E Machines T5234

[Guest]

Hello, I have a E Machine T5234 machine that just randomly shuts off. It may stay on for 2 seconds or 30 seconds and then just cut off as if power has been lost. I have been doing some research and trouble shooting on the machine and have narrowed down the problem. Initially I thought it was an heat issue and the machine was cutting it self off due to over heating, so I cleaned the heat sink and fan real well and replaced the thermal compound between the heat sink and cpu. Still the same issue. So then I begin to unplug some hardware inside the machine just to see if it was the issue. I unplug the HD (SATA cable and power cable) and boot the machine and it does the same thing. Stayed on for a few seconds and then cut off. I plug the HD back in and then unplug the DVD ROM drive (IDE cable and power supply) and boot the machine. Now the machine will stay on without a problem. So I replace the DVD drive with another one and still the same issue. Then I unplug the IDE cable from the DVD rom drive leaving the power to the drive and the machine will stay on. (This happens with the new and old DVD drive, wanted to determine if it was power or IDE issue). So it seems that there is some type of problem with the IDE channel? I have tried changing the jumpers on the dvd drive from CS to Master to slave and still the same issue, although the machine seemed to stay on for 20 or 30 seconds longer when the dvd rom drive was jumped to SLAVE. I have also tried a different IDE cable as I thought maybe the cable was shortening out. Still no luck. Any thoughts?S

 

[Guest]

CT1615, any suggestions on how to test and see if its PSU? I just tried to boot the machine again with the DVD rom unplugged (as stated in the 1st post) and it just powers off. So I'm beginning to believe that the IDE channel has no issues and it might be the power supply. Another thing I noticed is upon booting the machine is it take a few seconds for the fan to begin spinning and the HD to begin spinning as if its having power issues.

 

[Guest]

Replaced the power supply, same issue. I guess its the motherboard? What you think?