If you own an Emachine, read this now!

Since it is an Emachines any 350 Watt ATX supply will be better than the one you currently have. Try http://www.newegg.com

For computer hardware purchases. Don't spend over $45 for the replacement Emachines power supply, it's just not worth spending any more

It all depends on what model Emachine you have!!!!

Ok Rik,
how about for Emachines over 2 years old...

Mine was made in 2004 I believe.

This goes for you!

rik, you know in almost every post you've made here, the first line has ended in !!!

It must be one urgent problem

As for exploding power supplies, all I can say is that sucks. I would definatly get a new ones asap.

FNG... @$#% New Guy

Greetings,
I am new here and I am trying to learn computers.
I have a Emachine 400i and I hope my PS. will
hang in there. Seams like everything new I learn
is about a desaster of one sort or another.
I know only that my Personal Confuser is a
bit of a boat anchor.
Oh ya pardon my spelling.

When is an Emachines not an Emachines

I understand that I arrived late in this discussion, but thus far, no one has
managed to convince me that there actually such a thing as an Emachines computer. This in spite of the fact that I own 2 of them. Granted the 2 that I own are relatively new. A P4 based T5026 purchased 2/2005 & a Celeron based T3422 (Best Buy House Model) dating from 5/2006. Point being, the T5026 carries an Intel GAG915 M-ATX board & the T3422 carries a MSI motherboard. (410 something or other). Indeed, the power supply in the T5026 did die, albeit quietly and alone. (It took no other components with it). I suppose I should attribute that to simple good fortune. Still I assume you could rake Emachines over the coals if the case suddenly fell apart. Other that that I don't think they make any of the parts. That's giving them the benefit of the doubt that they even make that. I had heard that Emachines was sold to Gateway by the founder who gave all his employees a share of the money and then retired, but, this could be urban legend. Not simply went under.
The part of the T5026 that caused me major problems was the DVD burner.
It possessed the ability to ruin an RW DVD by simply formatting it. DVD+RW you say, it couldn't read it's own writing, so to speak. It wouldn't stop trying though, at least not until you pulled the plug. That drive would create enough coasters to supply an Irish pub. Oddly enough it was made by TSST Corp. Yes TOSHIBA SAMSUNG Storage technologies. The two clowns who are in business together competing against each other with Blu-Ray and HD DVD. Oh, I did return the first T5026 desktop for a bad DVD drive. That experience notwithstanding, I purchased an external TSST DVD drive. Guess what, it only burns slightly more compatable DVD-Video than the internal Emachines drive.
Fool me twice and all that. Anyway my P4 guy is pluggin' along now with an Antec PS & a Pioneer DVD burner. I'm going to Price Watch now to help me to decide if I want to go with a Toshiba Blu-Ray or Samsung HD drive in my next Emachines computer. Just kidding.
I just posted this to get you guys thinking, and perhaps to redirect some of your hostility toward other parties involved with Emachines debaucles. Perhaps the worst thing that could be said about Emachines/Gateway is that they are lousy system integraters or worse, incompetent shoppers. God knows, poor shopping skills is right up there with the 7 deadly sins.

Just Bought a T5088! Am I a Fool?? XD

Hi all!

I bought a T5088 4 days ago it started fine! but it locked up and i was not able to shut off the computer and the power button in the front does not do anything. So genius me, yanked the power plug from the back of the computer and shut it off. Then I plugged it back in and sparks flew and I knew that was the end of life for that computer. The fan kept running but the screen was blank, thus power supply kept beeping and fan kept going but MuthaBoard was Kaput. So I returned it and got full money back the next day. You get 7 days to return it to BestBuy. I luv that company. Buy their stock guys! XD
So when I returned it, they took the computer apart to check if u didnt clean out the inside like the 125mb ddr ram or stuff like that, then gave me full refund.
I then marched back to the computer aisle and bought me anutha T5088 (Woot!) and took it home. This time I was more gentle to the power plug. XD and its working smoothly. I just despise the software bundle they got locked where I see that crap and Vista is messing up all my mmorpg s experience . I then tweaked out Vista by deleting the security center, killed UAC.

