eMachine motherboard replacement HELP Please?

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Yes, unfortunately, it's true that you will need to install a fresh copy of Windows on your hard drive. Before you do any of that, though, I would suggest finding a spare computer (or a friend who doesn't mind allowing you to connect your hard drive to their computer) so you can backup your documents beforehand. Just connect your hard disk as a slave (check the jumper and IDE cable) and copy over your data. There are certainly people you could pay to "retrieve your lost data", but why do that when you could do it yourself for free?
 
Yes, there is the need to buy a new copy of windows XP.

Just go to NewEgg.com all the motherboards are the best. Like I said before, my motherboard only cost me $40 to 50$. Now my computer works even better than the old crappy e-machines that it used to be.

No, dont give up. Its your power supply, it might not have enough power to power all of your devices. At least that's my theory.

LOL! I got it from NewEgg.com go there and find any motherboard that can support your CPU and had a 478 socket connection.
 
Or one of those fine eMachines motherboard replacements... only $159.95... or $211.95 depending on model. Nice people. They.
 
$159.95 or $211.95 is way too much to pay for an OEM mATX mobo. But that is free enterprise in action capitalizing on people's ignorance. All the more reason for people to do their homework.

Of all the models I have seen listed with bad mobos, most of the models listed used Trigem Imperial-G/GV/GL/GLVE or the ECS L7VMM(2).
eMachine has used only 5 mobo manufacturers since its inception; Trigem, FIC, MSI, ECS and Intel.
I sure would like to know specifically which of these 14 models raybay has with the defective mobos.

ASUS P4BGV-MX, MSI 845GVM-V, PC CHIPS M963GV, ASRock P4i65G are known good replacements for the Imperial mobos and the restore disks will work and activate if you use the COA number that is located on the sticker on the box. And speaking of restore disks, I used a Dell disk (XP Home) on an old eMachine (eMonster 550) with very little effort.

Yes, there has been a rash of Trigem Imperial versions mobos biting the dust, but to group ALL models and say they are ALL junk is ludicrous. eMachines is an entry level box for entry level people with entry level experience with an entry level price. Do you REALLY expect a Core2 Duo system for 250 bucks after rebates?

Trigem used to made some decent mobo back in the early years with the Delhi-III's and the Napoli-2's. Very upgrade-able and some even over-clockable. I know a guy that still uses his eTower 266 with that originally came with an old Cyrix M-II (talk about a piece of crap for a cpu), replaced it with an AMD K-6 III+ 450 and it runs rock stable at 600Mhz.

All the new (USA) models eMachines that were released for this quarter have Intel mobos in them, either D102GGC2 or D945GCL. But in previous quarter releases they have mainly used FIC, MSI and Intel. Yes, they are OEM versions (but standard mATX's) with stripped down hardware and crippled bios'es....just like Dell, HP, Compaq, etc.
The exception to that is the T6542 with an ECS C51PVGM-M mobo. The version 0.9Q bios has lots of options, i.e, memory voltage, cpu multiplier,,,,enough to make the rig un-bootable in the hands of the inexperienced. Wonder how many calls eMachine Tech Support will get on this unit?

eMachines Inc. started in 1998 as joint venture between Korean monitor maker KDS and Korean computer manufacturer TriGem. In 2000 they went public but due to the dot com bust they started losing money. Wayne Inouye took the company private in 2001 and made the company profitable again. That's why Gateway bought eMachines in 2004 for almost 250 million bucks. Gateway was the one losing money, not eMachines, and the reason they bought eMachines was to get the Gateway products in the retail stores
like BestBuy and Circut City. Smart move for Gateway,,,it made them profitable again.

OK I've babbled enough, I found this board checking my referrer logs and had to throw in my 2 cents here. In my profile you'll see my "homepage". We have carved out a niche' for the eMachine community where little or no information existed before. Feel free to use it as a resource...
 
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I placed another psu in the machine that died, (I posted last week). I wanted to check to see if it was the only issue, hopefully not a mb.

