# emachine won't boot



## ssschneid (Jan 20, 2006)

I have an emachine T2080 that won't boot up. The power light comes on and the fan starts, but that's about it. It's actually a machine my son had and was going to throw away because he bought a new system. I thought I'd give a shot at fixing it. I have an emachine of my own (t3265), so I'm kind of hoping to 'go to school' on this one.

I'm not totally computer illiterate, I've installed memory and a few disk drives, but that's pretty simple stuff.

Any suggestions as to where to start?


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi,

Can you hear the hdd (hardrive) spin up and does its lite flash?
Does the lights flash on the keyboard when you power on?
Does the computer beep once when you start it? Did it ever?

I am trying to determine if it has a case speaker connected witch could give us some clues.

I found the system specs for the computer but unable to get any sorta manual, I know it has onboard video and a agp slot for upgrade, if it has a agp video card installed remove it and try the onboard video, if you are using the onboard and would happen to have a pci or agp video card laying around give it a try. This would tell us if the video has failed.

Try and reseat the ram if that don't help try the ram in another slot.

These are the basics and I am assuming you have no video at all on startup, meanung no manufactuer splash screen so please correct me if I am wrong.

Rick


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## ssschneid (Jan 20, 2006)

Thanks for the reply. The light comes on but does not flash, and I hear nothing from the hard drive. The fan runs continuously. I've removed and reseated the memory, and removed and re-connected the power supplu from the mother board. There are also no lights on the keyboard.


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi,

sorry for the delay for some reason I did not get email notification that you replied to this thread if I don't reply again PM me.

Its not a good sign that the keyboard lights don't flash when you hit the power button. Try removing all the drives and cards then see if you can get the computer into bios sometimes called setup, this is done by pressing a key when you first power on, I ain't sure what key on a emachine (their website is useless) but try delete,F1,F2,F10,F12.

If you can get into bios this will tell us that one of the removed components is bad, if you can't then its the motherboard, psu, ram or cpu.

post back and let me know.

Rick


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## ssschneid (Jan 20, 2006)

I broke down over the weekend and bought a PSU tester. The tester I bought tests both the 24 pin connector and the 4 pin connectors to the disk drives. The 24 pin tested good, but I couldn't get a readout on any of the drive connectors. Would that indicate a PSU problem?

The light that comes on when I turn the computer on is only the LED for the hard drive, and that connection comes off the motherboard. That would make sense because the cooling fan on the motherboard does come on when I turn it on. I never thought about the blue "E" LED that comes on when you power up the system. That does nothing.

I've been reading alot of the other threads on this site, and have gained a fair amount of knowledge compared to where I was a few days ago, but I'm still unsure on what to do next on this problem. I have a TigerDirect store close to my house where I can pick up a PSU pretty cheap. The one that's in the machine is a Bestec that is only 250 watts. After the things I read on this site, I'm going to go with something 400 or higher. 

Thanks again for your help on this.


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Yes if there is no power to the molex power connectors (4 pin connectors to the disk drives) that does indicate a bad psu.

You do have to try another psu before you can move on with trouble shooting.

I caution you about cheap psu's because they are usually junk and I have seen them no good right out of the box.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1389575&CatId=0

That is the bear minimume and cheapest psu I would put in that computer, I undestand it only came with a 250w but look at whats happened to the machine. Emachines are not very popular in my neck of the woods so I have never had one in to fix but the way I understand they do put cheap psu's in them and it has created a lot of problems


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

One other note, you can find that thermaltake psu at newegg.com for under $40.00 but I ain't sure if they ship to Canada


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## ssschneid (Jan 20, 2006)

I was able to get the Thermaltake from Newegg, but no luck. So apparently I need to look at something else. The hard drive still gives no indication of being alive other than the LED wihich comes on when I power up but does nothing else. The monitor at that point displays "no signal input". If there was a problem with the hard drive, wouldn't there be some type of "boot" program that would at least result in some type of monitor reaction? If so, could the problem be with the integrated video in the emachine motherboard?

Steve


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

There is no "boot program" that will work at this point because you can't see anything, when you first press the power button a splash screen should appear usually the computer brand logo then it will go thru post (power on self test) this tests certain hardware then it will check the floppy, cdrom and hdd to boot from. Remember before when I asked if you could get into bios, I was trying to figuare out if the video had failed or if we could possibly boot from cd but that won't work if you can't access bios because this means no video

from what you have explained it don't appear to get far enough to check any of the drives to boot from.

Have you tried removing all the cards and drives? If you do this does any video appear? Like the emachine splash screen?

If after doing this there is still no sign of video the next step would be to try a video card instead of the intergraded video but don't run out and buy one see if you can barrow one because at this point with a good psu in there it seems the old psu failed and may have toasted the board or cpu.

Try the above and if it fails we will then tear the system down even further and look for clues.


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## pound (Feb 22, 2006)

Doby, did you hear back from ssschneid? Im having the same problem, in short;
The PC turns on, psu and cpu fan spin, hard drive doesnt spin and the orange HDD light flashes on and off. Nothing on monitor. This is the 3rd emachine Ive had to fix in 2 weeks and I think its the motherboard. If ssschneid managed to fix this I'd love to know :sayyes:


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi pound,

No I did not her back from him, but with what you describe first try a known working video card if you have one around.

What other trouble shooting have you done?

Lately I have been hearing about and seeing alot of emachines with blown psu's so you may also want to try a different one if you have a spare.


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## GhostFace0621 (May 29, 2011)

Hey guys I'm new to this website but anyways I have a few questions I have an eMachine T5212 and it's not booting up. The farthest it goes is to the screen that says:
"Safe Mode"
"Safe Mode with Networking"
"Safe Mode with Command Promp"

"Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)"

"Start Windows Normally"

But if I picked one of them it'll just restart the computer and bring me back to this screen. I can go to the BIOS and BOOT section though. But I really don't know what to do and desperate for help.


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