Then I researched and googled about emachines and lo and behold , here I am, and I read about all the "positive" comments on my beluved Emachine XD!! I am 3 days!! into my second Emachine!!!

option 1 : Should I return it and buy a Cheap Acer from BestBuy?
option 2 : Replace the Power Supply like ppl are saying.
option 3 : go to TigerDirect and buy one of their "popular" brands?
option 4 : order a DELL??

Gimme advice u computer gurus!!! my budget is like 500 to 600 bucks then i will shell out on my own to boost it w/ gfx cards and 2g ddr ram. So if I return my "emachine" for 451.49$ after tax what should I do?!!!

HELP ME O GREAT COMPUTA GURUS!!

I would take it back and wait for a deal. I had to change MB and PS on an emachine for a friend and it was a pain. Had to reload windows etc

Any alternative to scrapping an emachine?

I'm trying to help a friend with his T2385. It appears to be the problem identified in a number of postings; psu, mobo or both. I think it would be prudent to replace both but I don't want to replace with the same parts just to to have it fail again. Are there any acceptable alternatives?

yeah- get a different brand of PSU.

... and replace the motherboard with one that will accept the old memory and CPU. Of course you will have to reinstall Windows after doing this. Your Emachines dics will be useless

Ive had mine for three years this July 23 and has ran awesome ever since.

Write us back if your eMachines makes 4 years... That will really make news!

Question RE: eMachine W2646. When PSU goes and takes the mobo, could it have taken cpu? I have replaced PSU, mobo, but not cpu. Does not boot; nada. Intel ROM (square, surface mounted, not heat sinked) gets HOT very quickly. No activity on monitor. I wired in another PSU that I know works properly, with same result.

This was a very insightful thread to say the least. I bought my emachine t2625 in August '03 putting in my own upgrades making it a decent computer for the price at the time. I was one of the lucky ones to go through minimum problems up until the past week or two. I noticed my keyboard to start acting up randomly. Eventually after tons of trial and error searching for the main problem, the led light went, keyboard stopped responding, video died. Assumed after a while that it had to be the motherboard, but after some searching(especially here), it won't be worth it. The money and the fact that it still might fail is quite disappointing. Almost reached 4 years myself, but emachine really dropped the ball overall for a lot of you out there.

-Anyways, thanks for the help everybody.

That's cool you got those years of service out of your eMachines. By investing in a motherboard and power supply, and depending if you can use your existing CPU and memory in the new motherboard, you should be able to rebuild the system for under $200, not counting the new OS disc you have to provide

I just wanted to note that emachines does not make the PSU. Bestec is the manufacturer of most of the PSUs that go into the emachines. As a matter of fact, HP and Compaq now use Bestec, so don't rely on an hp to do much better. Also, I have had to work on an HP that had a bestec in it. everything inside the Power supply case was roasted from low fan speeds! And the fan was actually dead! There are 3 reasons why I would never use a bestec, 1: fan speed, most bestec PSUs run the fans at such slow rpms, sometimes to the point where you can see the fins of the fan and the air feels the same as a furnace; 2: wattage, my parents emachine w2888 with a 2.8Ghz Celeron has a bestec in it that only supplies 250 watts! I had to add a rear case fan simply because the bestec's fan was too slow to cool itself and the computer! and 3: price, some range around $45-$65 for a psu that ain't worth $10! What's funny is that I have a Sumbeam/Casegears 580 watt Black Steel PSU which only cost $24. You can get them from xoxide.com. It has dual 80mm fans that are temperature controlled!

"I just wanted to note that emachines does not make the PSU. Bestec is the manufacturer of most of the PSUs that go into the emachines"...

eMachines doesn't make the cases or motherboards either. You can ad HiPro to the list along with Bestec. It comes down to the fact that eMachines buys "seconds"... parts that were manufactured normally but they were found to not meet normal electrical specs required by other companies