LeeShearer
Royersford, PA
Senior Member
Joined: 01/25/2006
View Profile
 Offline
|
About 2 months ago a storm went through my area. My computer was dead. I changed the power supply and everything was ok. This morning the computer is dead again. No storms. Could the computer be knocking out the power supply? Computer is about 6 years old, E Machines. I don't want to replace the power supply again if the problem could be the computer.
I'm not sure what other info is needed so please ask.
Thanks
Lee
2005 Fleetwood Resort EXT 25SB
1999 Chevy K3500 short bed dually
|
Jamesrpm
Oregon Coast
Senior Member
Joined: 08/30/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
6 year old E machine isn't worth pouring money into , time to shop for a new computer. Pull the hard drive out of the E machine and hook it to a USB drive box to get your stuff off of it.
___________________________________________
I plan on living forever , so far , so good
|
djevans
Tennessee
Senior Member
Joined: 03/24/2002
View Profile
|
"Usually," computers and peripherals don't kill power supplies, power supplies usually are hurt and then mortally wound the motherboard. Consider yourself lucky a failed power supply didn't take out the MB.
It it's a "standard" power supply, find a quality replacement ATX P/S. The "TIGER" branded types and similar, simply fail way too frequently for us. Do not purchase inexpensive power supplies.
"E-Machines" are simply not thought of, as machines built with quality components.
I can't think of the P/S brand we sell (locally) and use, but we have virtually eliminated power supply failures. I'd recommend that you not contact the machine vendor, but ask a computer technician you trust what they recommend.
Some good brands are UNEEC and ANTEC.
One other major improvement would be to get some "margin" in the wattage. What I mean by that is, purchase a bigger power supply.
Low end computer manufactures can save a few dollars by purchasing power supplies that simply "barely meet" (if that) the needs of the machine. The power supplies they select are running "flat out" maximum wattage 100% of the time. Well sure they fail... If your machine has a 250 watt P/S, get a larger one and give the P/S some "design headroom." Get a larger one than the original one was. The seller of your first replacement might also have sold you a smaller one 'cause that's all he had in stock. Get a P/S with lots of capacity.
I personally would never repair an E-Machine, even a relatively new one unless the customer insisted.
Don . . . near 36.171N 086.784W, TN near here
WA4ZFN
2003 Fleetwood Revolution 40C - Saturn VUE
350hp Cummins ISC
- - - P i c t u r e s - - -
I'm confused, WAIT! Maybe I'm not!
|
jplunkett
Virginia
Senior Member
Joined: 04/04/2008
View Profile
Offline
|
Ditto on bumping up the power supply. Check to be sure the new one will fit in the space available for it. I'd also be sure to get good back ups if you don't have them already, once it comes back to life, if you pursue this approach. It does sound like this computer is reaching the end of its days!
safe travels,
John & Elizabeth Plunkett
Louisa, Virginia
|
strollin
San Martin, CA
Senior Member
Joined: 06/12/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
If you are happy with the computer and it does what you need it to do then it is worth fixing rather than buying a new one.
While bumping up to a higher wattage PS is probably not a bad idea, I would at least consider your wall power. Is it possible that there have been spikes or brownouts in your area. Lots of times during the summer months the power company forces brownouts. You might consider getting a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) which should help in the case of spikes or brownouts.
|
|
|
thebat68
Spring Hill, FL
Senior Member
Joined: 06/10/2005
View Profile
|
Don't waste your money. Emachines are notorious for the PS and the Motherboard going out (one takes out the other I'm sure). I've had to tell numerous customer's their emachine is dead. Don't throw good money after bad, time to upgrade! 
Stay away form emachines in the future, they are of very poor quality.
2000 27' Fleetwood Prowler
2000 Ford Expedition 4WD Eddie Bauer
'91 & '95 daughers, '94 son.
RV'ing or Camping in one form or another all my life.
(Map is only with current TT)
|
david_42
Oregon
Senior Member
Joined: 04/08/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
It is entirely possible, even likely, that when the first power supply was damaged, the motherboard or some other critical component was also damaged. It worked for a while with the new power supply, then failed.
With the exception of very high-end graphics cards or 5-6 hard drives, nothing in a standard PC will overload a power supply.
At six years, a newer machine is a good idea. I picked up a refurbished Dell Optiplex with XP for $250 a couple months ago, for testing applications.
|
wa8yxm
Wherever I happen to park
Senior Member
Joined: 07/04/2006
View Profile
Offline
|
Happened to me.. As it happens I have two power outlets near the main computer which are on oppisite legs of the 120/240 volt house power.. I have two (Actually more like five) volt meters and plugged one into each outlet.. 120/120
Then when an Air Conditioner kicked in I saw the meters swing.. The total was still 240 but.... One went down to around 85-90 and the other was 150-155
The computer did not like 150
Called Edison.. They found a problem with the safety ground and fixed it, then they sent a crew to replace the drop to the house as I had an open neutral
Nothin adds excitment like something that is none of your business
Kenwood TS-2000 housed in a 2005 Damon Intruder 377
|
NGRRFan
Colo. Spgs., CO
Senior Member
Joined: 07/25/2002
View Profile
Offline
|
Having just worked on an eMachine, I found out that the biggest fault with them is the power supply and the second biggest problem is that when the power supply fails it usually takes the motherboard too.
I was able to salvage the case, memory, CPU, and hard drives, so I put in a new motherboard and different brand power supply. So for an expenditure of under $100 I got a replacement computer that does what I want it to.
Rich,and Tobi (the rescued dog)
Prowler 5ver, 84 Ford F250
KCOCOLOR78 Weather
Colo. Spgs. CO
|
cybervanner
Richmond, VA
Senior Member
Joined: 09/25/2007
View Profile
Offline
|
***NEVER EVER BUY A CHEAP POWER SUPPLY!!!!!
The power supply in your computer is the most critical component in your computer and it's the one component that can cause the most physical damage to other components in your computer. Quite frequently, I see people skimping on power supplies when they build PC's themselves or replace bad power supplies... manufacturers do this too! They tend to go for the little $20-$30 ones, and just make sure the wattage is matches. Unfortunately, this is the worst way to do it. Most of these low-end power supplies have terrible regulation and filtering, and at the very least, have low-grade parts that fail prematurely, which is what seems to have happened in your case. E-machines typically use lower end parts.
You can probably get that computer going again and keep it from having any future power supply failures by just buying a higher end power supply from a common computer parts dealer, like NewEgg.com, or Tigerdirect. They have Power supplies from the cheapie $20 specials all the way up to mil-spec $400 units! I would recommend spending around $65-$100 for a good one. Make sure the wattage is the same as the one that came out, but if you don't plan to upgrade your computer with more cards or USB stuff, you can instead, spend the money on better quality, and reliability. The wattage rating is similar to the horsepower rating in a car, and it tells you very little about the long-term reliability of the vehicle in question, but just simply tells you if it will be adequate for the job.
Suprisingly enough, the power supply can be frequently blamed for all sorts of strange computer problems, like blue-screen crashes, random reboots, locking up, etc. At the very minimum, you can HEAR the difference in a good power supply in your speakers. When your computer has a good power supply with nice filtering, you can turn your PC speakers up and hear very little, if any noise in the background! Good power supplies are also more efficient, and will convert more of the line voltage power into DC power for your computer, versus just dissipating it as heat. Here's a note to wattage ratings...that's the INPUT rating, not the output. If you have a cheap, inefficient power supply, more of the power is lost as heat, and not actually put to good use running your computer, so the wattage rating can be significantly less than spec!
|
|
|
|
