If you own an Emachine, read this now!

Yeah Well....

Ya gotta admit the pretty blue light in the power button is gosh darn nifty.

I have bright blue LEDs on my Audio bass box, and USB extention box and an external back up hard drive case...

Well Then......

Ya gotta admit, those bright blue emachines LEDs would be a bold fashion accessory!

The sell monitors under the eMachines label, but I think they are made by Envision... both the flat panel and the crt...
But I could be rong. I have not looked at them closely. Whatever they are, they are not much good.

Having a good monitor by some other superb brand, such as Sony Trinitron or LG Flatron, does not make the eMachines one twit better.

Guys ,I appreciate all the info. and opinions!Have been on Vacation and have'nt been here for awhile.I Love to learn!!I'm takin' all this in!Pretty much what I was thinking,is to repair what I have for now.I have a 17" Samsung LCD[930B] Monitor.Ram was up-graded years ago to 1 meg.I know what I have is "Old School",But it does what I need it to do,well.Later on after learning more from you Guys,I will make a move on some newer equipment and hand this one down to my Son.[Yea right!!!]I'm sure He will end up with the new one!!He's 17.

If I could just throw a OEM Mobo and new PS at it and go,I'd be good with that.I know I'd be taking another chance,BUT IF it would last as long as it did.By that time it would be REALLY "Old School"!Thanks again!![Mike]

emachine psu's

i am a computer tech and am running my own business and in the last month i have run into 3 emachines with psu going down and burning out the MB with them. this thread is very true!

"This thread is very true!"...

I've had lots of experience rebuilding/trashing eMachines computers

Yeah, I used the case from a blown T1840 to buid a spare Pentium III system.

Be sure that it is not the motherboard destroying the power supply, because that is what we are finding in tests. And we have nearly 500 failed eMachines in our collection barn awaiting the class action.
Think about it. Seven different power supplies all causing the motherboard to crash. Not likely. Our tests show it is not true. You can ID the power supplies by the UL code... and there are too many from too power supplies from too many sources over too much time.

Don't know what is wrong w/ Emachine

Hi: Brand new to forum. I have an Emachine that I purchased from BB 2 yrs ago which just stopped working. No power what so ever. When i brought it to the Geeks they said they don't know what was wrong with it that we should start with the mobo and it will cost $400 to install a new mobo The model is T3104. Anyone have a clue where I can go to replace mobo? I am not computer savvy but its already dead so can't hurt to tinker a bit. Oh, don't know what PSU came with machine.

Geeze Cozy444,
those BB guys are just salesmen, not techs! You will need a motherboard and a power supply. We NEVER replace one without the other. For less than $400 you can get both a motherboard and power supply and a copy of XP. Your restore discs will be useless with the new motherboard and your hard drive will have to be formatted and XP installed fresh. I have done this type of repair for $200 if I can use the eMachines processor and memory in the new motherboard

Emachines

Thanks Tmagic650. After reading the thread I figured that it wouldn't cost that kind of $$. And since I only had the XP for the free period, I was going to buy the program from BB today as well. Can you suggest what PSU to purchase this T3104 machine?

Your specs:

Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Home (SP2)

CPU: AMD Sempron™ 3100+ Processor (64-bit)
(1.80GHz, 1600MHz FSB, 256KB L2 cache)
Chipset: VIA K8M800
Memory: 256MB DDR SDRAM (1 × 256MB), 400MHz (PC3200)
Expandable to 2GB
Hard Drive: 100GB (7200rpm, 2MB cache)
Optical Drive: 48x CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
Media Reader: 8-in-1 digital media manager (Secure Digital™ (SD), Smart Media, Micro Drive, Memory Stick®, Memory Stick Pro®, Compact Flash, Mulitimedia Card, USB 2.0)
Video: S3 Graphics Unichrome™ Pro
64MB DDR Shared memory
AGP 8x slot available for upgrade
Sound: AC '97 Audio, Dolby 5.1 (6-channel)
Network: 10/100Mbps integrated Ethernet LAN
Modem: 56K ITU V.92-ready Fax/Modem
Peripherals: Standard Multifunction Keyboard, 2-Button Wheel Mouse, Amplified Stereo Speakers
Ports/Other: 5 USB 2.0 (4 in back, 1 in Media Reader), 1 VGA external connector, 1 serial, 1 parallel, 2 PS/2, 5 audio ports (2 in front, 3 in back)
Dimensions: 14.25"H x 7.25"W x 16"D
Weight: 22.5 lbs (PC only, no packaging)

