Member Avatar for finkdog

I have an eMachines desktop, an extremely basic model with Windows ME on it, that was bought brand new about 7 years ago. I had it for 3 years before it died. The night it died, a storm was coming, so, as usual, I shut it down and unplugged it. (I don't trust the the old wiring in the house, even with a surge protector). Everything was working great, until that apparently killer shut down. The next day, I plugged it back in and turned it on, and nothing showed up on the screen, all the fans came on, I heard the HDD spinning, and about every half second, the hard drive light would flash along with a simultaneous clicking noise. I replaced the RAM and the HDD with another, hoping that would help me out in the diagnosis, but as luck would have it, nothing, same old thing. Stopping the CPU fan with my finger or unplugging it gets rid of the clicking noise but not the flashing light and still no boot. I contacted eMachines about it 3 years ago and they never answered back.

I'm planning on re-building it into a gaming PC someday, but I want to know the most reasonable possibilities for this malfunction so I can get it running as soon as possible.

Thanks for any help.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

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Good points from , and — their replies point to the right method: isolate the motherboard and power system, then bring the machine up with the fewest parts possible. The fastest route to a useful diagnosis is a bench-style, step-by-step isolation so you can tell whether it’s a peripheral, the PSU, or the board itself.

Practical bench steps: power down and unplug, remove all drives and nonessential cards, and disconnect the front-panel headers (power/reset/HDD LED) to rule out a shorted switch or cable. Move the board to a nonconductive surface and install only the CPU + cooler, one known-good RAM stick, the PSU and video (or use onboard video). Fit a small chassis speaker and power on. Listen for beep codes and try the other RAM slot or stick if needed. If the system posts with the minimal parts, add components back one at a time to find the culprit.

Power-supply checks: a PSU fan spinning or a paperclip start does not guarantee the supply is stable under load. Swap in a known-good PSU when possible. If not, measure main-rail voltages at the motherboard connector with a multimeter (expect roughly +3.3V, +5V and +12V rails and a +5V standby). Use safe procedures when probing live connectors; a practical how-to is here: .

Do a careful visual inspection of the motherboard and PSU for bulging or leaking electrolytic capacitors, scorch marks or burnt smell — these are common failure modes on older rigs (see Identifying blown capacitors). If the board uses proprietary connectors or shows physical damage, replacing the motherboard and getting a modern ATX PSU is usually the most practical fix. If planning a rebuild, verify CPU and RAM in a known-good board before reusing them.

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Member Avatar for Chaky

I had similar expiriance with one old machine. Turned out the the CD drive was fryed and kept the system from even making POST. After I unplugged it PC came back to life, minus CD drive.

Member Avatar for disophisis

Is this running on integrated video?

Am I right in saying the main problem is that the monitor gets no signal?

if the video is integrated, try a dedicated video card that you know works (even if it's not very good)

if it's a dedicated card, try reseating it.

other than that, just try what the guy above said. Just strip the computer down to nothing but the cpu (and cooler of course) and try booting it up. then just add on one part at a time from there until you run into something.

Member Avatar for jbennet


I'm planning on re-building it into a gaming PC someday, but I want to know the most reasonable possibilities for this malfunction so I can get it running as soon as possible.

Some E-Machines use proprietary cases/motherboards/PSUs that only work on emachines

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