Nothing happens still, but I did note that the fan for the cpu does work. Does that indicate or not that the whole mb is bad?

If I do have to get another mb, and its not the same chipset, am I correct in assuming that I CAN use a regular windows xp cdrom to repair and then use the key from the emachine case? I have this other pc (where I got the psu from) that has a regular xp install. I would prefer to just transfer that over as that other machine is really choking (it uses DIMM memory!).
 
Though people on this forum will argue that I am wrong, We now have 273 dead eMachines in storage awaiting class action with the same symptoms. eMachines knew the hard drive would blow. They did nothing to warn you.
The power supply, hard drive, and memory are good, but the motherboard is permanently dead and not fixable on 14 eMachines models.
That solution you propose will sometimes work, depending on its quality and output... but usually not.
The version of Windows on the eMachines hard drive will NOT work on another motherboard, unless that motherboard is another eMachines motherboard of the same or similar model. The eMachines Windows XP will detect that the configuration has changed, and will lock up. Windows will search for the "tattoo" in the EPROM of the old eMachines you have. When it does not find it, it will fail to boot up, even though it is a good hard drive.
You will need a new version of Windows XP, probably costing somewhere between $139 and $199, or the UPGRADE version of Windows XP from Wal-mart, Best Buy, and other such places for $99.99. Be sure it is a version that will not wipe out the old data.
A solution that will work, but that will be costly is to buy a new motherboard and CPU combination (Tiger Direct has the PCChips board and Celeron for $69.99 plus shipping) and a full version of Windows XP (NOT the WXP OEM versions as they will WILL NOT Allow the transfer of your data, without completely wiping out your old data). You will need to check your memory to see if it will fit a new motherboard. Many new boards require DDR2 memory, whereas your model probably requires DDR memory.
You can use your existing hard drive as is only on a replacement motherboard from eMachines at a cost of $159.99 to $211.99 plus shipping.
Perhaps a better solution would be to buy a new eMachines from www.tigerdirect.com for $299 plus shipping.
Also you can use your eMachines drive in another computer, by installing it as a slave, with the original computer hard drive jumpered to Master, then drag and drop the data to the Master hard drive or a CD or Flash Drive.
If you do not need to save the data, just reformat it with an inexpensive version of Windows XP Home OEM for $89.
There are no other ways I know of that will work. In summary:
Buy a new board.
Get a new version of Windows XP.
Or
Buy a new computer then drag and drop your old data.
The old system with DIMM memory will not work. Period.
Or better yet
Build a new computer, or buy a new computer, such as Dell, Gateway, HP or other reliable brand (Not Sony), and install your old drive as a slave to recover the data.
Good luck to you. We know this is frustrating and expensive. But you are not alone... We believe that at least 50 percent of the eMachines owners of at least 14 models have or will suffer the same difficulties. And eMachines knew.
Please let us know what you did and how it all turned out.
 
True. True.
We see such an incredible number of failed, and worthless eMachines in our shops, that I really don't recommend any eMachines model made since the end of 2002. Other cheap computers have problems, but the motherboard failure rate makes it seem like a conspiracy.
When you consider data lost and dreams thwarted, their junk computers are a crime. When they KNOW more than half of their machines will fail, you think they should be obligated to tell their customers that.
The new eMachines at Wal-Mart and Best Buy now offer a two year warranty (maximum) but you have to pay extra for it.
 
What I ended up doing was:

gut the emachine.

Move the cd r/w and the dvd r/w to my older machine (A pentium 750 with 512 meg RAM, BUT with a retail version of xp).

I moved the HD to the older machine and made it a slave.

Going to use the 17" emachine monitor.

Cost = 0
Activation issues = none (had to reactivate over the net due to the hardware changes.

Will save the money towards an older laptop.

My daughter uses this for the internet mostly. It will be ok for that.

Oh and it all works! :D
 
Congratulations! This is good to know. Every time we have tried activation, Microsoft has said the Windows version we used died with the motherboard. Good work!
 
raybay said:
The version of Windows on the eMachines hard drive will NOT work on another motherboard, unless that motherboard is another eMachines motherboard of the same or similar model.
Click to expand...

