Computer won't turn on!

[Aaquib]

Hi there,

I have a fairly old (2003) eMachines PC which I attempted turning on after about a year or so, and the computer won't turn on at all. I remember always having a hard time with the power button. I'd need to jam it or fiddle around with it and then finally the computer would turn on, but it's not doing that now.

What could I do? I'm guessing it's either the power button or the PSU but I'm not sure how to determine that. I also have a very, very old computer case and I was wondering if I could put this computer in that case so that I'd get a different power button.

Please let me know,

 

[PottedMeat]

A quick way of seeing if the power button is bad would be to hunt down the wires from the button to the motherboard. Disconnect the switch and bridge the two pins on the motherboard with a screwdriver ( anything conductive ). The computer should power up if the power supply is ok.

As long as the old case is ATX ( the back part where you stick in the cables for the keyboard/mouse/USB/serial/Parallel ports will be very similar to each other ) you shouldn't have a problem moving everything from one case to another.

 

[Aaquib]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
A quick way of seeing if the power button is bad would be to hunt down the wires from the button to the motherboard. Disconnect the switch and bridge the two pins on the motherboard with a screwdriver ( anything conductive ). The computer should power up if the power supply is ok.

As long as the old case is ATX ( the back part where you stick in the cables for the keyboard/mouse/USB/serial/Parallel ports will be very similar to each other ) you shouldn't have a problem moving everything from one case to another.

Could you please go into a little more detail on how to make sure the power button is bad? I found where the power button leads to, and tried disconnecting and reconnecting it, with no luck.

 

[Harvey]

Check to make sure you connected the power button to the correct pair of pins on the motherboard. For example, you may have attached it to the "Reset" button. The manual for your board should identify the pins.

You can check whether it's the motherboard or the switch:

1. The "Start" button is a momentary switch. When you push it, it makes a momentary across the two terminal pins. It does not stay "on." You can test it with an ohm meter. Just insert something like a couple of pins into the two terminal header, connect the two leads from the meter across the two pins, and push the button. If it's working, the resistance should drop to or near zero ohms. If it doesn't, or it drops so some value much larger than zero, the switch, or the wiring is bad.

2. With everything else connected and the main power switch turned on, you can use a small metal object, such as a small screwdriver, to short across the two pins designated for the "Start" function. That does the same thing as hitting the "Start" switch. If the startup circuitry is working, that should turn on the system.

I hope that helps.

 

[Aaquib]

Originally posted by: Harvey
Check to make sure you connected the power button to the correct pair of pins on the motherboard. For example, you may have attached it to the "Reset" button. The manual for your board should identify the pins.

You can check whether it's the motherboard or the switch:

1. The "Start" button is a momentary switch. When you push it, it makes a momentary across the two terminal pins. It does not stay "on." You can test it with an ohm meter. Just insert something like a couple of pins into the two terminal header, connect the two leads from the meter across the two pins, and push the button. If it's working, the resistance should drop to or near zero ohms. If it doesn't, or it drops so some value much larger than zero, the switch, or the wiring is bad.

2. With everything else connected and the main power switch turned on, you can use a small metal object, such as a small screwdriver, to short across the two pins designated for the "Start" function. That does the same thing as hitting the "Start" switch. If the startup circuitry is working, that should turn on the system.

I hope that helps.

Could you please point me to where those 2 pins would be? I can take a picture of the internals fo the computer if you'd like.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Aaquib

Could you please point me to where those 2 pins would be? I can take a picture of the internals fo the computer if you'd like.

If you have your manual, you should find it, there. If you don't have it, you should be able to search eMachines' sited for the model number of your machine and download the manual, usually as a PDF (Acrobat) file.

If you can't find it, post the model number, and I or another experienced member may be able to help you find it.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Harvey you are too kind. Just reading aaquib's posts are pissing me off.

 

[Aaquib]

It's an emachines T2240 and I can't seem to find any background info about it online. Any suggestions?

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: OILFIELDTRASH

Harvey you are too kind. Just reading aaquib's posts are pissing me off.

Why? Noobs come here for help and to learn. We were all noobs, once, and helping is easy.

If you want to see me in less than "kind" mode, read what I say to the ethically challenged moral turds who support torture in P&N. :shocked:

 

[Harvey]

Here's the download page for your machine. Here's the manual.

Unfortunately, the manual and other pages are as uninformative as eMachines are good, at all.

I searched for other sources for the info you need, but without a pic, there's no way I can guide you to the right connectors on the motherboard. You can look inside. If you can trace the wires back to the switch, you'll know which pair of wires to test with an ohm meter, as I noted, above.

If that pair of wires and others all come down to one solid, multi-pin header that plugs into the motherboard, it isn't connected to the wrong pair, but either the switch or the motherboard could still be bad.

The specs for your machine include a 40 GB hard drive and 128 MB of PC2100 RAM. That's woefully inadequate to run Windows XP. Given the age and quality of the stock configuration and generally low quality of eMachines, if you haven't upgraded the components, the machine isn't worth much effort or any money to fix. It would be easy for someone with just a little experience easy to figure it out, but if you can't find local friends who know what they're doing inside a machine, it may be time to dump it and buy something worth the effort.

Sorry to be so down about it, but the value of your time and that of anyone who could help you would be better spent evaluating the best new system you can buy for any given budget.

 

[Aaquib]

Thanks for the continue helped Harvey. If I take a picture, would that help? I don't really want to use this machine regularily, just as a media server, so I was hoping I could easily fix it and get it running.

 

[Harvey]

You can post the pic, but the problem is, I don't think a pic would show enough detail to identify which pins are for the start button.

As I said, if all the front panel wires aren't all in a single large header, you can try to trace the wires back to the Start switch to identify the right pins.

Given the age of the machine, there are other possible problems, as well. Look at the power capacitors (the tall, cylindrical components on the motherboard). If any of them shows any signs of leakage around the base, or is swolen or tilted off to one side, or if the top of any of them is domed, instead of flat, they're shot.

If so, or if the motherboard is otherwise dead, it's not worth the money to save it. If it's a typical eMachine, the power supply wasn't adequate for it when it was new so it and the case are not going to be usable in a new system.

You can transfer your files to a new machine by temporarily connecting the old hard drive to a new system as a slave.

ALL electrolytic capacitors eventually die, and five years is about the time they start giving out, especially the cheap ones. I'm an electronic design engineer, and I've never seen anything I liked inside an eMachine or Gateway (same company) machine. I'm afraid that, even if you got it working, it would be inadequate for your stated purpose without spending money on much more RAM, a bigger hard drive and possibly a better CPU. Before you go that route, you should know that you could buy even better components for less money, and you'd still have the inadequate power supply without spending even more money. In other words, the parts to build a new system for your puproses would probably cost less than trying to fix the old machine.

The only good news is, Best Buy and some other stores offer free recycling of old, dead machines.

I'd like to help you more, but I'm afraid there's not a lot I can say to encourage you to pursue this beyond finding a local knowlegeable friend who can find the problem or confirm what I've said.

 

[Aaquib]

Alright, thanks for the help Harvey!

 

[Harvey]

You're welcome. Sorry I couldn't give you better news, but sometimes reality's like that. Check with a local friend, but my personal opinion is that you shouldn't waste a lot of time trying to salvage this one.

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: Aaquib
It's an emachines T2240 and I can't seem to find any background info about it online. Any suggestions?

I have repaired tons of these emachines T2240. 9 out of 10 times the motherboard itself is the issue.

pcgeek11