eMachine motherboard replacement HELP Please?

Yes, but you will need a clean install of XP from a retail copy

Same issue

Hello all. I have a T2341, I know the emachines are junk, thats not the issue. Is it possible to "hook up" the HD to my laptop so I can get my music and pics and such?
Also if that cannot be done is there a MB, PSU that will fit that does not cost more than I paid originally? All I really want is my music collection and my family pics off the HD.
Thanks in advance.

You could purchase an external IDE hard drive enclosure the connects through a USB port on your laptop. Hopefully you will be able to access the files then

Hi to all...

Just wanted to chime in on this. First off, you can exchange motherboards with emachines..just watch the standoff's on the case so you don't end up having one hit the motherboard where it doesn't have a hole, it won't post that way, and can easily burn up the board if that standoff hits the wrong spot.

As far as that ghost partition, it's really a symantec ghosted image of the original installation. It will crap-out even if you use the same board if the hard drive that's used isn't at least as big as factory, because they use a drive image in the restore so it looks at the full drive size...so if you had a 40gig drive in originally and put a 20gig in and do the store, it'll go most of the way and look good, till the "ghosterr.txt" is displayed. If they would have used a partition image instead like the new "PC Angel" restore that they use now...you could install it on just about any hard drive over 6gigs.

But what I would do is look on craigs list to see if you can get a replacement board that'a'way...

I think E-Machines are pretty bad-***...the problem is, overheating in the usb part of the board. As long as you keep those things cool ala put case fans in!!!! those things are pretty fast and solid, easily lasting 2 or 3 years. And keep away from AMD's in your emachines....

I'll probably get flamed but, I have a crapload of dead AMD's in my shop, probably 8 for every dead Intel. There's a reason AMD's are cheaper folks...and another reason why they aren't in alot of business offices.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents, love me or hate me, I love you all.

HD save

TMagic, I did in fact get a HD enclosure($50 Circuit City) hooked it up no prob and all my stuff is there! Big relief. I'll just have to figure out if I want to get another puter or attempt to build one on my own,always wanted to try that. Also, if anyone cares, the whole partition process was automatic to my laptop,plugged in and all was done!
Rescueman, the previous 8 pages all state how much people dislike emachines,next time I'll purchase something else but I had this machine for 5+ years and it did alright for what I needed it for and I think it cost me $600,so money well spent in my book.
Just wanted to thank all the posters for the info,these boards are a huge $ saver if anyone has a little DIY in them.Thanks again.

Good work Alfred1094,

you did get good service out of your eMachines. You could rebuild the computer, saving the cost of the case, hard drive and floppy. Just replace the motherboard, CPU, power supply and memory

I think I am going to try that,if and when I do I'll try to let ya know how it went. Thanks again.

This is my first post, so please be gentle with me. I am 68 years old and have the misfortune to have given an eMachines T2482 I had (but never used) to my wife. She downloaded a ton of grandkids' pictures onto it before it died. It also took my Dyslexic grandson's Voice Recognition program and all his homework with it. Like everyone else, it got the power supply and the Motherboard but the hard drive apears to still be working.
My question is if I can do as suggested and use an external drive USB enclosure and download the data into my grandson's ThinkPad T40 and save it like that? Both run Win XP Home.
I do NOT intend to rebuild the T2482! I do intend to use the recoverable components and build with a new Sanyo board I have on hand plus one of my new 40 Gig Maxtor's and the HD out of the eMachine as a slave.
An answer from anyone on this question would be greatlyappreciated.

It might be possible to put the eMachines hard drive in a external USB case and transfer the pictures to the T40, but the Voice Recognition program might have to be reinstalled on the "New" system directly. Depending on what program was used for your grandson's homework, those files would have to be transfered to the T40 with that program installed on it already.

You can put the eMachines drive in the new computer as a slave and transfer or access the files that way

Well AtK SPaDe, you can always change the motherboard, but unless you have another motherboard that has the "Tattoo" that Microsoft approves before you start, you cannot use the hard drive, nor the restore/recovery disc set... regardless of whether you use Dell or eMachine. Your neighbor is fibbing you. The hard drive will work with a new install. One a few occasions, you can persuade Microsoft to allow the product ID to be used on another board, but that is rare.
There are only three Dell machine models that use a proprietary power supply... it is just an old wive's tale that continues.
When you change a motherboard in a Dell or an eMachine or any other computer built since 2001, you will find Windows XP or Windows 2000 will not work. The restore/ recovery disk will not work.
But you can replace the board and use a new Windows XP disk that is OEM, Upgrade, Academic, or Full Version, that will work to install Windows. Only the Windows Full Version disc will install Windows in Repair Mode, and that will work, provided Microsoft will buy off on it. They do require you talk to them in person and tell them what you are doing.

