If you own an Emachine, read this now!

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Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Home

CPU: AMD Athlon™ XP 2400+
Processor (2.00GHz) with QuantiSpeed™ architecture
Chipset: VIA KM 266
Memory: 256MB DDR (PC 2100)
Hard Drive: 80GB HDD
Optical Drive: 48x Max. CD-RW Drive, 16x Max. DVD Drive, 3.5" 1.44MB FDD
Video: S3 ProSavage8™ integrated (1 AGP slot available)
Sound: AC '97 Audio
Network: 10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Modem: 56K ITU v.92-ready Fax/Modem
Peripherals: Multimedia Keyboard, 2-Button Wheel Mouse, Amplified Stereo Speakers
Ports/Other: 6 USB 2.0 ports (2 on front), 1 Serial, 1 Parallel, 2 PS/2, Microphone-In & Head Phone jack on front, Audio-In & Out, 3 PCI slots (2 available)
Dimensions: 7.25"W x 14.125"H x 16"D


Alright Guys,need your expert opinions.As I posted before about my above dead E-Machines.....This is where I am at.

Need a new MB and PSU....I have sitting around a Brand new 120 gig. H/D and a Brand New Ge-Force 6200 oc Video card[AGP].Think I would like to put this back together for now and then hand it down to my Son later this year and buy a new set-up for myself.
That said....This will be my first time.I am very mechanically inclined[Auto Tech.]Had Electronics in High School and can repair about anything.Have been inside of this and another Computer a few times,know what all the componets are.

I know just puttin' it together is about 10% of the battle!Getting it to work is the other 90%.I know what I'm in for and never give up!!

SO........My questions are:
What reccomendations do you have for a M/B/and Chip-set[if needed chip-set]....PSU.....??

Pretty much used for Surfing the Net,Music down-loads[Son].BUT like Tim Taylor says..."It needs more power"!!!Thanks Guys!!!![Mike]


Just noticed the time is wrong on the board?
 
"Just noticed the time is wrong on the board?"

This is set in your User Profile, depending on your position on the Planet

Recommendations for eMachines replacment parts are all over this thread. Most emachines systems are mini-towers. You decide if the case takes an ATX or mini-ATX board. Same with the power supply.

Just about any board and power supply type will work. You don't want to spend too much though. You decide if you want to keep the processor and memory or upgrade. Motherboards with AGP ports are rare these days. DDR memory is giving way to DDR2. Pay close attention to memory type and speed ratings when choosing a motherboard. CPU socket type is also important
 
Thanks, I've been reading!

Learning more about motherboards than I ever wanted to know. Anyway, newegg and tiger direct have some cheap motherboard/processor combos that are under $100. This old emachines is pretty outdated so I think that's the way to go.

Only trouble I'm still having is finding one that is form factor 9.6 x 9.6 and is DDR not DDR2. Otherwise there seem to be some pretty good bargains out there. Since my son does music and graphics, most of these newer combos look a lot better than what came with the machine.

Thanks for your help!
 
Emachines T2040 sound card

Hello all,
I am new to this Forum.
I have similar problem on my Emachines T2040 PC.
"Tbeek", did you find fix to this problem?
Appreciate if some one can help me on restoring my soundcard and USB slots.

Thanks

mypc_2040


tbeek said:
I have a T2040 from BestBuy. Bought it on the day after Thanksgiving in 2002. (Sounds like I faired better than most of you). I came home one day last week only to find that it had shut off and was making a noise and blinking the harddrive LED frantically at the sametime. Pulled the power cord and then restarted ok. It acted up again a few times the next day, turned it off with the power button and it would start back up on its own, then it died. Mine has a Bestec brand, model ATX-250-12E PSU, and an IM845GL mb. I put in a new pci modem a few years back when the one on the mb died, and I have added 512 MB DDR400 PC3200 RAM last year, otherwise a stock system. Anyways, I tried the PSU in a different PC and nothing, so I bought a Antec 350W and now my Emachines "works". I have no sound, the device manager properties for my Avance AC97 Audio says "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". Also one of my USB slots on the front gives this error message "One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it." Did these parts of the motherboard fry when the PSU did? What can I do to get them back?

Also, the first few times I started the machine after replacing the PSU, it would freeze up if you used the keyboard. Ctrl-alt-delete would not do anything, but the screen saver would start if I sat and waited.
Click to expand...
 
Easy fix for mypc_T2040 and tbeek...

Both your eMachies are quite old. It's time to replace them. Just about any system would be better than what you have. I wouldn't even suggest that you replace the motherboards or power supplies in these
 
That's right nickc,
there are the typical eMachines and HP systems. HP has a Vista laptop for $495 at our local Super Wal-Mart right now
 
To: MyPC_T2040
I replaced my power supply with a 350W and I bought a cheap sound card for a pci slot, all at my local Office Max. I have yet to fix my USB slots. The weird thing is my memory card reader works when I put it in the USB port, but anything else locks up the computer.
 
tbeek,
your motherboard is probably damaged and it won't last much longer. I recommend to always replace both the power supply and the motherboard at the same time in ALL eMachines systems
 
Do not count on a new PSU resolving the problem. The Power Supply is often damaged by the motherboard, not the other way around. You are merely wasting your money. We have had over 300 similar eMachines in our shops.
Yours is a Wal-Mart version with a motherboard that has failed, and will likely never run properly again. Look back through the forums on the history.
Motherboard fails regardless of the power supply used.
 
