"I have 3 assorted Gateway laptops in the closet (for parts)."

Are any P series ? We might be able to make a deal. I got one that seemed to shut down at random running Vista, but would run Linux all week long. It was not the OS though because I had four identical ones and swapped drives around and the problem stayed with the machine. Also the HD (a WD1600BEVT) locked itself and Gateway as ell as WD are being useless. This spontateous lockdown is a known issue with this model. Guess what I will never buy again and will unrecommend in the strongest of terms.

Anyway, this laptop is a real gem. I broke the CD door (front only) on the one I use so that is getting swapped, but it still works. I broke the keyboard connector on the MB so I have to use external, but it doesn't matter because the one I use is about ready. The edge enter key is flopping in the breeze and the arrow keys need to be hit hard to work.

My sister had one of the lot I bought and broke the screen so that is gone. The PS has been dropped and has a cracked case.

Although it shuts down, it does not fail to power up. Think maybe we can do something with the lot of them ? (that is if they're P series, these are the 17" jobs with the (almost) full keyboard, which is one of the reasons I bought them)

They have the ****ties sound I have ever heard. It's compressed like AM radio and I can't seem to find out how to turn off that "feature".

Anyway, I would trade the thing for damnear anything. It's basically a core in a way. the shutting down could well be a cooling problem, one of your scrap units might have just what it needs. A cooling problem would explain why it shuts down on Vista but not Ubuntu.

Lemmme know if we might be able to do something here. I don't weant muuch for such aa decrepit thing of course, in fact a trade would be good. Junk for junk lol.