Thank you for your answer, Tmagic650. I will give it a try. The VR Program is Dragon Naturally Speaking v9 Pro and it is on both the eMachine and the ThinkPad T40 so I can probably at least recover his User's Profile from the old HD. That would more than satisfy me. I also have some basic CAD drawings on there I woud like to get back, but thay are not really that important compared to the rest. Anyway, thanks again. I may be back for advice on building the new machine soon as I get this taken care of. And thanks again for the help.

Your welcome WeeWilly,

I am 57 so I am not too far from your age. I was born with Cerebral Palsy, and I have been working in Electronics and computers for over 37 years. I have friends who have all sorts of disabilities, so I understand your Grandson's condition, and I have used and set up Dragon Naturally Speaking v9 Pro for friends. Feel free to ask for further advice.


Good luck

Tmagic 650:
Thanks for the welcome. I know the CP is a burden, but those with such problems who handle them with grace are an inspiration to the rest of us. I had a stroke in 1986 and it took me 13 years to get back to where I could work again.
Now to another question: I have been looking at info on the AMD Athlon XP 2400+ cpu, which is what mine has in it, and trying to figure out what mob I should use in a rebuild. As you know, Voice Recognition programs require a really jam-up audio card and very low induced electronic noise in order to work more effieiently. Usually boards with built-in audio are not the best choices for them. (That's why I got a ThinkPad with a USB headset for the garndson.)
Anyway, I found this site on the AMD website that gives a long list of campatible boards for the 2400. It is at:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/recmobo/ResultsHandler/1,,30_182_869_4348^7923~63674,00.html

In your estimation which of these boards would fit my needs better? Also, I see that the original board in the eMachines was an AM37 (made by FIC or something like that, I believe) and I read somewhere that this is actually an mATX board instead of an ATX. Is that right and how much trouble will this be? I don't mind springing for a new mid-tower if I have to, but would rather not if I can dodge that bullet.
Anyway, sorry for the excessive length of the post, but certainly appreciate any opinion you might share on all this.

AMD Athlon boards are getting hard to find. This is an ATX board that might work. Otherwise you might have to upgrade the processor and memory to use a MiniATX board...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813185074

I have a new board I like on the way. When it arrives I am certain I will have some more questions about how to proceed, so, as they said in olden times, "Gird your loins!"
One more question I thought of since my last post: can I do the procedure of putting the eMachines T2482 hard drive in another computer as a slave in order to recover files and data from it by doing this in one I have that is running Win98 SE when the eMachines was running XP? My first guess is that this would not work but I thought I would ask.

The Windows 98 SE hard drive is formatted in FAT32 (File Allocation Table 32 bit). An XP drive should be formatted in NTFS (NT File System). Some early XP Home computers were formatted in FAT32.

With a fully updated (use the Windows Update website) XP to SP2 system, you will be able to read data on a slave FAT32 drive. A FAT32 Winows98 SE OS can't see an NTFS drive...

Good luck with the new board. What did you get?

That is what I thought. So I probably will wait until I get this one back together to do that. I appreciate the fast reply.
The board I settled on is a new SiS 741GX-MN/SiS 741Gx Socket A mATX. I know it is probably not the best choice but AMD told me it works well with an Athlon XP 2400 CPU IF you use at least 1 Gb RAM (and it will go to 2), that it is relatively stable but is by no means a thoroughbred in speed. Since Wife and Grandsons #1 and #2 will be the only ones using this computer I think it will probably do. My goal is to give them something that is as bullet-proof as I possibly can. And the price was right ... $44.00 ... from people I have bought from before. I will let you know how it goes when it gets here. (Probably about as graceful as a Chinese Fire Drill with my background, or lack thereof.)
BTW: when I ordered a power supply from these folks week before last they had it processed, packaged and shipped within 2 1/2 hours. Not bad.

Sounds fine WeeWilly,
I generally stay away from SIS chipsets, but in this case we can't be too picky. These boards are getting scarce. The system will do fine for your wife and grandson. Good Luck...

Did you buy from Newegg?

"Did you buy from Newegg?"
=====================
No, but after I get my feet wet on this one maybe I will have worked up the courage to do something I have wanted to do since my TRS-80 days ... build me a really "Whizz-Bang Home-Built" and it looks like Newegg has everything a man could want! If so, I hope you folks have a lot of free time to guide me through. And yes, all three original TRS-80s still work and I still use them just for fun now and again eventhough I have legacy BASIC emulators on all my other computers including my laptops. I even have an old HP 620LX Palmtop I play with from time to time. Runs on Win CE.

I had a Commodore 64, and a TRS 80 in the "old" days. I worked with a Digital PDP8 in 1976. It had 20" platters and 20MB capacity. To see the C prompt come up so fast, was just amazing. My Commodore had a 5 1/4" floppy