E-Machine......hheellpp!!!

[Jonette]

My friend has an emachine that gives her heck all the time. It has gotten to a point that it is very difficult to keep the thing running without locking up all the time.

At the moment it is doing this thing where you will be trying to move the mouse around on the screen and it will randomly open little windows all over the screen. These windows do not have anything in them.They are just little empty blue boxes. These boxes will appear all over the screen and eventually lock up the whole system.

Please tell me anything you can think of.

J :rolleyes:

[tweakthis]

Hey there Jonette. :D Well if nothing else, I have become firmly convinced I would never buy an emachine!!! I don't have an answer for you, but are the virus files up to date? I have heard of a virus that would do something similar but for the life of me the name escapes me right now. :(

[Jonette]

Let me know if you think of anything and I will keep trying to get this thing fixed.

Thanks.

J

[jtdoom]

Hi

if you can get to the configuration screen, disable mouse hot tracking.

and also have your friend not use other than the standard mouse pointers.
one of theme may have gone corrupt...

and a virus scan, of course...

[Jonette]

You know. she has been having lots of problems with this emachine of hers. I also noticed the other day that her mouse is a Mickey Mouse mouse and she has added that. It has been a long time since she added it. I don't get over there much but I am pretty sure the mouse has something to do with all this as sometimes there are problems with the controls on the mouse.

I do know that her computer has multiple problems and it may take a while to get things straightened up. I have asked her several times to let me bring it over and spend some quality time with it but she seems reluctant, so I am forced to work from afar because I just can't go over there and camp out for days. We all know how these things can turn into all nighters.

Also it has a Celeron inside( I hear UH-Oh's in the backround) LOL . She would like to switch to a better processor and I am looking for a program that would let me enter the MB she has so we can find out exactly which processor is compatible.

Let me know what you think

J

[Jonette]

Also, I just thought of this.

The computer WON'T shut down. She has been trying to get it to shut down since she got it about a year and a half ago. It won't do it. The only way to get it to shut down is to pull the plug, even the power switch on the back won't do it.

J

[Dodge]

If you go to her house then take your mouse with you. Go into control panel and remove her mouse. Then hook your up to it and reboot. See if you mouse does the same thing or not...

Also go into Msconfig and shutdown everything except Systray, scanreg and her keyboard if applicable... Then reboot.. See if there is any difference....... There may either be too much loading or something is corrupted that is loading at bootup. This should help the shutdown problem atleast. Also while in msconfig, make sure the Disable Fast Shutdown has a check mark beside it, If it is listed in there... If its not then she already has the 98 Shutdown Patch installed.......

Definately do a Virus scan if you can get it to work before it locks up..

Also, what all is attached to the PC. Sound Card, Cdrom/rw/s how many? SHe may be overloading the 64mb's of ram.. Msconfig Startup tab should also help out on that one...

Find out as much of the System Specs as you can. That would help in fixing that thing..

Tell her I said to NEVER buy and Emachine again..........LOL

If you can, download Belarc Advisor from this place...
Belarc Advisor... (http://www.belarc.com/Download.html) Small download and you can put it on a floppy... Install it and see what all is on the system. From MB to IE. It will tell all programs that is installed also........

[Jonette]

Okay a little specs:
E-Machine
Intel Celeron
400 MHZ
4 Gig HD
2.98 Gig Available space
Cd-Rom (not RW)
64 megs ram
Win 98SE

Also I have downloaded the Belarc already and can get anything off there if it would help anyone.

Also recently she has been getting the nag that says system resources are low. You all knew that was coming.LOL

One more thing, I have already told her to NEVER BUY AN E-MACHINE AGAIN!!!!!!!


I have also told her that she could add some more RAM and it might help system resources after we get all this cleaned up.

I guess I have to kidnap the thing and get it over here and get some quality time with it. LOL

;) J

[ 06 August 2001: Message edited by: Jonette ]

[Dodge]

You could also get Regcleaner or a program like that to help clean out the Registry. Might help some. Couldn't hurt any....

[Jonette]

I was actually talking to her about that possibility tonight on the phone.

The problem with her is that she seems to think that going in and doing one thing is going to fix everything. When we were on the phone she was trying everything and when each thing was done then she would say "Nope that did not work"
I tried to explain to her that this will take time but she does not understand what I am talking about. Plus it will not shut down and restart and sometimes when you download something or make some changes it will tell you windows needs to restart before these things will be placed properly, but obviously you can't do that when the darn thing wont shut down or restart.
Kinda a catch 22

J

Where can I get a program like that?

[ 06 August 2001: Message edited by: Jonette ]

[Dodge]

You can download one here at CTH's downloads page. Called Registry tools. Heres the link. CTH's Downloads Page (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/pages/downloads.html) It has a beginners how to instructions with it...

[lynnm]

Given the problems you describe,I would be inclined to take a digital 2x2 to that machine and do the following:

1.)Format the Hard disk.
2.)Reinstall Windows.
3.)Download and install the Windows shut down patch.

Available here:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description.asp?fid=6794

I would take this,admittedly drastic,action because there sounds likely to be problems with the mouse driver,the video driver and the registry. In addition the hard disk is undoubtedly half full of file fragments and corrupted files due to the user's needing to crash Windows every time the machine needs to be re-started.

There comes a time to cut your losses - particularly when on top of everything else you are dealing with a user who is not entirely cooperative and is expecting a miracle cure. Fine!! give her the miracle :D

[Jonette]

Thanks lynnm, I am just inclined to do the same thing.

