Just bought an emachine T5088 am i a fool??

[joefoolz]

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!!

 

[TangoTrolly]

You read all the "positive" comments. They are budget machines! I have a T3985. It came with an Intel MB and I put in a new PSU and a CPU cooler. Picked it up used for a couple of bucks. It has been running fine for me.

You are taking your chances. Sometimes they run good for a long time, but many seem to develop problems. I would say, take it back and get an HP, DELL or even an Acer.

 

[raybay]

The T3985 is a "trouble" machine. There is not enough information out on the T-5088 at this time. We know of 14 eMachines Windows XP desktop units and 3 eMachine laptops that have significant histories of early and complete failure.
eMachines has been offering a 2-year warranty on the T-5088... which I would certainly buy if still available after sale.
If you have the ability to return your T-5088, even with a 15% restocking charge, I would do it. There are much better choices among budget computer by HP, Compaq, Gateway, Lenovo, and Dell which do not have such an incredible history of motherboard failures within the first two years.
We see a great number of units in our three-state service area. We do not know of any computer with a more disastrous failure history.

PS, the stories about the power supplies are part of a myth. There were many problems with eMachines Power supplies in machines made in 2001 through 2003. We have not seen significant numbers of eMachines power supply failures in machines made since March of 2004 through 2007... The problems are most often related to motherboard failures. They have been relying on motherboards made for them under license from Intel, and two other manufacturers. Somehow, they cannot get it right. We have tested large numbers of machines. Those with power supply failures were caused by motherboard failures. The failed power supplies were cased by defects elsewhere, not the other way round.

 

[joefoolz]

Thx Guys for recommending to return my emachine .

Ok, I will now return the darn computer.

Now I have a choice of spending 600bux or 1200bux on a computer.


I have an old pentium 4 2.8ghz 512m ram that runs on ubuntu. I can't get it to play on my mmorpg's so i'm gonna need a windows based comp, preferably non Vista.

Where do u suggest I buy a computer?

1. Tiger Direct?
2. Dell
3. HP
4. Systemax
5. Lenovo
6. Build my own from scratch from New egg parts ?

 

[LinkedKube]

trick question?

 

[tifc8lraz]

Welcome to TechSpot Openboards :wave: ! Option 6 by far ! If you need any help, we'll be here :wave: !

 

[joefoolz]

Okay , here are more specific choices...(which would u pick?)

1. Acer - 3600+ Desktop MT300A
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core processor 3600+; 1GB DDR2 memory; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; 250GB hard drive; Windows Vista Home Premium
$520

2. HP dx5150 AMD Desktop Computer - AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz, 1GB DDR, 80GB SATA HDD, DVD-ROM/CD-RW, Gigabit LAN, Windows XP Pro, Small Form Factor, with HP L1706 17" SXGA LCD Monitor
$600


3. Gateway GT4022 Refurbished AMD Desktop PC - AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 2.4GHz, 1GB DDR, 200GB HDD, DVD RW DL, nVIDIA GeForce 6100 Integrated, Flash Reader, Windows Media Center 2005
$399

4. HP Compaq dx2300(RT839UT#ABA) Pentium 4 641(3.2GHz) 1GB DDR2 80GB Intel GMA 3000 Windows XP Professional
$560

5. Acer Aspire AST180-UD381A Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GB DDR2 250GB NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Windows Vista Home Premium
$545

6. Self build specs. from (mysuperpc.com)

79 Case/PS Antec NSK 4400 with 380-watt power supply
99 Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ AM2 with Fan
125 MB MSI K9N Platinum SLI
223 Ram Crucial Ballistix 1024MB PC2-8000 DDR2
93 Video Card ATI Radeon X1300 256MB
125 Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 7200rpm SATA
66 DVD RW Sony DRU-830A Dual Double Layer DVD RW/CDRW
50 Sound Card Cambridge Soundworks Multimedia Speaker System
92 O S Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2

$952


AS FOR OPTION 6 , IF U HAVE A BETTER BUILD SPEC THAT IS COMPARABLE TO OPTIONS 1-5 PLEASE TELL HELP ME >.<

 

[raybay]

If you have the time, build your own. It is a very satisfying experience.

