Friends Emachines, T2825 running xp home, 512mb ram, nvidia Gforce MX desktop comuter.
I turn on surge protector where computer and monitor are plugged into. I hear my fans running, I push power button on computer and nothing occurs. I push and hold - and nothing.
I tested psu with Thermaltake A2358 'Dr. Power' psu tester and looks like everything OK with psu.
When I first got this machine to look at for my friend I took off the case cover and plugged into back of computer, cpu fan would run for about a second or two and then stop.
Left computer sit for couple days. Came back tonight and kept pushing plug into the back of computer and fan started and stopped. Funny thing as I continued to do this the fan started to run for a longer period before shutting off. Then after plugging the electric into the back of the computer again the fan stayed on and it's been running for the last 48 minutes but STILL the computer will not start when pressing the button on the front. Anybody got any ideas?? I'm supposed to take it to a shop on Wednesday morning but I want some input before then. So anybody out there got any ideas? :eek:

EMachines unfortunately have a history of not being very reliable. You've checked the power supply so that should be OK.

If you have another power supply to try, that would help determine if it's a power problem or not. I'm leaning towards the motherboard as the problem.

Not much you can do unless you have a compatible computer, and swap out the components, to ensure the cpu and the ram are still OK.

Hard drives, cd roms, video cards and accessories should be fine.

I would re-seat the ram, test, re-seat the cpu, test.


Also, if you happen to have a fan speed controller on the CPU fan, make sure it is turned UP... some computers monitor the speed of that fan and will not boot if it is too low.

Make sure all "extra" power cables are plugged in... many computers (lots of Pentium 4s for instance) not only use the 20/24 pin power connector, but a secondary 4-6 pin power cable as well.