Emachine won't boot up

[rka0257]

I am working on a client's Emachine, and the problem I'm having is that it won't boot up. You can turn the machine on, and the power supply provides power to the system, and the cooling fan on the processor spins, and hard drive crunches, etc, but there is no boot up from the motherboard. The motherboard is an FIC AM37 L, and the processor is an AMD Athlon AX2000DMT3C.

I do not have another motherboard to test the processor, and visa-versa. I have disconnected all components from the motherboard except for the processor (of course), but it still won't boot up. No BIOS beep, no video signal, nothing. I've tried an APG video card, different memory..but still nothing but the cooling fan spinning and and hearing the hard drive crunching. I have removed the processor and inspected it, but I don't find anything that appears to be bad areas on the processor.

I do not want to purchase a processor assuming that's the problem, and then find out it's not. I am assuming it's the processor...but just not sure.

Any suggestions?
Ron

 

[mesarectifier]

Do your own job

 

[FITCamaro]

Hit your client in the face with a shovel for buying an Emachine?

 

[MasterLee]

Get out your mutimeter, jumper the power supply ON, check for -5v, that's minus 5 volts, may not be there.

 

[antichrysler]

I have an emachines motherboard kickin around the house that will support that CPU. I'll sell it to you fairly cheap too.

 

[Avadann_Kedeth]

I feel your pain. Because of issues like this, I refuse to work on computers that have AOL installed. I won't clean up after AOl or eMachines or Norton Utilities and other such rubbish.

 

[TarOor]

My brother is having the same problem. I told him I could fix it, but I'm having alot of trouble. When it boots up, everything seems to run fine; fans, hard drive, etc.; however the monitor says it's in power saving mode. Can't access bios or anything. Called emachine tech support, he told me to unplug everything a hold the power button for 30 seconds to clear the bios, but it didn't work. Try to find more info on this FIC AM37L, maybe use the jumpers to restore defaults.

 

[azncoduyen]

my cousin has an emachine and it sucked... i tried to fix it too but with no luck... i recommand dont waste your time on it and just get another comp or build one yourself... these machine are the worst of all... same as sony... but anyway good luck...


From my cousin's broken emachine... i think 2 things are wrong with it... 1 is the motherboard is broken and 2 is the cpu.... i think what happened was that he had it ran 24hrs a day... and also it was old so it accumulated a lot of dirt... thus hindering the fan that was cooling the sys... so it ended up slowing it down making it not cool enough to cool the cpu so it fried....

 

[CptCpu]

I have an emachines and it kicks butt for what it is. Try removing the board from the computer itself if you have not done so already maybe something is grounding it out.

 

[pat]

I am working on a client's Emachine, and the problem I'm having is that it won't boot up. You can turn the machine on, and the power supply provides power to the system, and the cooling fan on the processor spins, and hard drive crunches, etc, but there is no boot up from the motherboard. The motherboard is an FIC AM37 L, and the processor is an AMD Athlon AX2000DMT3C.

I do not have another motherboard to test the processor, and visa-versa. I have disconnected all components from the motherboard except for the processor (of course), but it still won't boot up. No BIOS beep, no video signal, nothing. I've tried an APG video card, different memory..but still nothing but the cooling fan spinning and and hearing the hard drive crunching. I have removed the processor and inspected it, but I don't find anything that appears to be bad areas on the processor.

I do not want to purchase a processor assuming that's the problem, and then find out it's not. I am assuming it's the processor...but just not sure.

Any suggestions?
Ron

the board is probably suffering from the bad capacitors issue..search goolgle for that

 

[dct693]

Get out your mutimeter, jumper the power supply ON, check for -5v, that's minus 5 volts, may not be there.

I second this suggestion. I just troubleshooted another emachines computer. The system powered up, but no video, no beeps, no booting. I checked that peripherals were getting power. They were. Swapped out MB, same thing. Then I noticed the CD drive powered intermittently. Swapped out power supply. Bingo!

 

[tfranklin29]

Mine is doing the same thing.. I have a laptop but the processor is not as big as the one in my desktop so I use it to play games and I cant.. If you guys do figure something out (or if I do) be sure to let me know.. I will do the same.. tfranklin29@yahoo.com

 

[Guest]

Hi. I just spent $60.00 for this advice from eMachines but it worked, so I'm passing it on to you. When EM goes into power save, unplug the tower, then press the power button on the front of the tower for 45 seconds. Plug power cable back in, turn on the tower, and you should be good to go. Worked for me!

 

[withitone]

I just got mine to work. I did the "hold the power button for 45 seconds" thing with no fix. I tried something else. I pulled the plug THEN held in the power switch as i plugged the power cord back in and Bam, it came up!!

 

[eldon withers]

thanks to every one for your time.mine 5048 dose the same thing. thought is was hard drive.but trying4 i got nothing. i was going to pull out screwsand beat it down with a big hammer but iv done that to 10 or so crapy ones when i first got into them.5dollars at good will was a kick later from olympia wa

 

[kevo_88]

honestly just go to ebay, get a pci video card.. a cheap low profile one that your computer will power its only like 160 watts power supply, so no way you'll power a good video card, besides put a new power supply in I'm afraid its a waste, only likely to burn the rest of this cheap thing out!.. most cards now are 300 watts or more if you are looking at 256mb or more...