On your other list, Avoid Systemmax... Tigerdirect is good if you know something about their models. Many are refurbs.

Dell is good if you don't get their base home budget unit. Same with HP.

I like Lenovo

Our of this above list, I would get the Gateway

 

[Tedster]

PS, the stories about the power supplies are part of a myth. There were many problems with eMachines Power supplies in machines made in 2001 through 2003. We have not seen significant numbers of eMachines power supply failures in machines made since March of 2004 through 2007... The problems are most often related to motherboard failures. They have been relying on motherboards made for them under license from Intel, and two other manufacturers. Somehow, they cannot get it right. We have tested large numbers of machines. Those with power supply failures were caused by motherboard failures. The failed power supplies were cased by defects elsewhere, not the other way round.

regardless if motherboard or power supply, E-machines are poorly made machines. You get what you pay for.

 

[captaincranky]

The pot smells good, but it still needs stirring....

I wish all you gentle people would download this wonderful little program.. https://www.techspot.com/downloads/155-siw-system-info.html Oh, look at that, it's right here on TechSpot! As I pointed out on my own E machines rant, if you run this app you will know what's in the box. I have 2 Emachines, they work as well as anything else, more or less. I had a power supply fail, the mother board didn't kill it or die with it. You'll likely find a few parts in an Emachines that people on this site recommend. But, where these Emachines threads really baffle me is quotes like, "I don't care if they charge me a 15% restocking fee"! Dude, if the box blew up, they can't and won't charge you squat. Here's my question, does someone else's $400.00 Saturday Night Special have provably better parts in it? No really, do they? Because all that can actually happen with the endless purchasing advice that tends to emerge, buy this, buy that,and on, is to leave someone even more confused than they already are. (I admit that we mean well). At Tom's hardware forums they rake Dell over the coals. If everybody took that at face value no one would buy Dell. Face it, if you buy a $400.00 Dell you'll get a $30.00 DVD drive, likely the same one as in a Gateway or an Emachines. I think to be successful at building a computer you need to have a working computer to shop with, to post with and probably take your mind off worrying if your computer will work when you plug it in. So, I fully disagree with the deep end of the pool approach of you should just build your first box. Take the broken one back, take a deep breath, think about it for a couple of days, and get back on the horse with whatever model you finally decide on. Face it, this is an open forum and 10 people telling you to buy 10 different machines is good and bad advice all at once.

P.S. I had to take an Emachines back for a bad drive. The new drive was quirky but it worked, sort of. After 2 years I replaced it with a Pioneer, which is not particularly quirky. At that time the return time for computers was 14 days, have they changed that?

 

[tifc8lraz]

Captaincranky, eMachines gets most of their parts in huge bulk....and they buy parts with lower standards than any store sells...this is why many computer companies have so many problems, including eMachines. Yes, not all of them will have problems, but a good amount do.

 

[raybay]

eMachines is the third largest computer manufacturer in the world, and, as any computer repair shop can usually tell, you makes a higher number of computers that fail early and permanently.
Cfitzarl is correct. The get parts by bid. The buy motherboards by license, then remanufacture them themselves in their plants in Korea and Singapore.
eMachines has yet to learn the quality control of their new owner, Gateway.

There is no doubt in my mind that eMachines is the major maker of computers that fail early and without warning. The crime is that they know this. They could warn their users of known problems but they do nothing. Thousands upon thousands of eMachines owners loose valuable data.
Until recently, eMachines REFUSED to issue a warranty longer than one year. Now they offer a two year warranty on some models. But they make you pay for it. In addition, they do not stock parts. They do not provide helpful tech support once the warranty is up.
eMachines is a crummy company in everyway.

 

[beef_jerky4104]

I say build your own.

 

[captaincranky]

Well Then...,

Let's deal with Best Buy, they will take a machine back with no restocking fee, provided that it is indeed defective. Additionally, some customer service managers are more sympathetic than others, if they feel you've been wronged. You don't necessarily have to take the box back to the same store at which you bought it.

Someone else says the problems with boards and PSUs was with older machines like when Emachines was Emachines. Who knows, maybe Gateway has helped.

The fact does remain that Gateway does sell Emachines so they can step up sell you a real Gateway.