Dear Long Ranger

Lone Ranger said:
Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Home


Memory: 256MB DDR (PC 2100)
Hard Drive: 80GB HDD
Optical Drive: 48x Max. CD-RW Drive, 16x Max. DVD Drive, 3.5" 1.44MB FDD
Video: S3 ProSavage8™ integrated (1 AGP slot available)
Sound: AC '97 Audio


I know just puttin' it together is about 10% of the battle!Getting it to work is the other 90%.I know what I'm in for and never give up!!

SO........My questions are:
What reccomendations do you have for a M/B/and Chip-set[if needed chip-set]....PSU.....??

Pretty much used for Surfing the Net,Music down-loads[Son].BUT like Tim Taylor says..."It needs more power"!!!Thanks Guys!!!![Mike]
Click to expand...

You have in fact returned to the thrilling days of yesteryear, in that none of the parts in this Emachines are even remotely what you could call contemporary, either in speed or capacity. Most of the upgrading you would want/need to do would be accomplished with long obsolete parts.

Building a computer is a scary thing true enough, but with enough preparation, you would find that the percentages you list don't even come close to reality. It's really not that hard to get the darn thing working after assembly, provided you do plenty of homework before assembly.

Also you need to ascribe 50% to figuring out which parts to buy, waiting for them to come, and last but not least, paying for them. Hmm, 50% would be half the battle.

Since, I've worked as both a mechanic and autopainter, I can say confidently that these skill sets are of no use in this field, (unless the case is badly dented).

In the context of this forum asking for advice on what you should buy is probably not the best approach, 10 replies, 10 different opinions. Understandable enough, with many hard core enthusiasts having long developed product preferences. Better you should come up with a system idea and have us critique it. $5.00 here, a different CPU there, better value, like that.
 
The hard drive (unless it is a Tri-Gem) and optical drive as as modern and standard as any in a Dell, Gateway, HP, or compaq.. Your memory is slow but adequate and can be upgraded to a faster module. You need a LOT MORE Memory... at least 512 MB. There is nothing wrong with the S3 ProSavage, nor the AC 97 audio. Not hot rod material but decent and modern.
Your problem is with a defective board (and or power supply) a condition which is well known to eMachine repair folks. It will only get worse. The board was designed and built in Korea under contract... It it has Tri-Gem notation on the board, or on the two largest chips, it is even worse.
 
Dear Raybay.......

Upgrade vs. replace is the stuff upon which PC magazines are constructed. The Intel 915 motherboard in the less than 3 year old Emachines T-5026 I"m using to write this reply is long discontinued. If we discount 1066Mhz FSBs, DDR2, SATA2 and the fact that OEM dual layer DVD burners are running about $30.00 at the moment then you are correct that the system in question is contemporary.

I have another Emachines MSI/Celeron/PATA HDD system, (Which incidentally has DDR2 memory (512 installed at purchase) and the provision for PCIEx16 video)), it was only $330.00 USD and is Vista ready. So, is a rebuild on Lone Ranger's 5 year old really the best idea?

I might add that the new Emachines $300.00 boxes on sale at Best Buy (at least a few months ago),are shipping with Cedar Mill Celerons (mine is a Prescott 347) which really crank, but are almost obsolete now.
 
It depends almost entirely on whether he wants to spend the extra bucks to access his hard drive, or use his recovery discs. Without that motherboard tattoo in the EEPROM, the hard drive will fail and give the average enlightened user real trouble accessing data on that drive. The Recovery Disk won't work, and the black screen is the result.
An owner can get lucky about 35 to 40 percent of the time, and get Microsoft to update the product ID code from the certificate of authenticity on the case.
But the other 60 to 65 percent of users will be told by Microsoft, as we have verified many, many times in various homes and repair shops, that "The Windows XP license dies with the motherboard."

Once the owner/user has retrieved his data, this is not such a big issue, but it will still require the user/owner to buy a new version of Windows XP for $64 to $85 to $134 depending on whether they buy an upgrade version, and OEM version, or a full version at a discount online site. Neither the upgrade version nor the OEM version will allow the owner or user to rescue the data on that hard drive unless they are unusually technically astute and experienced. Then there is the cost per hour of the technician if one must be hired.

You are suggesting a very high price for a lot of people that really don't care that much about what they are using as long as the machine works.

The problem really ends up at the motherboard, which is redesigned by Tri-Gem in most cases from the original Intel or other manufacturer design... where they use bad manufacturing and lousing capacitors that perpetuates the process.

I think the work and the products of eMachines are criminal. But it is the innocent user who is punished.
 
As usual I still have a question....

Mercifully, I haven't been placed in Lone Rangers position, (as of yet). But, I have taken proactive steps to avoid painting myself into that particular corner. I don't use the system drive to store any data. Any data on the system drive I copy to a volume drive, or file it there in the first place.

Now, the question, can you place the system drive in another machine and extract the data files only?

The point about when the motherboard dies, it's Windows copy dies with it seems to reinforce my replacement POV since we're likely going to have to buy a new copy to get the old clunker running.

As a point of clarity, I wasn't suggesting that LoneRanger get back on the horse (so to speak) by buying another Emachines, I offered the stats as a comparative value observation. I agree my reasons were probably slightly ambiguous.
 
Yes, you can recover your data using the drive jumpered as slave, with the main drive jumpered as Master, and even from some External USB or Fireware boxes. You can drag or drop, or use some of the simple recovery software packages.
 
You can use any monitor you want... Someone makes the eMachines monitors for them. Personally the big green "e" on the case and monitor makes the hair stand up on my neck!
 
I have bright blue LEDs on my Audio bass box, and USB extention box and an external back up hard drive case...
 
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]
 
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