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We have now had multiple Gateway M-6750, M-6755 (M-Series) laptops come in with the identical problem.

Models affected:
Gateway M-Series notebook computers including M-6750, M-6755. Other models may be posted here in the future.

Symptoms:
The user may hear metal jingling around in their laptop. When the user is using the laptop, it may suddenly shut off, or the laptop may begin smoking. Once this has happened the laptop will not turn on at all. When the power adapter is connected to the laptop it shows no signs of life at all, no power LEDs. When the power button is pressed nothing happens.

Problem:
A piece of metal inside the laptop comes loose, touches the motherboard, causing it to short out. While the metal is shorting quite a bit of heat may be generated. We are not sure at this point if this model is a fire hazard or not, but enough heat is generated to discolor the metal inside the laptop and burn the top layer of the motherboard.

Solution:
We have called Gateway’s tech support and the representatives say that there are no known issues with this model. If they will not fix it the only solution is to replace the motherboard or have it repaired by a specialist. Here we have been able to repair around 65% of the motherboards that have been fried by pieces of metal floating around. Some need some fuses replaced, some are a little more complicated and some have suffered irreparable damage. It is free for us to check them out, if we can repair the motherboard we charge $149. The motherboards may be replaced but this is usually not cost effective.

Good clip
This is a picture of a metal piece (or clip), and what it is supposed to look like.
Gateway M series missing clip
This is a picture of a base assembly. You can see where one of the clips has broken off.
burnt clip
This a clip that broke off. It was moving around inside of the laptop until it finally touched a 19v component on the motherboard and shorted out. The voltage running through the metal piece heated it up to the point it discolored. We were told by our customer this laptop had a small cloud of smoke come out of the case after it fried.
Gateway M series Base
This is a base assembly. This particular base had 3 clips floating around in it
Affected model
This is the bottom of a laptop that was affected by this problem. It is the same laptop that had 3 clips in it.

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