like this.  I hope the customer is satisfied with it.  This pc does have something good about it.  It's sound is awesome!  I guess all that power the little subwoofer is pulling isn't just for show.  I've had this pc running an online radio service and have been having it on full blast rocking out to some Red Hot Chili Peppers and some Guns N Roses.  Some of the tools and materials I used were:

• Heat shrink tubing
• Heat gun
• Spray paint primer and paint
• Philips and flathead screwdrivers
• Needle nose pliers
• Wire cutters
• Wire strippers
• Soldering iron
• Solder, flux, and metal braid
• Electrical tape
• Plastic cable clamps (to hold down and anchor the wires)
• E6000 hobby glue/rubber cement

The culprit...Gateway 610 ALL-IN-ONE media center pc

The source of the problem.  This VER. 0.0 PSU is underpowered for all that the pc has to offer.

Here is the replacement PSU.  I know, I know...it's ugly and bulky.  Well, that's nothing a little elbow grease and some imagination won't can't fix.



Here's another look at the replacement PSU.

Here's a look at the back of the 610 Media PC with the old PSU, subwoofer, and back panel removed.  That's the little subwoofer on the left.  It actually sounds very good.

Took the PSU apart.  I prepped the case for painting by sanding it down and using a paint primer.

 Some pics of the painted PSU case.  I chose
a nice glossy black color.

 Here you can really see the nice look of the glossy paint.

Here is the PSU taken apart and I am getting ready to cut and solder the wires together.

I had to recall my old soldering skills.  Not too bad for not having done this in a while.

Here, I used the heat shrink tubing to protect the solder points.

Using the heat gun on the 3/4" heat shrink tubing.  This bigger tubing was used to conceal all the wires.

**Use extreme caution when using a heat gun**

The following are pictures of the finished PSU put back together:

Here, I jimmied the power connectors from the Gateway 610 onto the connector for the PSU.  Do you see how they split up the 20 pin connector into 2 connectors? The 4 pin 12V power connector is at the top.

Here, I'm securing the connectors with a little E6000 hobby rubber cement.  It's not something that's permanent but it will hold up pretty good.

The final product:

Hope you guys enjoyed this little novela and the pics.  I have to give credit where credit is due.  I could not have done this without a wonderful step-by-step take apart guide that I found here.  I also have to give recognition to my favorite electronics parts store EPO (Electronics Parts Outlet).  They've been a staple in the Houston community for electronics enthusiasts as myself and for hobbyists.

Gateway 610...one big can of worms

Finally talked to the customer today and they decided to go the economic route and have me put together a custom external PSU for their Gateway 610 ALL-IN-ONE pc.  I'm actually going to enjoy this little project and going to try to make it look as clean as possible.  I'll post some pics tomorrow and keep you guys updated.  I'm going to use a spare PSU we had around the shop that's rated at 170W and is super quiet.  I've actually had it powering the Gateway for about 1 1/2 weeks now and ran multiple apps, videos, and internet radio on full blast and it's not even luke warm and still quiet as a mouse.  I'm actually surprised that this generic PSU is this quiet.  Of course it doesn't have a heavy load since the Gateway cannot really be upgraded anymore than it is.  I went today and bought some heat shrink tubing and some plastic wire clips in order to try and keep the wires in order.  Hope the final product is as good as I picture it.

Gateway drama continues....

Well, in regards to my issue with my customer's All-In-One Gateway 610 Media Center PC....they are, how do you say, "SOL" in a matter of speaking.  I hate it when companies knowingly have a defective product out on the market, but yet fail to properly inform their customers and take the proper steps to correct or recall this product.  Gateway knows there was an issue with this PCs PSU (Power Supply Unit) and didn't recall the product.  Turns out the combined 100W limit on this PSU is not enough for everything this PC can handle so even if a replacement is ordered, it will fail eventually.  I did manage to find a REV: 01 of this PSU, but I don't know about ordering it because it has the same 100W/180W max rating as REV: 00.  What if I order it, install it, and it craps out on the customer 3 months down the road?  Anyways, I'll let the customer decide whether they want to order this Revision 01 PSU or just have me rig up an external PSU for their PC (which by the way has been working wonderfully for the past week now).  Just goes to show you folks, ALL-IN-ONE PCs may look nice and sleek, but eventually it WILL break down and if one thing fails, then it will be much more labor and $$$ to fix it.  Whatever happens, I always try to put myself in the customer's shoes and have them leave the shop feeling as satisfied as I possibly can.

The hunt continues...

Just got off the phone with AscendTech (the company that I ordered the PSU for that Gateway 610 media center pc from) and it seems that their return policy is not so bad.  They even offer refunds and give 30 day warranty on all their parts.  Unfortunately, they don't carry the REV: 01 PSU for that particular pc model.  Onward and forward in trying to locate that PSU and see if the customer wants to pay the difference in the price for the newer PSU.  If not, my only other alternative would be to custom build an external PSU for this pc.  I think that would negate the benefit of an All-In-One PC though, don't you?  I'll keep you posted on my findings.

Well, this is discomforting...

  Well, I hate to put this up as my first post but it's come to my attention (and this isn't the first time) that Gateway PCs suck! LOL  I was working on this customer's All-In-One Gateway 610 media center PC that had a faulty power supply.  Diagnosis was fairly easy, so I ordered the part.  It came in last week, I installed it, it powered on so I did all the appropriate Windows updates and cleaned her PC up from some malware and annoying tracking cookies.

  Today she calls back that it doesn't turn on anymore! WTH?! Of course I tell her to immediately bring it back in so I can take a look at it.  Guess what? Dead PSU once again! So I did some research and it turns out that this particular model has had various issues with bad, underpowered PSU.  (According to some forums I encountered here.) The culprit is a Delta Electronics PSU, model: DPS-185JB-1A  REV: 00.  It's only rated for 185 W MAX output! There's no way that an all in one only uses this much wattage.  There is a REV: 01, so I'm gonna see if I can get a replacement from the company I ordered it from.  The only other solution is to create an external PSU for this ALL-IN-ONE! Kinda ironic, I know! According to all the blogs and forums, Gateway has been useless on this matter.  This won't stop me from contacting them tomorrow and see if they have a viable solution for me.  I also found something about there being a REV: 01 version here, so I'd like to get one of those to see if it fixes the issue.  I'll keep you guys posted.