It is slightly hard to imagine that another manufacturers' $300.00 computer has parts of tremendously higher quality, that assumes of course that they are not a non-profit organization. Dell is an NPO? Acer is an NPO? probably not.

The only truly good samaritans I have seen in this industry are the people who write some of the best software I own and have then released it to us for free.
Present persons excluded of course.

In some instances I have a hard time getting my head around the lower price, lower quality, conundrum. IE: A Celeron will likely last as long as a Core 2 Dou, it simply won't do as much.

In this thread someone suggests buying a refurb, in another the poster is told to avoid them like the plague. Consensus?

I still think taking the machine back for your money, then thinking and especially researching your next move. I not an advocate for Emachines, I simply say that it hasn't happened to me (yet). Although the machine I am writing this post with is 2+ years old and working fine. And yes, I did replace a power supply and DVD drive.

 

[raybay]

So far, Gateway has too many problems with its creditors to give eMachines a second look. In the three years since Gateway took the reins, there is no evidence that they had done anything to implement their excellent tech support of Gateways into the eMachines mix. The problems with eMachines extremely high failure rates have continued right up to this day. Go ask Wal-Mart.
Call eMachines with a tech support question. See what you get. Nothing but stoopid answers, miserable service, and expensive parts as soon as that typical one-year warranty runs out.
I challenge anyone reading this forum to come up with ONE RELIABLE eMachines model number built since Windows XP SP1 was issued.

 

[captaincranky]

"Just how do you define sex..." Bill Clinton

T- 5026 has worked for me, within the limits I have specified.

Intel 915GAG (slightly crippled without the PCI-e socket).

WD1600 "Caviar" SATA HDD

Pentium 4 Prescott 3.06Ghz with special cooler by Cooler Master.

XP Home SP2

Agreed that this box is not at the bottom of their line (at that time).

It has been stated that most tech support sucks, not just Emachines.
(Sucks can be used as a superlative, so obviously everything I've said here is referential).

And Raybay, all parts for anything are too expensive. The rule of thumb for parts prices is this; to buy all the replacement parts for any given item multiply the retail price by 3. So a $300.00 computer could cost $900.00 to be built with proprietary parts.

 

[bratfry]

I want to examine this chicken and egg thing. Did the power supply take out the mother board or the other way around. I guess in either case you lose both so it doesn’t really make much difference to most people. Its either replace both or fill up more land fill.

I have opened and examined at least three bad e-machine power supplies. In all these cases the same components were destroyed or even off the circuit board. Yes I said off the circuit board. Something got so hot it melted the solder that had these two capacitors on the board. I finally found one unit I could identify the values so I replaced the capacitors with larger voltage ratings and jump started the power supply (outside of the computer). It worked, of course it had no load on the power supply.

Rayban claims the motherboard takes out the power supply and it sounds like he has done some research on the problem and he might be right. I just assumed the other way around.

Has anyone actually looked at the motherboard and determined what failed? It would seem that if something shorted on the motherboard you could identify some heat issues or something, some clue. I did some preliminary checks on what I consider power lines and found some interesting reading around some of the capacitors on the board.

I know its not worth it, but its kind of interesting. The emachine power supply problem is a very real and large issue. As pointed out in this thread, quality is taking a back seat to low price. I guess low quality breeds more low quality because people buy the stuff. Hey, buts its good for business. 

Anyone ever fixed a motherboard? I mean component level. I replaced a keyboard connector once.

 

[Tmagic650]

The Emachines power supply feeds "raw" voltage to the motherboard. The motherboard has voltage regulators that short, drawing massive current from the poor Emachines power supplies. This massive current melts a lot of components on the power supply and on the motherboard... This is not rocket science you know

I tend to now side with Raybay on this. The Emachines motherboards take out the power supplies. I still replace both the Emachines power supplies and the motherboards at the same time

 

[nickslick74]

How about we get back on topic and help joefoolz with selecting a new computer.

Joe - if you are still in the market to build, check out this thead. Near the bottom I posted a theoretical build for about $650 bucks.

Otherwise, if you want to go with the pre-built route you are looking at spending about a grand to get close to the same preformance.