Any not too expensive ATX (Mini-ATX if the case is a Mini-ATX) power supply 300W or better will work fine... You should be able to use your processor, but you might want to upgrade your memory

As for the eMachine, if you buy a new motherboard from eMachines, it will cost $159.95. You can install it yourself. Then your Windows will work, and the other components are good.
But you never know if the new eMachines motherboard will be any better.
You can buy a motherboard at a number of online sites that will use every component, including memory.... for about $45, but you will need to buy a new Windows.

ok, there are 2 things that should upgraded to speed up the w2888: the Hard drive and power supply. My parents w2888 now has a Coolmax v-400 PSU and Western Digital Protege 80GB HDD, and it really comes 2 life. I wonder how it would do if i put a Pentium 4 Northwood in it. My system has a 2.4 N'wood OC'd to 2.7Ghz and it reeeeely beats its Celeron 2.8Ghz Cousin haha.

It would work with good performance, but in most cases, the recovery disk set will no longer work.

By That You Mean.......?

By "the program", I'm thinking you mean Windows XP? I can't come up with any justifiable reason to buy a copy of XP from BB. Since you're buying a motherboard, you would be entitled to purchase an "OEM" copy of Windows. That's about $90.00 (USD). When you add the $45.00 for the mobo, it leaves you $65.00 for a decent PSU and shipping. This coincides with some earlier estimates of how much it would (should) cost to fix the machine. ($200.00).

Come to think of it, I can't seem to come up with a reason to buy anything from BB. (This under normal, NON-SALE pricing, circumstances).

lol, if i had 2, I would just install the old drive back in, run the restore cd and partition back to the Western Digital Drive.

Of the 16 blown up eMachines mentioned in this thread, 13 older eMachines have the awful overvolting Bestec 250W power supply, which is a known motherboard destroyer whether it fails totally or not. This can be confirmed at the following site: http://parts.emachines.com/emachines/

For the newer three that have the less destructive 300W type, T5026, T5088 and T3104, the motherboard is not necessarily fried, if I followed the descriptions correctly. But the PSU is.

On older machines it is clearly prudent to upgrade the 250W power supply anyway. This 350W Fortron is a good short-cabled replacement: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104901

Doubtless older motherboards also fail regularly, due largely to the industry wide bad capacitor problem and lightning and surges, and I have noticed the newer OEM MS-7207 failing regularly too, perhaps due to the inappropriate 20 pin power supply fitted or overheating of the NForce northbridge. Processor failure is rare in my experience at an eMachines Forum.

Whatever the exact reason for individual failure, a new power supply and suitable motherboard will usually fix it. Socket A is almost unobtainable, but Asrock continue to make suitable mATX Socket 478 replacements such as the P4i65G.

To dispel some of the myths about restore disks and Windows activation, the restore disks/partition will work where the same basic chipset is used for the replacement. Minor variations in LAN and audio are not important, and F8 safemode may get past any issues that do arise. Where you change the motherboard chipset due to failure of the original, you will have no difficulty internet activating an install from an OEM retail Windows XP Home disk, using your eMachines COA number.

Interesting observations by raybay on motherboard failure. I shall mull that one over. Touchwood, eMachines made in the last two years, by Gateway, are much more reliable, and run cooler due to casefans being fitted. Sorry for such a long post.

He's right.....We have serviced over 50 e-machines this year and at least 13 machines had blown ps and took the mobo with it