Emachine hell

[queendeelee]

hello,

I have read numerous posts about how crappy emachines are, and I totally agree. I have a 2 yr old T2742. My problem seems to be similar to the problems that others have had, but i have a question that I can't find an answer to in these posts. First of all, let me give you the lowdown:

The computer was working fine, and I shut it down. A few hours later i went to power up, and it would not do anything--just made weird clicking noises and got a flashing yellow light. I took it to my friend who was able to determine that the power supply was burned out, and we replaced it--still not working. We had another co-worker look at it and, after replacing the video card, he said the motherboard was fried. I borrowed a laptop from work because I do a lot of work from home, and they didn't want me to be unable to work. Anyway, I decided to try to hook my Emachine monitor to the laptop, because it is bigger and clearer, however, when I went to connect the cable to the laptop, I touched the metal part on the monitor cable and it shocked me. I have done this many times before and never been shocked, so I thought it was strange. After asking around, I was told that maybe the ground wire to the plug I was using had come loose. Maybe that was why the power supply burned up originally? Both the power and the phone line were on a surge protector when it happened. My husband pulled the plug out and the ground wire looks to be intact. My question is: Could there be a short in the monitor? Any other suggestions as to what it could be? I know I need to purchase a new computer, but would rather not buy a new monitor if I don't have to. I just don't want to hook a new computer up to the old one and have the same thing happen again. Thanks.

 

[TypeX45]

I have seen the motherboards dying in emachines alot in the last year but as of the monitor I have never seen this. One thing I did see in emachines deals with the grounding in the cases. I have place new motherboards in emachine cases before and they never worked. But once I put it in a new case other than emchine they worked. So the other guy might be right about grounding. It may not appear loose or not connected but still have an issue. Try it in a new computer. Did it work with the laptop?

 

[Tmagic650]

Hi queendeelee,
Your monitor should be fine. Sometimes the computer or laptop can develop "floating" grounds, while the monitors grounded solidly. The difference between ground potentials creates a shock, but it is usually not harmful to the computer or monitor. Static electricity, is harmful to computer components. As with many other Emachines mentioned here, it is actually the motherboard that shorts taking out the power supply, not the other way around. Emachines systems are built by the "Twilight Zone" of computer manufacturers. If you replace the motherboards and power supplies with name brand components, your Emachines would be solid and dependable

 

[queendeelee]

I didn't try it with the laptop because I was afraid it might cause a problem, and the laptop doesn't belong to me. I do have an old old computer that still works that i could hook it up to. Shouldn't the surge protector have saved me if the ground wire in the plug was loose? Someone has also suggested that the ground to the whole house has come loose. My house was built in the late 1800's, but was rewired about 20 years ago. I believe the emachine crapped itself out, but the fact that the monitor shocked me still has me questioning the wiring of the house.

 

[Tmagic650]

I have seen the motherboards dying in emachines alot in the last year but as of the monitor I have never seen this. One thing I did see in emachines deals with the grounding in the cases. I have place new motherboards in emachine cases before and they never worked. But once I put it in a new case other than emchine they worked. So the other guy might be right about grounding. It may not appear loose or not connected but still have an issue. Try it in a new computer. Did it work with the laptop?

All computers are grounded through their power supplies, grounded to the case, and to the ATX connector on the motherboard. The power plug has 3 wires, hot (black wire), neutral (white wire), and ground (green wire). Most Emachines use mini-ATX cases. I bet when TypeX45 put Emachines motherboards in other cases, these cases had their own power supply and not the original Emachines one. Motherboards are also grounded to the case through screws in metal standoffs, which are then screwed into the case.

 

[Tmagic650]

I didn't try it with the laptop because I was afraid it might cause a problem, and the laptop doesn't belong to me. I do have an old old computer that still works that i could hook it up to. Shouldn't the surge protector have saved me if the ground wire in the plug was loose? Someone has also suggested that the ground to the whole house has come loose. My house was built in the late 1800's, but was rewired about 20 years ago. I believe the emachine crapped itself out, but the fact that the monitor shocked me still has me questioning the wiring of the house.

It's very possible that there is a grounding issue with your house wireing, that might have contributed to your getting shocked, but I still think your monitor is fine. So many Emachines have just stopped working wether they were on surge protectors or not. Surge protectors are another topic. Some don't provide any protection at all. I use a 1000 Watt battery back up/surge protector that cost $1200. Would you pay that much for power protection?

 

[queendeelee]

honestly, no i would not pay $1200 for a surge protector. are you kidding? i'm the cheapskate who bought an emachine! i think i paid $30.00 for the surge protector i have, which i thought was one of the better ones they had at best buy. at least, i think it wasn't the cheapest one. i guess i am going to test out that monitor on my old cpu, shop around for a better machine, and get the wiring checked out in the house. at least now i feel reasonably assured that i wont need a new monitor. thanks to everyone for all of the input!

