Emachine 770 fra cked!! Help!!

irishshogun

Yesterday my machine started to shut down almost as soon as I turned it on, I had a look for all the usual suspects, viruses, trojans, broken fan, dodgy hard drive but to no avail , so I suspected it was the motherboard, putting all the bits back the machine now refuses to even start, ( I treble checked all the power connections) the power switch flashes like crazy and seems to start / stop so I'm royally screwed as this is out of my skill (of lack of) level. I'd appreciate any help you could give me about fixing it, its an Emachine 770 with a 2.4ghz P4, trigem IM845G (imperial) mobo,
Dont know if it will take a new motherboard even? I've searched the web like crazy but can find sod all about emachines other than its specs, dunno even how to get the bnloody fan off, it seems glued!
Thanks

StRiKeR

check to see if the mobo is shorted anywhere first

irishshogun

StRiKeR wrote:

check to see if the mobo is shorted anywhere first

How? By looking for burned spots? I'll take the cover off and have a look.

It looks fine.


The machine will now boot up, for about 10 seconds then shut down, I'm baffled, could it be the fan? its seems to be working fine tho..help..please
I formatted the drive and reinstalled the OS to rule out viruses

StRiKeR

sometimes the mounting screws location could be very close to a soilder point at the back of the motherboard, and generally you shouldn't have the scews too tight, so there could be a very slight movement of the position over time, and the screw might joint 2 soilder points together which are not suppose to, you can't see it from the top, you have to remove the board to check, usually it shouldn't be burn, that happened to a chaintec board I had before, I put a non conductive spacer on it and solved the problem, but that may not be your problem, but its worth checking

irishshogun

StRiKeR wrote:

you have to remove the board to check, usually it shouldn't be burn, but that may not be your problem, but its worth checking

Bugger, thats a bit sever, the machine came ready assembled and has been running for a couple of years with no probs till now, but if you think that could be it I'll have a look, I cant afford a new one yet so I try just about anything at this point.
Thanks

Edit: not that prob anyway, have been looking through the other members posts and most lead to a poss power failure gonna have to buy a new PSU and and try it I sopose.

StRiKeR

I wouldn't say 100% thats what it is but a its a possibility, no harm checking it, have you done any upgrade to the system since you got it, I haven't looked at the setup yet, if you want you could post the full spec of its setup, that gives everyone more clues and ideas!If I could be of any help I will, and your're welcome!

irishshogun

StRiKeR,
Just went and installed a new PSU a 350, there was a 250 in it, but no joy, still loads up OS then shuts down. I dont know what to do from here and I can't really afford top hand it in to be fixed.

My machines an emachine 770
2.4 P4
1gig ram 233mhz
nvidea gforce4 128mg
pioneer dvd+-
cd burner Samsung
conexant pci modem
realtek 819 Pci network card
I dont know what else to tell you or what you need to know
.
Thanks for the advice tho

Edit: A more precise readout of the machine

eMachine 770
Computer
ACPI Uniprocessor PC
Disk Drives
Maxtor 4D080H4 // Changed to an 80 gig
Display Adapters
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440// changed to 128 version
DVD / CD-ROM drives
SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-240B
SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616T//changed to Pioneer 109D
Floppy Disk Controllers
Standard Floppy Disk Controller
Floppy Disk Drives
Floppy Disk Drive
IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
Intel(R) 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CB
Primary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE Channel
Keyboards
Standard 101/102 Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mice and Other Pointing Devices
PS/2 Compatible Mouse
Modems
Generic SoftK56
Monitors
Plug and Play Monitor
Network adapter
Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Ports (COM & LPT)
Communications Port (COM1)
ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
Processors
Intel (R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Sound, Video and Game Controllers
Audio Codecs
Avance AC 97 Audio
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Video Capture Devices
Media Control Devices
MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device
Standard Game Port
Video Codecs
System Devices
ACPI Fixed Feature Button
Direct Memory Access Controller
Generic Bus
Intel(R) 82801DB LPC Interface Controller - 24C0
Intel(R) 82801DB PCI Bridge - 244E
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM SMBus Controller - 24C3
Intel(R) 82845G/GL Processor to AGP Controller - 2561
Intel(R) 82845G/GL Processor to I/O Controller 2560
ISAPNP Read Data Port
Microcode Update Device
Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
Motherboard Resources
Numeric Data Processor
PCI Bus
Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator
Programmable Interrupt Controller
System CMOS / real time clock
System Speaker
System Timer
Universal Serial Bus Controllers
Intel PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C2
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C4
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C7
USB 2.0 Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub

Blogoffmen

hi,

is it shutting down after loading? may blue screen?
What i need to find out is, is it possible that windows is corrupted?
If not, take out modem, then boot.
Same problem again, put modem back in, take one memory out, boot up...
try this with (memorys 266MHz i suppose, modem, may Lan-card if pci).
Post if you still unlucky.
Dont think it will shorten itself if it hasnt been moved etc.

where are you based?

edit: be careful doing so, we dont want to make more damage! never touch chips,
only handle/touch it on the edges (cards, sticks)! never force something in or out!
also unplug mains when taking out or inserting parts to avoid unwanted start of computer.
I hope you also connected the seperate 4pin power lead wich looks like a square...

regards

irishshogun

Hi Blogoffmen,

Thanks for the advice, I'm gonna try what you suggested, I'll take out an item at a time and try and boot up, then move on, I'm starting with the Graphics card, what happens is, the machine loads up fully to the desktop then shuts down or more correctly seems to go into standby, the orange light is on the power button, I'll let you know how I get on..wish me luck

I'm based in Limerick.
I bought a static strap just to be safe and not totally mess up the pc

Thanks again

Blogoffmen

leave graphics or replace with a friends one for test as it wont start at all without one
also go to safe mode and see if that works, or safe mode with networking to get online.
Need to know if safe mode is fine.
To get into safe mode press "F8" after switching on repeatedly (like once a sec till menu appears).

irishshogun

no joy after removing all the parts sequentially and rebooting, not even to safe mode.
2 new things, the screen now says "power saving enabled, monitor will now shut down" before it goes off and the Machine makes noises starting up, it goes, beep...beepbeepbeep...beepbeepbeep...beep, dunno its this is relevant but I said I'd let ye know anyway, any other advice would be great,
thanks again.

Blogoffmen

hmm doesnt look so good,

good chance on faulty graphics card and/or memory.
beeps are given in sequences to tell you what part is not working correctly.
info: http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

A faulty main board could be the cause too.
Any chance of making a bootable floppy or cd to run a memtest etc?

i also recommend this for troubleshooting: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

as you can test nicely ram harddisk etc.

paddyjoe18

Try this website I find it good
http://www.webuser.co.uk/forums

irishshogun

thanks for the advice lads, I'll give it a go in the morning, been at it all day and I'm knackered.. had a quick look at the beepcode site I've got 8 beeps and it seems to point to a faulty video card? I'm check further tomorrow, will try the rest then too,
thanks again

StRiKeR

you can get bootable iso image of memtest at www.memtest86.com, also you can try install windows to a different folder, see if that will boot into windows when there's no graphic card driver installed if the beep is reporting graphic card, if it works before graphic card driver installed, then install the driver and see if that still working, assuming the VC is causing the problem, if it beeps and wont boot, get a load of another VC or buy a real cheap one for testing.

Irishpimpdude

Im nearly sure 8 post beeps is the ram...

irishshogun

thanks for all the advice lads,
I'm getting a loan of a pc on Monday and will try those mem tests and boot discs ye advised. by backup machine is ancient, doesnt even had a cd burner so I'm stuck untill then..
thanks again and I'll let ye know how I get on.. I hope its not the mobo, I'ver priced one for 90E, but if thats not the prob, I'm out the money and still no PC, asking all my mates to keep an eye out for an old micro atx mobo for me...wish me luck,