Power Button Damaged

[Hypnosan]

I have a Gateway 7215GX and some how it seems the power button is now unresponsive. I believe it was caused by my fiance mashing down too hard which caused the button to be pushed under and slightly over, I managed to move it back into place and it has been working for several months just fine. Now however the button seems to be in place, but doesn't have that "click" feel to it that it normally would when depressed. I was wondering if there's an alternative method to powering on the notebook, some kind of key combination or something. Also if anybody would happen to know the repair fee of something like this, just a ballpark would help.

 

[raybay]

No but the switch can be repaired or replaced fairly cheaply.
You might first apply a small amount of spray silicone to the button.
A good technician can remove, repair, and reinstall the switch in 20 minutes...
I have one order. Will post here when I learn the price.

Next step, trade your fiance in for a gentler model that owns a laptop you can smash if you need to.

 

[Hypnosan]

It seems like it would be simple enough to repair, I'm generally at least competent when it comes to such things. I build my own desktops, but obviously laptops are an entirely different thing. I tried to open it up and give it a go, after removing all of the screws on the bottom of the notebook I was still unable to open it though. It seems there must be something holding it in place near the rear of the laptop where the display panel meets the base. I wasn't able to find any other screws and didn't want to apply any force to open it further.

 

[Tedster]

I had a similar issue with the dim switch on my latop cover. It cost around $50 to get it professionally repaired. The switch had to be glued back. It's been fine ever since and that was about a year ago.