I'd suggest the old style that goes in the lower PCI slots (mine are white sockets)... even though it does support pci express. (upper black sockets 2 sizes) NOTE THERE IS A CLIP AND IT SHOWS ON THE VIDEO CARD.. I believe x2 and x16 or is it x8 IDK should be the same as mine "same model" I currently have a 1mb (megabite) in there much too little, pulled from an older computer, wow it makes xp look like windows 95... cant' do that.. wanyway.. yeah got to have some memory to the card, just not too much or you will fry other stuff.. that tower is a total weak tit.. so good luck... so search something like "pci video card" or "vga pci" or if you have a good tv/monitor search "hdmi pci" there is an older hd type of cord you are more likely to buy idc what ya call it, its already out of date, but good enough for this purpose, sure you can get a cheap one from either overseas like china or hong kong or just a used one whatever man..


Wish you could help me, I believe its simply a blown capacitor I could solder a new one in.. sure that is past your level of skills... Sadly I'll bet as soon as I find the right one, get the info and get one at like radio shack, i'm afraid the capacitor would cost almost as much as a Video card to put in the pci slot!

 

[015kool]

Some machines are poorly designed (this is one of them), if you look at the video module your monitor hooks up to, you'll see 2 hex screws that your cord attaches to. Their function should be two-fold: 1 To secure your connection. 2 To stabilize the video module by connecting it to the frame of the tower thereby protecting its connection to the motherboard. Yours only does the 1st. If you notice, the module is free-floating and is secured only by the solder holding to the motherboard. You could probably apply some pressure one way or another and your monitor will probably come on when you restore the power (don't do it with the power on). Or you can get a pci express graphics card off of your local Craigslist or where ever install it and that will most likely solve your problem. Or if you have the skill level you can re-solder the mod to the motherboard, or even use some kind of paste but, if you go that route you better look for a way to secure the module to the frame as well to keep it in place, unless you can be assured no pressure will ever be put on it again. It's most likely just poor design.
Good luck

 

[JOHN MENUIS]

I am working on a client's Emachine, and the problem I'm having is that it won't boot up. You can turn the machine on, and the power supply provides power to the system, and the cooling fan on the processor spins, and hard drive crunches, etc, but there is no boot up from the motherboard. The motherboard is an FIC AM37 L, and the processor is an AMD Athlon AX2000DMT3C.

I do not have another motherboard to test the processor, and visa-versa. I have disconnected all components from the motherboard except for the processor (of course), but it still won't boot up. No BIOS beep, no video signal, nothing. I've tried an APG video card, different memory..but still nothing but the cooling fan spinning and and hearing the hard drive crunching. I have removed the processor and inspected it, but I don't find anything that appears to be bad areas on the processor.

I do not want to purchase a processor assuming that's the problem, and then find out it's not. I am assuming it's the processor...but just not sure.

Any suggestions?
Ron

How do you determine if a processor is bad by examining it?

 

[JOHN MENUIS]

Curious as to how you determine a CPU is bad by examining it other than bent pins?

 

[harleycowboy61]

Most problems is caused by computer over heated on the processer. prosser has pulled away from the motherboard on one pin. easy fix,, if you some flux paste like for soldering try to put it under the 775 processer no on top where the pins are to make contact with the processer leave the processer in place locked down because you will have to boot the computer with the heat sink off so it will get hot to reflow the solder back into place. but make sure flux is under good but not all over the place on the motherboard. now make sure you have a good solid place to put the motherboard on ,,not in the computer because it will break the board circut vains when flexing. no on medal table good wood will be fine. hook the motherboard up like it would be in the computer tower with out the tower and when it comes on hold down on the processer frame with out the heat sink and do not push on the processer it self just the frame,, the processer will heat up to 186 temp and the computer will shout off but the temp will reflow the solder underneath but hold it down hard untill it cools good if you do not keep the pressure on the processer if will come off more and short out and it will be done, so hold it down even until it cools good and it will work again I do this for a living marks hobby computer & tv repairs

 

[evtgr]

I just acquired the same machine and found it had the same problem you're discussing. I tried the "hold down power button" prior to applying power solution - no fix. Then I thought it might be the mentioned power supply problem and I started checking voltages. Didn't find a problem there either. Then I decided to try the little jumper I found on the motherboard labeled "BR1". It's 3 pins between the 2 PCI slots and the 1 PCIe slot. BTW, my machine uses the Intel motherboard with a 3GHz Pentium 4 rather than the FIC board you mention with an AMD processor. So layouts probably differ; I'll give the solution I found for others who may have the Intel board and maybe it can work on the AMD also. The aforementioned jumper lists 3 positions: 1) Normal: jumper on pins 1,2; 2) Config: jumper on pins 2,3; 3)Recover: no pins jumpered. I moved the jumper from 'normal' to 'config', with power off of course, and when I powered up ' Viola' I started getting a video signal. It offered the option for F2 to take me into setup. I did this, checked settings and changed a few. Then it tells you, "Shut down. Then move jumper back to 'normal' position and reboot. It seemed to work fine from there and I booted into Windows with no problem. To add a little more, I next put the modem card back in and put in a PCIe video card. Powered up and it seemed to be back to the "no boot" problem. So I redid the jumper thing with 'config' position and went through the steps again. Worked again after that so I may draw the conclusion that this will happen anytime the hardware is reconfigured, but I've only got the one event to base that on and thus I could be off base.

 

[MLAPR]

Fried Motherboard, just write a good comment so customer can return or RMA the computer, if customer is out of warranty then buy a new motherboard CPU combo, or if current CPU is not built in the motherboard then just buy a new board with the same socket as the broken computer, this cheap motherboard lack of good programing in the BIOS chip, also prone to fail components such as capacitors, resistors, etc. Just RMA the thing or return to seller.

 

[Guest]

i got on the wrong thread so i am removing my reply.