Hi All,
So a few weeks ago as I was trying to connect my digital camera to its happy li'l usb port, the computer randomly restarted itself. After that the usb port wasn't working, so I tried a different one and that wasn't working either. Then the computer shut itself off, completely randomly, although it was probably still while i was fiddling with the usb ports. When I try to restart it, it now gets stuck at the Gateway intro screen. It'll boot til there, and then it just sits...and sits...
I took a look at the usb ports (3) and indeed, one of them is totally broken. The black card is gone (couldn't find it on the floor - no clue where it went!) and a couple of the prongs are bent.
I haven't done much with the computer recently, but I'm realizing that I'd like to make sure my hard drive is okay, and the easiest way would be for me to diagnose the problem myself and hopefully ease the cost of it getting fixed. I'm actually looking to switch to a mac, and if i can have a working computer with my working hard drive, that'll make the process of them transferring everything much easier.
Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Could my broken usb port really cause this? Is there anything I can do, or someone else can do for not too much money, to fix it?
-Sarah
So a few weeks ago as I was trying to connect my digital camera to its happy li'l usb port, the computer randomly restarted itself. After that the usb port wasn't working, so I tried a different one and that wasn't working either. Then the computer shut itself off, completely randomly, although it was probably still while i was fiddling with the usb ports. When I try to restart it, it now gets stuck at the Gateway intro screen. It'll boot til there, and then it just sits...and sits...
I took a look at the usb ports (3) and indeed, one of them is totally broken. The black card is gone (couldn't find it on the floor - no clue where it went!) and a couple of the prongs are bent.
I haven't done much with the computer recently, but I'm realizing that I'd like to make sure my hard drive is okay, and the easiest way would be for me to diagnose the problem myself and hopefully ease the cost of it getting fixed. I'm actually looking to switch to a mac, and if i can have a working computer with my working hard drive, that'll make the process of them transferring everything much easier.
Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Could my broken usb port really cause this? Is there anything I can do, or someone else can do for not too much money, to fix it?
-Sarah