Member Avatar for Ainilome

Hello there,

Bit of an issue that I've had a hard time pinning down.

I have a eMachines T2615, it's kind of old but has been nothing but trustworthy for years. Specs after a few years of upgrades are:

AMD 2600+
1.5 gig of RAM (Not sure of brand, but all sticks are from eMachines PCs
Nvidia 7600 256mb AGP (added a few weeks ago)

The motherboard, PSU and hardrive are the standard that game with the system. I'm not sure of their brand/specs.

Here's the issue:

For a few days up until finally going kaput his PC would randomly shut off (Note: Don't believe it was overheating. Case was very cool and his system tends to run hot normally). Just, boom dead as if the plug had been pulled. From that point on it was picky, sometimes it would start back up other times it would only start if the power cord was unplugged and plugged back in from the PSU.


Last night the PC lost power three times in about fifteen minutes. It would stay on long enough to load up and get a game started then die again. On the third or fourth time going nothing we did, including unplugging the cord would make it start up again.

I tried a few no-brainer things first. A different power cord, checked the powerstrips, plugged the tower in directly to the wall socket to no avail. Then randomly it decided to power up ... sort of.

PSU fan runs, motherboard light is on, both the processor heatsink fan and the graphics card fans turn. The hard drive doesn't even sound like it's trying to spin up and neither disc drives will open. I left it running like that for a few hours to see if it did it's loss of power bag but it didn't.

We've tried a different hard drive to the same result. Also tried switching out the the band like cord from motherboard to hard drive.(don't know the technical term).

We originally thought it was the PSU, switched that out to a new one of the same wattage and had the same results.

It offers no beeps, and never has (no "boot up complete, everything fine" beep usually or anything of the sort). It also offers no diagnostic lights save the one red power light on the motherboard.

Any help would be appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by cguan_77

Dani AI

Generated

Short take: the most likely culprits are the motherboard (bad capacitors, failed VRMs, or a short) or a power-delivery issue that stops the drives from getting juice. is on the right track suggesting motherboard/CPU faults. ’s point about cheap OEM build quality is worth a note — visual failures (bulging/leaking electrolytic capacitors) are common on older low-cost boards and can produce exactly this sort of flaky behavior.

Try these focused, safe steps in order:

  1. Minimal-boot: with AC unplugged, remove everything nonessential (extra sticks of RAM, all drives, add-on cards except video if needed). Reconnect only one RAM stick, CPU cooler, keyboard, and a system speaker on the front-panel header. Power up and watch/listen for beep codes. Beeps quickly tell whether the CPU, RAM or video is failing.
  2. Isolate power to drives: confirm each drive’s power cable actually supplies 5/12V by using a known-good cable or powering a drive from another working PC or external enclosure. If a drive spins on another system, the problem is upstream (mobo/PSU cables).
  3. Check PSU rails without the board: with the PSU disconnected from the motherboard and turned on (use the PS_ON short method only if comfortable), measure voltages with a multimeter. Stable 3.3/5/12V rails mean the PSU is OK; rails that collapse when connected point back to a short on the motherboard.
  4. Visual inspection and simple fixes: look for bulging or leaking caps, burnt traces, or swollen battery. Reseat CPU socket items only if experienced. Replace the CMOS battery. Try different RAM slots and a known-good stick if available.

Cautions: avoid working on a powered PSU, take ESD precautions, and don’t force connectors. If minimal-boot still yields no POST/beeps after these checks, the practical next step is to replace the motherboard (or the system, given its age).

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Member Avatar for bobbyraw

to be honest if it say emachine it shoulbe be burned.......those are the worst config computer on earth... i have 3 at home that the mother board dies, and i bet its the same thing that going on with yours.

Member Avatar for cguan_77

i think it could be either a dying mobo or a dying processor, if processor is dying usually it would keep on restarting the system until it dies..

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