PC hardware: Emachine D2346 HDD lite stays on steady
Emachine D2346 HDD lite stays on steady
by davy08 - 9/30/09 3:54 AMWell!! If it didn't happen to me again!!
Must be a rash of bad mobo's out there.
My Dad gave me this D2346 eMachine for a gift & he had a bad habit of not using a surge protector.
Just plugged into the wall.
Here in Oklahoma we get a lot of severe storms at times.
He hardly ever uses it except to play games on it.
Never has access to the internet.(No services availible)
Has a dial up modem card installed & not a 10/100 ethernet card.
I don't know what happened to it except maybe a storm at one time or another may have damaged the internal componants.
Took it home & plugged everything up & powered it up & the Power button glowed green.
The hdd lite glows amber & never went out.
Will not boot to bios or no beeps heard.
All fans are spinning up including the case fan & CPU fan
The power button is a steady green
Speakers are plugged into I/O port
It has no VGA output. (In power save mode.)
PSU spins up ok.
Keyboard lites come on & then go out
Hard drive spins up & quiet.
Things I tried when troublshooting issue.
Replaced PSU
Tried a differant hard drive
Removed Ram one at a time
Reset cmos by removing the batt for one hour
Unplugged all devices except one stick of ram (tried both individually)
I'm wondering if it might be in standby mode (Sleep mode) but do not know how to get it out of standby mode.
Moved the mouse & pressed keys on keyboard
Could it possibly be a fried mobo?
No bad capacitors bulging or leaking as I can see.
No burn't smells
Motherboard looks good
Have not removed the board & do a table top troubleshoot procedure.
Unit has never had anything removed or upgraded.
Never plays games other than windows games.
Very little dust inside except some on the HSF grids
Did not try removing the CPU & applying new HS compound
Has a very small HSF installed
Thinking not usung a surge protector might have fried the mobo or something inside.
This machine is acting just like my HP desktop I have been trying to troubleshoot for the past 3 months
It was the mobo at fault.
Havn't purchased one for it yet & hope I don't have to purchase one for this emachine as well.
Specs:
Bio's chip M400
AMD Athlon 2300+
3d S3 ProSavage 8
512 mb 2 per slot
PSU Dell HP# 2507FW-250 watt
Hdd-Maxtor 40gb 5300rpm
Thanks for your support!
David
Any more details needed, will be happy to post them
I'd move on.
by R. Proffitt
- 9/30/09 5:55 AM
In reply to: Emachine D2346 HDD lite stays on steady by davy08
The common dead Socket A machine is a familiar sight at the repair counter. We know from experience these are beyond their service life and repairs include replacing motherboard and often the CPU so we know not to touch them as even after the replacement these are still too unstable and result in call backs by the owners about crashes. If you are in a bind, go find your local FREECYCLE (see google) and watch for someone to give away some Pentium 4 machine.
Bob
Little reward....
by Willy - 9/30/09 6:23 AM In reply to: Emachine D2346 HDD lite stays on steady by davy08Robert, provides good sage advice. However, if you want to play and the rewards may not be all that good once the system is running, proceed on.
First, that AMD cpu could be kaput as that era cpu just didn't like to be overheated and due to wear&tear it may have simply wore out. Though, it is also prone to surge damage. Next, though you have replaced the PSU, be sure it is a good one. NOW, do all the things you need to do that you haven't already, place basic system on cardboard. Remove all drives, except FD. Be sure you have it all hooked up and try to power-ON with a bootable floppy(W9x version or any other OS). If same results, remove cpu/HSF in its entirely. Does it beep now?, if not, then mtrbd. is shot. If it beeps, then cpu or setup is shot. If it beeps after you replace cpu back in with refreshed HSF, then socket or glitchy cpu. Basically, it boils down to a too old setup or having to replace parts provided you find them. Again, if nothing works or just no display, then think a video problem and try another video card(a basic PCI VGA one) and check results. You may want to try that first as build-in video port could have pooped-out. Also, even though you haven;'t found bad caps, these can be tricky to locate to include a true bad cap that simply failed and not the "known manufactured poor quality" ones that bulge, leak or blow-up".
What all this results is a lot of work to find the real cause if at all. Sometimes, it a "combination" of all parts that no longer have the phmmf to get things done but on another system setup may. Try Craigslist and post for "wanted" or review any freebies besides the FreeCycle route. It helps at least for me to get rid of some junk and/or no trip to county recycling station. 
tada -----Willy 
Thanks
by davy08 - 10/8/09 4:49 AM In reply to: Little reward.... by WillyI appreciate your comments Wille very much.
I have not tried the floppy procedure but did try a bootable test cd, but did not work.
I have a new post here on correct PSU install for both of my systems that have the exact same problem.
This eMachine & my HP A6437C.
You have shead some lite for my testing.
I almost believe both my systems have bad mobo's.
Man! that's a real bummer.
Couldn't have been a cheaper componant go bad with my income.
A friend at work guided me to a free section on Craigslist I did not even know about that.
I'll check it out.
You seem to know what your talking about.
Your the best!
David
The other FREE section.
by R. Proffitt - 10/8/09 5:52 AM
In reply to: Thanks by davy08
Go find FREECYCLE in your area. I see Pentium 3 and 4 machines all the time there.
Having them checked out
by davy08 - 10/15/09 3:30 AM In reply to: The other FREE section. by R. Proffitt
I decided to take them to the Indian VoTech center & let them have some fun testing it.
I'm a member or the Indian VoTech center.
Would be some intresting testing on it for those young kids as long as they don't screw it up.
Only cost me $5.00 to have it tested.
Pretty sure it's the mobo at fault.
They merely test it for any faults & report back & I decide if I want them to fix it & I pay for the parts.
I most likely will reapir it myself.
You do, what ya gotta do
by Willy - 10/15/09 6:26 AM In reply to: Having them checked out by davy08Good show, well done. I wish I has access to such if anything to be 100% sure it was what I thought. Usually, I dump these systems when it fails to respond to typical fixes and I know better to even try an "old soldering job, etc." because as I stated before the reward is hardly worth it when I know another is in the tubes, sorta speak. good luck -----Willy
Motherboard bad
by davy08 - 10/24/09 3:44 AM In reply to: You do, what ya gotta do by WillyJust got a response back yesterday from the Vo-Tech center & they agree also the motherboard was indeed bad.
I had already suspected the mobo for being bad but thought it would be a good for the students to learn more about them.
I dought they could tell me whats up with the board & what componants are bad.
Capacitors I am told are the #1 componants that go out on mobo's.
I just wished I new what internal componants resistors,capacitors,relays,switches,regulators or what ever was was bad on it so I can learn to repair these boards.
Thats what my goal is.
To learn more about them & go into the business repairing them.
Did a search for motherboard repairs & comes up with companies that repair them.
For infor re bad capacitors..just go to
by VAPCMD - 10/24/09 3:49 PM In reply to: Motherboard bad by davy08http://www.badcaps.net/
You can normally spot bad caps when you see the leaking caps, doming caps, etc.,
VAPCMD
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