That is the key, "similar model".
A retail version of the mobo or a completely different manufacturer with similar hardware, i.e., same chipset, audio, video, etc., will in fact allow Windows to activate.

I still wish you could provide some of the specific 14 models with the dead mobos...
 
We have found very few eMachines models with the same EPROM if the motherboard is different. We have been working for a long time and a huge investment to get this thing right. Microsoft has been extremely uncooperative as has eMachines.
But it is nice to see that somebody got through to Microsoft.
When I get some time, I will make available a spread sheet of all the models... eMachines has made 279 models that we have in our database... some with Celeron, some with AMD, a few with Pentium III and Pentium IV... Nearly all the Celeron models are trouble... very few of the AMD's.
It will probably be 30 days before I can post this, as our shop was hit by water running from frozen, broken pipes for 14 hours... we have $200,000 in damage, but all the eMachine failures were spared.
 
Sorry to hear about the water damage to your shop.

Would certainly appreciate whatever effort you can give on these models whenever you get a chance.

Thanks, TD
 
Raybay just doesn't understand that if these Emachines failed after the warranty period, no class action suit would be possible. Just remember that replacing both the motherboard and power supply at the same time is recommended. Emachines owners need to know how to back up their important data. Microsoft has no responsiblity in this at all
 
Not so. Legal minds do not agree. When eMachines has the evidence of failure higher than any other known manufactured computer in history, they can be obligated to fix the problem, or notifiy the owners who are at risk of loss of data. When they sell replacement motherboards which also have the same failure rate, they carry an additional burden.
The difference here is they knew. They did nothing. The profited from what they knew. They are the third largest computer company in the world. They made victims out of the poor, the elderly, the young, the handicapped. They would not allow their employees in tech support to tell the truth.
Warranty law does not protect a company from this sort of damage.
And at a minimum, they can be required to stop the practice.
 
raybay said:
Not so. Legal minds do not agree. When eMachines has the evidence of failure higher than any other known manufactured computer in history, they can be obligated to fix the problem, or notifiy the owners who are at risk of loss of data. When they sell replacement motherboards which also have the same failure rate, they carry an additional burden.
The difference here is they knew. They did nothing. The profited from what they knew. They are the third largest computer company in the world. They made victims out of the poor, the elderly, the young, the handicapped. They would not allow their employees in tech support to tell the truth.
Warranty law does not protect a company from this sort of damage.
And at a minimum, they can be required to stop the practice.
Click to expand...

Ah come on Raybay,
this is not a perfect World you know... As long as Emachines is selling computers, and their computers last at least through the warranty, no one is going to touch them. We as computer techs, need to always be available to "repair or replace" these Emachines failed systems at a fair cost. I could run an ad this week for "low cost Emachine repairs" and get a bunch of the systems in for repair by friday... I would tell the Emachines owners that no data could be saved, and I would charge them $200-$300 for the repair. It is nice to have you as an "Emachines whistle blower" though. Carry on!
 
Emachine T2042

Hello,
I have been reading through the posts of the emachine motherboard problems.

If I replace my board with a BioStar P4M80-M4, will all the front wires match?

I tried an MSI board and the front MIC and Speaker wires had no place to go. The MSI board was DOA anyway.

My Emachine power fan and cpu fan starts when I plug it in and the light around the power switch comes on and that is it. From reading this, it sounds as if the MOBO is gargage. Does anyone have experience with the Biostar P4M80-M4 board with their emachine?
 
Yeah, that's the motherboard I used to replace my parents' blown eMachine motherboard. As I remember, there was one cable from the front (either headphone or microphone) that didn't have anywhere to go. Frankly, I don't see that as much of a problem -- inexpensive speakers often have a headphone jack right on them, and if cord length or convenience were really an issue, Radio Shack sells extension cables for 1/8" speaker cords cheaply enough.

