My neighbor has an eMachine and we can't get the darn thing to start up. I press the little power button and it won't cut on. I have looked around outside and in the computer and everything is plugged in correctly. I'm not sure what to do.

What are the possibilites?

It has a 1.0Ghz Celeron (PIII typle) and 128MB of PC100 RAM.

What should I do before she takes it to some repair shop? (never encountered this before...)

Thanks!

there are a wide range of possibilties. first if nothing at all happens when you press the power button. (no lights no sounds etc.) then the most obvious culprit would be a dead power supply. e machines are not noted for quality power supplies to begin with.

has the owner of the machine recently added or removed any hardware from it?

I took my power supply over to her house and tried it out (Enhance 300W) and we still had the same problem...

Any more solutions/ideas?

Thanks!

Also, we added a GeForce MX200 and replaced her CDROM with a DVD/CDRW combo. But, everything was working fine for a long time.

I have seen systems lock up like this randomly after hardware changes or sometimes shortly after hardware changes. it appears that the system is dead. the only way to check that out is to strip the system down and start adding commponents back in to see if it comes back to life. the drill is unplug the computer and remove everything including the CPU. then reset the CPU plug in and push the power button. if nothing happens then add the memory same drill. ( of course this method is for people that are comfortable taking their system apart adn putting it back together.

the above might solve the problem but there are no gurantee's that this is what is wrong. it could be the board/CPU are just plain DOA.

if you are not comfortable tearing the system down and putting it back together then I would take it to a reputable shop and have them check it.

Whew, stripping it and putting it back together piece by piece came to mind, but, lots of work over there! lol. I'm so lazy.

Well, I'm sure we'll figure out something. Looks like maybe the stripping will be the next idea. :blackeye:

Or I might just have her take it to a shop... (whether or not that place is reputable is beyond me...)

Thanks!
(Anymore ideas, shoot!, please!)

Hehe...stripping is the best way to troubleshoot this kind of problem. This is the easiest way to source out faulty settings or hardware. Sometimes in life, there are things you just need to put a bit more effort to get things running smooth.

Have you checked to make sure that the power button on the chassis properly connected to the motherboard? Check the manual or the diagram on the board (if there is one) to ensure it isn't off by a pin.

Yeah, I had checked the button and everything. But, she went on off to the shop anyway. Turns out it that lightening ran in on it and damaged the mobo and Processor.

The shop wanted quite a bit of money to replace them, so I told her to just go get the unit and bring it to me and I would set it back up.

Thanks for all the help!

BTW, how do you detect lightening damage??