Trying to repair Emachines PC

[switters50]

Here's the issue: I have a 2004 Emachine, T2642. I haven't used it for 2 years because its broken, but now I'm taking a PC repair course and would like to try to fix it. Very early in the lessons for the course, btw.
The problem is, when I hook it all up and plug in the power cord, the green power light on front of the tower is already on and doesn't turn off when I hold it for many seconds. Even tho the green light is on, nothing at all appears on the monitor.
Any solutions? Thanks.
Johnny

 

[AndrestheBean]

alright man lets see if i can help.

take off your side panel,

and check that everything is connected and seated correctly,

such as cables plugged in right(the cable connected to the motherboard), ram seated correctly, hardrive fully connected.

 

[snowchick7669]

To add to AndrestheBean's suggestions

Have a read of this thread here

 

[switters50]

Thanks for the help

I noticed lots of dust inside and have cleaned most out (the thing has been in storage for a long time). I do not know how to reseat the CPU, RAM, and BIOS at this time but will look into doing that. Thanks again.

 

[Rick]

the green power light on front of the tower is already on and doesn't turn off when I hold it for many seconds

Disregarding the slim chances of some other possibilities, it's either the power supply or system board. After you take a look at the guide above, I would suggest swapping out the PSU (Power supply) with a known working one first and see where that gets you.

 

[vegasgmc]

The 2600 series eMachines were plagued with power supply failures. I repaired 5 of them in 1 year. The power supplies had faulty capacitors and no over-voltage protection so when the PS blew it would almost always damage the motherboard. That was the case with all 5 of the ones I fixed. You can get a power supply tester for $10-20 but I would just replace the PS anyway. You can get a good 300-350w unit for under $40. The biggest problem is the motherboard. Your Restore Disks will only work with a motherboard with the same chipset. A board from eMachines was $160 the last time I had to buy one. With the other repairs I just used a newer mATX board and installed Windows 2000. But you may be able to find a factory board on Ebay. Most of them are made by FIC. This is probably the one you need http://cgi.ebay.com/AM37-EMACHINES-...trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1234|293:1|294:50 if you have an AMD processor. Or this one if its Intel http://cgi.ebay.com/FIC-eMachine-VC...trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1234|293:1|294:50

 

[Quantex_rox]

A lot of bestecs had, and still have the dreaded Bestec ATX-250-12E power supply.

It has one of the poorest designed +5vsb circuts that when the suppression capacitor after the +5vsb transformer dried up due to being poor quality, it would cause the +5vsb to overvolt and fry the southbridge of the motherboard.

Replace the psu immediately.

Heres a jonnyguru review of a Bestec ATX-250-12E that took out two of those Emachines FIC Nforce 2 motherboards.


http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=154

 

[switters50]

thanks everyone

...for the help w/this. I've decided to get a new ATX 250 and swap it out. Can you point me in the direction of an instructional link w/details of swapping PSU"s?

 

[raybay]

In our experience, it is not the power supply, but motherboard.

 

[Quantex_rox]

With a emachine the psu can appear fine and the psu bad because the atx250-12E can talk out the motherboard and still appear to run just fine.

If you are going to get another bestec atx250, make sure it is a bestec atx250-12Z.

 

[raybay]

On the T2642, it is almost always the motherboard. But if you discover a way to repair it, using any power supply, please let us know on this forum.

 

[switters50]

The new power supply I installed did nothing to fix the situation...same frozen green power light but nothing further. I'm considering getting a motherboard, which must be the issue. Would you say that installing this is beyond the range of an extremely new newbie? Thanks.

 

[raybay]

Motherboards are pretty easy to do. Just use some common sense... and there are some good $10 manuals online and at Amazon.com.

But you have to match the motherboard to the CPU, and that is a little bit tricky... The motherboard you get will likely not use the same memory, either... but it can be done.

An Intel, PCChips and several other motherboards are available new on eBay for $40... and also are found new in some online shops.

It would be good if you had an experienced friend.

If cost is a consideration, you can do better getting a "Bare Bones" unit for $200 from Directron.com, ZipZoomFly, Geeks.com... If I had to do it today, I would buy a new Dell shell from Computer Geeks or PCSurplusonline for about 4200 or less... or a SystemMax barebones from TigerDirect.
You will have fun doing your own machine, and will learn enough to begin planning for something better.
We just bought a wonderful used Gateway P4 machine on eBay for $24 including shipping... using all the same components as an eMachines T2642... but those deals do not happen everyday

 

[switters50]

Thanks, for now I am putting this project on hold, but I appreciate all the advice.