In any case, the P4M80-M4 works just fine as a replacement. Just heed what the other posts have said and be aware that Willamette P4s/Celerons won't work with it, so it meant an extra $70 for a new processor (a Northwood P4). But when you consider that jumped the defunct eMachine from a 1.7GHz Celeron to a 2.8GHz Pentium-4, I'd say it was worth the $70.
 
I should have listened to somebody, but wanted to try and save money, ending up costing me more now. I thought just maybe the power supply in the t2692 might still be good since i was still able to boot up and see the intel celeron 2.6 gHz logo and all. I bought a P4M80-M4 from New Egg about March 1st,2007. After reading remarks on the forum,i thought they were just the fine folks I'd like to deal with. Took my time to install, put the intel celeron from the emachine on it and the memory. went to power it up and nothing happened except the lan light was on, the cpu fan was turning then the bang noise and some smoke came from the power supply. well that's toast now. I thought i blew it with the connector maybe being different than a regular atx board but that's not the case here, (and yes i checked each pin for the correct power).I thought I wiped out the cpu and the board, man that hurts! I finally hooked my power supply from my other computer to see if it blows it too, but it didn't, so i think it was just too much for the emachine power supply or the board was crap to begin with. Thinking maybe they sent me a cruddy board since i decided not to pay $15 for the warranty. Anyhow my power supply turns it on just fine except nothing happens, no sound, no audio, only the same lan lights and the cpu fan. I dont think it was the emachine power supply since it powered it for some 15-20 seconds before it blew, meaning the board was loading it down so much it couldn't handle it, because it was still able to power the original emachine board and boot. So what i did is wrote an e-mail to New Egg explaining the situataion and was wondering if they could help me out to determine if the board was bad. They gave me a link to their suppliers and told me they are only resellers. So needless to say I'm not too impressed with them. Just as well buy a mob off e-bay, taking the same chance the board is bad. I did after all this try the emachine board and the cpu with my power supply and it boots up ok, except i know the board is bad. So at least the cpu is still good. It is possible that the power supply took out the board, but it just doesn't add up. I am going to get another mob off e-bay and try it again, and another power supply. I'm not going to do anymore business with you know who. This was my first experience with them, why would i think its ok to do it again, I'll take my chances elsewhere. But on the good side here is the link that has a good resource of suppliers. http://www.newegg.com/CustomerService/contactmanufacturer.asp
Do you think the board is good? Is there a way to check it? Did I come to the wrong conclusion about New Egg? Should I still buy from them? Did I just blow it by not using a new supply? Oh i have an Intel Celeron 2.60 gHz/128/400/sl6vv Philippines. Maybe the cpu is all thats wrong and not compatible? It looks like i'm not the only one here with the same problem. That's good to know. I dont want to spend $70 to find out if the board is bad, the only reason i got it was because i already had a 478 socket cpu. If i was going to build up a computer from scratch its going to be totally a different character.
 
Well, the first thing I see here that's wrong is that you didn't replace the power supply right off the bat. With eMachines, when the motherboard looks dead, it's almost always because of these two reasons: (1) the motherboard is very cheap and susceptible to damage, and (2) the power supply is what killed it.

Needless to say, I think the power supply was about to self-destruct completely, and no matter which new motherboard you hooked up to it, it would've done the same thing. However, it sure sounds like it blew your NEW motherboard in addition to your old one. The symptoms you described made me think it might have just been an incompatible processor (as it was in my case), but you have a 2.6GHz Celeron... that's a Northwood, so it's perfectly fine in the P4M80-M4. Unfortunately, sounds like the board has been killed.
 
Yeah... hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that should be the best course of action. Good deal on that 680-watt PS, by the way...
 
erniesadventure said:
I saw a supply on geeks, a 680 watt for $20. I guess I'll start there. Thanks.
Click to expand...

20 bucks for a 680W PSU?!

Even though it is a standard ATX PSU, if you are installing it in the Nexgen case be aware of the depth dimension...it can vary and you can run into interference between the PSU and optical drive:

img20051102222626.jpg
 
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