Motherboard Problem?

[Barb]

Trying to get an eMachines T2682 going . . . 2.6Ghz Celeron running Windows
XP with 256 RAM.

Machine worked at some point according to owner. Now when powered on, hard
drive does not start, only power lights and fans come on, power button will
not turn off even though it "clicks." DVD-Rom opens and closes. CD-RW drive
does not activate. Have checked all cables to make sure they are tight.

Can someone help us or direct us to a website?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

Try unplug the power,remove the battery,locate the CMOS jumper pin on the
board,move the pin from 1-2 position to 2-3 for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes,then back
to 1-2,replace battery,start computer.You should be prompted to enter BIOS
and reset,reset date,time,etc,then exit page,select "load set-up defaults" or
similiar,then reenter BIOS and adjust for any add-ons,then save and exit
BIOS.
This at least gets youre settings back to oem settings.From there,download
the
DOS utility for the hd,then run at start-up or get new drive.Drives are
inexpensive,
as are boards.

 

[Malke]

Try unplug the power,remove the battery,locate the CMOS jumper pin

Andrew, please. You've been doing so well up to now. This is absolutely
not going to help the OP's problem.
Barb - This is either a power supply that has died and/or a faulty
motherboard. You can first swap out the psu for a known-working one.
Although the eMachines psu is not a standard size, you can still test
with a regular one outside of the box. If that solves the issue,
replace the eMachines with one of the smaller psu's. You can find them
at a larger computer supply store.

If swapping the psu doesn't help and you've already swapped out all
cables for known-working ones, the fault is probably on the
motherboard. You can try testing the motherboard if you have the
equipment. Otherwise, if the machine is under warranty, contact
eMachines for replacement. If this is an older machine (3 yrs. for
instance), IMO it will not be worth trying to replace the motherboard.
There is a reason eMachines are so inexpensive. However, if the owner
wishes to replace the motherboard, you will need to get it from
eMachines.

Malke

 

[Ron Martell]

Trying to get an eMachines T2682 going . . . 2.6Ghz Celeron running Windows
XP with 256 RAM.

Machine worked at some point according to owner. Now when powered on, hard
drive does not start, only power lights and fans come on, power button will
not turn off even though it "clicks." DVD-Rom opens and closes. CD-RW drive
does not activate. Have checked all cables to make sure they are tight.

Can someone help us or direct us to a website?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Barb.

I agree with Malke as to the most likely probable causes of the
problem. However there is a bit of additional testing that you can
do, as there are other possibilities.

First of all strip the machine right down to the bare essentials.
Remove all repeat all accessory cards except the video card.
Unplug both the power and data connections to all of the disk drives
Disconnect all external devices connected to USB. Firewire, Serial, or
Parallel ports other than the keyboard and mouse.

Now try powering it up and see what happens.
If it is still dead unplug the keyboard and mouse and try again.
If there is still nothing on the screen then remove the video card
(assuming it is not integrated into the motherboard) and see if that
will provoke the machine into producing a series of beeps (indicating
no video).


Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Barb]

Thank you for your advice!

Can you tell us how to "test the motherboard" and what kind of "equipment"
we need. We do have a Digital Multimeter . . . and a computer toolkit.

You will have to forgive our lack of professionalism here . . . we are a 73
year-old couple who have been "into" computers for about ten years and have
tried to learn as much as we can . . . a retirement hobby. We do our best to
help those in our neighborhood and our church who have computers and do not
know how to, or don't want to do, basic maintenance and minor upgrading or
repairs. Ray does the "hands-on" stuff, Barb does pretty well with the
program and software end of things.

This particular eMachines computer, T2682, has been used very little by the
owners, but we understand it was working at one point.

Thank you in advance for your time and patience,
Barb and Ray

 

[Malke]

Thank you for your advice!

Can you tell us how to "test the motherboard" and what kind of
"equipment"
we need. We do have a Digital Multimeter . . . and a computer
toolkit.

You will have to forgive our lack of professionalism here . . . we are
a 73 year-old couple who have been "into" computers for about ten
years and have tried to learn as much as we can . . . a retirement
hobby. We do our best to help those in our neighborhood and our church
who have computers and do not know how to, or don't want to do, basic
maintenance and minor upgrading or
repairs. Ray does the "hands-on" stuff, Barb does pretty well with
the program and software end of things.

This particular eMachines computer, T2682, has been used very little
by the owners, but we understand it was working at one point.

Hi, Barb. The fact that the machine was working at one point is
irrelevant. It isn't working now. You can test the motherboard with a
software program like TuffTest (sometimes useful) or one of the testing
programs on Hiren's Boot Disk (Google for it). You can also use a POST
card; I have a Soyo TechAid Diagnostic Card.

I would start by swapping out the psu first since that is the easiest.
Otherwise, you would need to have a supply of motherboards and
processors on hand to swap out the processor.

Malke

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

If the processor is processing, then it interprets the power button
straight away. If the processor's not processing, the motherboard
circuitry will interpret the power button after it's been held down
for several seconds. So your mileage tells us the processor is not
processing, and because the fans stay spinning, it's not a simple
short circuit (which would normally cause the PSU to cut power).

First of all strip the machine right down to the bare essentials.
Remove all repeat all accessory cards except the video card.
Unplug both the power and data connections to all of the disk drives
Disconnect all external devices connected to USB. Firewire, Serial, or
Parallel ports other than the keyboard and mouse.

If you do this (as I would), then KEEP THE HARE DRIVE UNPLUGGED FROM
THE SYSTEM!! There are several reasons for this:

a) Protect hard drive against physical damage, e.g. excess volts
b) Protect hard drive from data corruption due to bad RAM etc.
c) Avoid OS detecting changed hardware and "PnP storms"
d) Avoid OS detecting changed hardware and WPA DoS payload
e) Avoid file system corruption from bad exits after partial boot-ups

I start with just:

1) Motherboard, processor, PC speaker, power supply
2) Add RAM
3) Add SVGA, monitor
4) Add keyboard
5) Add 1.44M drive

On (1), you want to hear "bad RAM" beeeeeeeps.
On (2), you want to hear those beeeeeeeeps go away
On (3), you want to see the BIOS POST screen coming up
On (4), you want to check temp and voltage in CMOS setup
On (5), you want to boot MemTest86 and leave running for hours

At step (5), you are doing two tests; the obvious one of the RAM, and
the ability for the PC to stay powered up and running. So take the
boot diskette out of the drive before you walk away, so that if the
system's not running MemTest when you return, you know the second test
failed, irrespective of whether the RAM was OK or not.

Until everything passes with no errors, don't let the sick system even
sniff the HD's power socket ;-)

--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

IRC is just multiplayer notepad.

 

[Guest]

Just my 2 cent but I had a bad keyboard do the same thing to me, after
checking everything I for some reason swapped the keyboard and the thing
booted up...go figure