To start off with, I'm a complete PC hardware newbie. The most work I've done to my eMachines is cleaned it out a bit, and installed a high-speed USB in the PCI port (?). I don't really know much about the specs, but I do know that it's got an Athlon processor - the whole system is just over 3 years old and worked perfectly aside from some overheating issues about 6 mos ago until the other night.
It has given me trouble for a while now when I put it on "standby" - when I come back to wake it up, the PC light on the front of the case goes from orange back to green, as it should, but nothing comes up on the monitor. I end up shutting it down when this happens by holding down the power button.
The other night, this (paragraph above) happened. When I powered it back on after letting it sit for a sec, nothing happened. I could hear the fans powering up, but the light on the front of the case did not come on at all, I couldn't open the CD or DVD drives, and the monitor didn't activate and showed nothing on the display.
After it sat like that for about 3 minutes, still nothing - held down the power button, it shut off, and I powered off the power bar. Waited about a minute, turned the power bar and the PC back on, and it worked like normal (booted up and ran just fine!). Used it for probably 2 hours, shut it off as usual, went to bed.
The next day, I got home from work and turned it on. Same deal - nothing except fan noise. No lights, monitor, CD drives, NOTHING. Tried to get it to go probably 15 times, all to no avail. When I opened up the case and tried it, all I see is one red LED and two fans going. Nothing else.
Again, I don't know anything about this stuff, so I took it down to the local Best Buy. The guy there opened the case, told me the capacitors were OK (not puffy) and said that it must be the motherboard - I'd be better off to buy a new PC than to have it replaced.
Am I missing anything here? Are there other possibilities that sound likely from the description I'm giving? Any help is greatly appreciated!
Alex
It has given me trouble for a while now when I put it on "standby" - when I come back to wake it up, the PC light on the front of the case goes from orange back to green, as it should, but nothing comes up on the monitor. I end up shutting it down when this happens by holding down the power button.
The other night, this (paragraph above) happened. When I powered it back on after letting it sit for a sec, nothing happened. I could hear the fans powering up, but the light on the front of the case did not come on at all, I couldn't open the CD or DVD drives, and the monitor didn't activate and showed nothing on the display.
After it sat like that for about 3 minutes, still nothing - held down the power button, it shut off, and I powered off the power bar. Waited about a minute, turned the power bar and the PC back on, and it worked like normal (booted up and ran just fine!). Used it for probably 2 hours, shut it off as usual, went to bed.
The next day, I got home from work and turned it on. Same deal - nothing except fan noise. No lights, monitor, CD drives, NOTHING. Tried to get it to go probably 15 times, all to no avail. When I opened up the case and tried it, all I see is one red LED and two fans going. Nothing else.
Again, I don't know anything about this stuff, so I took it down to the local Best Buy. The guy there opened the case, told me the capacitors were OK (not puffy) and said that it must be the motherboard - I'd be better off to buy a new PC than to have it replaced.
Am I missing anything here? Are there other possibilities that sound likely from the description I'm giving? Any help is greatly appreciated!
Alex