Hi - my first post on this forum!
I'm endeavouring to fix an emachines 2210 for my mother-in-law, read some posts about them and done exactly what someone else did. I've disconnected the on off switch and ended up puling out 6 wires thinking they were all in one harness. Stupidly I did not make a note of where the wiring goes. I have an HDD lead, a power lead and a S/W lead that all came out of a 9 pin connector. The wires are Green/white, black/white (switch) and red/white

I tried to 'understnd' a link that someone had put on for the other chap who did the same as me, but I'm still lost. I'm hoping that someone out there can tell me in which order I put the leads - it sounds like alot of you have had emachines in pieces before so praying someone can help. Thanks

Basically all desktop machines have a set of cables that do the following:
Power button connector
Reset connector
HDD LED connector
Power LED connector
Some also have
Speaker connector
Sleep/ACPI (?) connector.
Each connector has a + and - , the - is usually white but the + can vary.
Look at the motherboard with maybe a magnifier and a torch and you should see small letters near the pins of the connector unit. Given the orientation is with a baseline near an edge of the board, the pins are something like this.

Pins - not always a pin there but count the gaps too. Where no + of - sign polarity is not important

12345678
abcdefgh

1 = power led +
2 = power led -
3 = power led -
4 = unused
5 = speaker
6 = unused
7 = unused
8 = speaker
a = HDD LED +
b = HDD LED -
c = power button
d = power button
e = spare
f = reset button
g = reset button
h = spare

Do one at time, starting with the power button - then test. Repeat until all are done.

Best of luck

thanks- the motherboard has no + or -, but i've done as suggested but pc is still dead. This was the initial problem - computer would not switch on one morning - so I've now eliminated power lead and on/off switch. Could it be the dreaded power unit I keep reading about on the forum?

it could definately be the PSU and on an emachine it could be the MoBo.

or both - don't want to depress you but a dying PSU can take the motherboard with it.
Still, there must be a connection on the motherboard for the front panel power switch connector.

Try just the power switch connector by itself on all the pins. If nothing works, its dead

Your problem is likely that the machine is not fixable. The motherboard in the eMachines T-2210 and the W-2210 have extremely high failure rates exceeding 50 percent after just two years.
You will find that a capacitor has split, or that the secondary large chip in the center of the board has pulled loose. Examine the board by removing it, and looking at the failed solders and loose pins from the bottom.
The problem is, it is difficult to use the hard drive or the eMachines recovery disk on another motherboard without using an official eMachines motherboard, and they charge $159.95 plus shipping.

Ever get the impression that this forum has a low opinion of Emachines? And I thought it was just me......

The only disagreements on this forum are over whether the failed motherboard causes the power supply failure, or the power supply failure causes the motherboard to fail.
Our tests clearly show the failures are in the motherboard, which are usually licensed copies made by Tri-Gem in Korea. The failure rate exceeds 75 percent by the end of the third year on some eMachines models.
But you get the disclaimer that the warranty is only one year.
Nowadays, the models beginning with W instead of T offer a 2-year warranty when purchased at Wal-Mart, but they charge extra for both the 1-year and 2-year warranty.
eMachines, in our experience, are the most problematic since the days of the old Packard Bell... and there is no excuse for it. eMachines is the third largest builder of computers in the world. They should be required to build and support a good one.
My quarrel with eMachines is they know which models are bad, and make no effort to tell the buyer so he can protect his data.
We don't fix them, but we store them in a barn... where we now have just over 300 with failed motherboards...

And they sell the things here in the UK too, you know! And they are no better. But it is difficult not to say 'who sold you this then?' when asked to fix one - I have to do the best for the client without implying he is a complete pillock for buying the thing in the first place from some sodding little box shifter trying to sell the 'managers deal of the day'

wow! Emachines don't appear to have many friends here! So my little wiring issue realy doesn't seem to matter in the great scheme of things.

Doubt that any wiring would help

There MUST be a connection from somewhere on the motherboard to the front panel button - thin two core cable. Find that to at least eliminate this problem - won't make the emachine issue go away though.

The only real option is to bin it and buy a proper pc.

Doubt it, AlbertLionHeart. Is is the motherboard failure issue that created the problem he is attempting to repair. The pin-outs are available online by gurgling the part number on the board. But the failure is an extremely common one in the T-2210

I was harking back to the original post on this - Pavee did not tell us what the problem was that he was trying to fix by pulling all the front panel connectors off! I agree with the sentiment of hurling the thing, but have we done the right thing here?

Only the power switch needs to be connected to the motherboard to power up the system... Just follow the 2-wires from the front panel switch. Connect the 2-wires to the motherboard header, 2 pins at a time until the computer powers up. I suggest that you use a new power supply for this procedure. If you don't, the old power supply might take out the new board

Hi everyone. Thanks for all your input - to clarifym, the original problem was that the machine would not switch on, so I wanted to check the on/off switch was okay. That's when I pulled out all 3 sets of leads.

I've tried just the leads from the switch - in every possible position, but there is nothing. Wondering if I bypassed the on'off switch would help but as this lead is testing okay on a continuity tester, I guess this would make no difference.

I think it is dead and any more messing with it is flogging a dead horse. All credit to you as a son-in-law but give up with it and sell the good lady a new one. With any luck you should be able to salvage the data from the hard drive for her.

PAVEE,
so you haven't bought a new motherboard for this eMachines? Or Power Supply? You have to replace both, in this model and for that matter any sick eMachines computer