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

And make sure u don't buy an EMachine next time around!

 

[Tmagic650]

honestly, no i would not pay $1200 for a surge protector. are you kidding? i'm the cheapskate who bought an emachine! i think i paid $30.00 for the surge protector i have, which i thought was one of the better ones they had at best buy. at least, i think it wasn't the cheapest one. i guess i am going to test out that monitor on my old cpu, shop around for a better machine, and get the wiring checked out in the house. at least now i feel reasonably assured that i wont need a new monitor. thanks to everyone for all of the input!

Mine is a battery backup system for a large server computer. All battery backups have better surge protection too, by the nature of their design. Most people don't know that after just one power surge happens, your surge protector is no longer able to protect your equipment. It has been burnt out, and you'll never know it until your computer is toasted. I'm not saying that queendeelee's Emachines was damaged by a surge at all. Too many Emachines just die on their own, due only to Emachines cutting quality as well as cost. After all, it's the nature of man to maximize profit, even at the expense of quality and dependability. Shoot, if Emachines just spent an additional $15 on each system, they would have a good product

 

[SNGX1275]

What type of noises was it making? There really are only a few types of noises a computer can ever make.
1 is a pop, when something blows up (like in power supply).
2 is fan noise, sometimes louder if a wire is rubbing against it
3 is hd noise, usually a hum or chattering if seeking. if its clicking its dead/dying
4 cd noise, similar to hd
5 motherboard beeps, indicating status of the computer on boot up

So what kind of noises were you hearing? If the sound was comming from the hard drive then of course the computer is not going to work. We need more information on what exactly isn't working and what if anything displays on screen.

 

[Tmagic650]

SNGX1275,
in this case the "weird clicking" was most likely the hard drive trying to start, with not enough current available. A hard drive draws the most current when it is starting up. Again, this is an Emachines. All bets are off, if you are trying to apply "normal" trouble shooting senarios. There is a series B Emachines power supply that should always be replaced along with the motherboard. A series F seems to be ok to leave in. Just the motherboard needs to be replaced. Replacement motherboards are chosen to accept the processors and memory. The hard drive and other peripherials should be ok. I had one Emachines that was hit by a surge from a telephone line. The phone modem and motherboard were toast

 

[queendeelee]

hi again,

i remember the sound as a clicking, but it has been about a week now. however, the hard drive is still good. we stuck it into another machine at work, and i am able to access all of the files remotely. when the monitor was plugged in to the emachine, i got no signal--just the message saying to check my connection. the monitor is working by the way. my husband forgot to borrow his dad's volt meter today, so he volunteered to be a guniea pig and see if it would shock him and it didn't. he said when he pulled the outlet out of the wall the other day that the ground wire was connected, but he did tighten it. possibly that was all that it took? anyway, i connected it to the laptop, and it is working fine. so i guess a new cpu (not emachine) and new surge protector are in order. i have been told that new motherboards are around $200-$300 and having them installed is fairly costly too. i haven't really looked into it though. my friend said he would put my old hard drive into the new computer so i would have both, but he doesn't know how to install a new mboard. do you see any problems that might cause? thank again.

d

 

[Tmagic650]

d,
installing a new motherboard is not hard, but putting the old hard drive on a new motherboard as the C or boot drive might be tricky without wipeing the hard drive and reinstalling XP from scratch. You could install your old hard drive as a slave, and use a new hard drive as the C or boot drive. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) is not a computer, it is part of a computer. That's like saying your head is all of you, and your body is nothing. A new surge protector would be good. I can get you a motherboard that will fit in your Emachines case, and fit your CPU (processor) hard drive and memory, for under $60. I had no doubt that your monitor, hard drive, memory and cpu were good. I would just change the motherboard and power supply

 

[queendeelee]

hmm. i guess i knew that the cpu was not the whole computer, but i have heard it referred to that way so many times it just stuck. $60 eh? maybe my friend doesn't know as much as he thinks he does--ha ha. i know another guy who used to have a repair shop in town. i think he operates out of his house now. i will give him a call and see what he can do. there are also two other local shops i can check out. thanks for all the help--i feel more prepared to go out and make a decision.

d

 

[Tmagic650]

I work out of my house too. Please realize that if you change the motherboard with a non-Emachines one, you will have to have Windows XP reloaded and your restore disc from Emachines won't work. A friend might be more reasonable with his charges than a local shop would. I charge $50 as a basic charge. A shop could charge $125 or more. A power supply for your system shouldn't be more than $50