desperate for help

[trish95]

I have a fairly new eMachine (got it Thanksgiving Day new).Running WinME. The problem is that when I turn the system on, you can hear it humming, then the power light goes off and the machine is still on. The monitor is not getting power to it either. I have tried to restore, reinstall the OP.. just about everything I can think of and still nothing works.
Can anyone give me some advice?
Thank you in advance.
Trish

[mjc]

Has it ever worked properly?

I think it may be time to exercise the warranty and make them fix it...or replace it.

------------------
mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[alex666]

You came to the right spot. I am far from being the person to ultimately help you, there are some knowledgeable folks here. But I am curious. Did the machine work at all? What's the history here? Did this occur suddenly, after you installed a new program, after a lightning strike? Can you return the machine? What was it that you reinstalled, the operating system (OP?). For people to help you out, you will need to be a lot more specific about exactly what has happened. Good luck.

Geez, while writing my response to you, somebody else responded with the same advice re. warranty. Maybe that's the way to go.

Marty

[This message has been edited by alex666 (edited 02-01-2002).]

[trish95]

That was my first thought.. lightning. We have a surge protector, but that is not very effective though it is a good thing to do. The system is/was in top shape. Ran scandisk, defrag, antivirus, cleaned out all temp files, cleared out cookies.. the whole nine yards on a once a week basis.
All indications point to lightning, only no lightning in the area at the time.


Originally posted by alex666:
You came to the right spot. I am far from being the person to ultimately help you, there are some knowledgeable folks here. But I am curious. Did the machine work at all? What's the history here? Did this occur suddenly, after you installed a new program, after a lightning strike? Can you return the machine? What was it that you reinstalled, the operating system (OP?). For people to help you out, you will need to be a lot more specific about exactly what has happened. Good luck.

Marty

[trish95]

It has always worked properly. This problem has me stumped and the warrenty is not very good. I will have to check to see if it is still good. I just like to try everything I can first.
Thanks for such a quick reply....but I really like to try all I can first.
Might have to do just that, if it is still under warrenty.


Originally posted by mjc:
Has it ever worked properly?

I think it may be time to exercise the warranty and make them fix it...or replace it.

[alex666]

I've had 2 old 486s do much the same thing, one day they were working fine, the next they were basically dead, nothing on the screen, but the fan still worked. I never did find out what happened, they were old machines, one of them I used at work to run a specific dos program. But I have a theory, and it is that we tend to get power surges at our home, we lose way too many light bulbs, and I have to wonder if these older machines just could not tolerate the fluctuations, neither were on very good surge protectors (have even blown a few surge protectors, too). In the process of getting a new electric box put in. Anyway, just a theory, but could something like that have happened to your machine? I mean, did you just turn it on one day and it didn't work?

[alex666]

One other thought, can you boot it up via your floppy drive using an emergency startup disk?

[trish95]

You know,I have a pretty extensive knowledge of computers and can pretty much fix all kinds of things... but something THAT simple,the thing I tell others to do...I forget to try...ugh!!!! Where is my brain?
Thank you. I will try that in the morning..I feel soooo stupid.
I recon that old saying is true. The easiest solutions are harder to find when you are trying to do things the hard way.
HA HA old Mississippi saying.
Thanks again
Trish

Originally posted by alex666:
One other thought, can you boot it up via your floppy drive using an emergency startup disk?

[kayofcircles]

We have power fluxes if there is lightning two counties over, so we gritted our teeth and bought APC backups. Only downside is that when the backup "squeaks" about once a day, I find myself clinging to ceiling. Almost everything else in house on surge protectors including all phones. We too go through a lot of light bulbs!

Edit: Forgot to ask if you bought your EMachine from somewhere like Circuit City? We bought an EMachine for husband's work from there, and had read about poor service from EMachine, so went ahead and bought a service plan. (And put EMachine at work on APC backup, by the way.) Maybe you could "exchange" from purchase site?

[This message has been edited by kayofcircles (edited 02-02-2002).]

[trish95]

It seems we are going to take it back and let the company fix it. The start up disk did not help..
Thanks for all your help.


Originally posted by kayofcircles:
We have power fluxes if there is lightning two counties over, so we gritted our teeth and bought APC backups. Only downside is that when the backup "squeaks" about once a day, I find myself clinging to ceiling. Almost everything else in house on surge protectors including all phones. We too go through a lot of light bulbs!

Edit: Forgot to ask if you bought your EMachine from somewhere like Circuit City? We bought an EMachine for husband's work from there, and had read about poor service from EMachine, so went ahead and bought a service plan. (And put EMachine at work on APC backup, by the way.) Maybe you could "exchange" from purchase site?

[This message has been edited by kayofcircles (edited 02-02-2002).]