One question though, If I take these drastic steps will I need a real solid version of windows to put that back on the HD? We have discussed this and between the two of us we dont have a Cd_rom with JUST Windows on it. I have the start-up disk that came with my IBM and she has NOTHING. Her E-Machine came preloaded with all the software and she recieved nothing at all, therefore she has no back up, and we already know that everything on that HD now must be corrupt. She has tried calling BestBuy and E-machines for back-up disks but she never gets anything. E-Machines have even told her that they are sending the package right away and then she never hears anything again.

Let me know our options.

J

[Jonette]

Also, she woke up this morning and there were at least a dozen widows open and it was locked up. When she went to bed last night the screen was normal.

[Jonette]

Okay, here's yet another drastic question.

If we cleaned the HD and reformatted and then used my IBM startup disks to get her started again, would that work? Or would something in her Computer recognize that this was not E-Machine material and reject it?

Also, she has all the start-up material for the new DELL she bought for her business and their is a windows 98 in their but it says FOR DELL. So could we use this?

Or are all the possibilities illegal?

I mean at least it would be startup material, something she was never given from Best Buy for the E-Machine.

[ 07 August 2001: Message edited by: Jonette ]

[maxximilian]

Hi Jonette,

This is starting to sound like Best Buy sold your friend a returned computer without telling her. She should have gotten a Restore CD in the box and since the thing hasn't worked right since day one, I would say this is very possible. But since so much time has passed, there is little that can be done with them at this point.

The restore/recovery CDs that came with other systems are unlikely to work, but you never know. One thing is certain is that they will not have the correct drivers for the hardware in the emachine. I agree with the idea of starting from scratch, but without the Emachine Restore CD or a "Real" copy of windows, that is going to be tough.

[Jonette]

Well she did buy a 3 year warranty on it and it is still within the 3 years. She has had it under 2 years. I wonder if they would REALLY be able to fix the thing?

[maxximilian]

Warranty...eh.... :D

If she payed for a warranty, and the thing hasn't worked from the beginning, then I would suggest giving them a crack at it. They should at least be able to put a freash install of windows on it. I know it's tough to be without a puter for the time it takes to repair, but that is what a warranty is for. Unless these folks have some ideas for you, that would be my call. :)

[Jonette]

Well, You all will never guess what I did.

I went over to her house to pickup her paperwork for her so she could work on calling E-Machines today at work and guess what I found there in her CD rack?

You guessed it, her E-Machines Recovery CD. So I think we are going to go with the clean and recovery option here. She said she did not know she had it. DUH!!!

Well, the only program on the computer now that she would like to backup is the Power Point program her son-in-law put on their for her. She would like to put it on some 3.5 diskettes. How many do you think it will take. I am thinking it will be quite a few.

J :p

[maxximilian]

When you want something done right...do it yourself. Good job finding that critter. :)

As for powerpoint...I don't know how big it is, but you can use Winzip to compress and also span multiple floppies. Good luck.

[Dodge]

I just want to add, With Best Buys Warrenty, they do not include Formatting and reinstalling windows. It only includes giveing you a new Emachine if something is wrong with the Machine itself. If you have them to formatt or anything along those lines they will charge you for it.... I know this cause of My Moms warrenty with Best Buy...

[maxximilian]

Well I can see where I won't be buying any extended warranties at Best Buy. :D

[Dodge]

Actually their warrenties are great. My Mom bought a Compaq there and had nothing but trouble with it. She kept messing with Compaq with her problem, even shipped the thing to Texas to be worked on and it was still a bad Paper weight. She called Best Buy and they told her to bring it back and get another one. They didn't have that model at the time, so they replaced it with a much better one. It costed a little more also, and didn't Her cost a dime more. So it is a very good warrenty. Better than Most...

[jtdoom]

huh?
the front switch dont work
(could be a wire not properly on the Powerswitch header on mobo)

these things are called switched powersupplies for a reason...

BUT, the back switch don't work either?
that may very well point to a bad powersupply.
the HARDWARE switch should always work...

(maxxmillian can tell us how lite it is. I'd almost bet its only 145watts or even less.)

btw, I would not try get the program off the drive.
(would be no good to you, unless she has the setup folder)
you see, I feel that all these files are suspect (possible virus)

maybe you'll be able to save some data...

[jtdoom]

Jonette.

quality time would have meant this to me.
get the drive out.
connect it to a good machine, with large capacity drives
ghost the thing over to a free partition

put it back in e-machine
scrub and wipe the darn thing
install recovery
thoroughly VIRUS-scan the copy in the good big machine

get the e-machine drive back in the big machine

create a data folder

copy data over
copy downloads over
copy favorites over
copy emails and adressbook over

etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseam

and then, after a month, you decide to free up the space in your big machine, and two days later get a call
yo, whatyado with this file?
Igonnapullyaheadoffyashoulda
;)

that's quality time. :(

edit>> in a big machine, one can actually also burn the stuff to CDr... just an afterthought.

[ 13 August 2001: Message edited by: jtdoom ]

[Jonette]

Well, I have not had a reply on this subject for awhile. It's nice to see someone still thinking.

You have raised a good question. Has she even ever tried to turn it off on the back? I have asked her and she says yes but then she told me she did not have a recovery CD also. I will have to check it out and be a detective with this one.

Thanks and I will return with answers everyone can learn from.


J

[maxximilian]

Jaak,

You are right. The power supply that was in my Emachine 400id was only 120 watts. And it was proprietary as well, which means you can't just put any power supply in the box. Most are too big to fit properly.

[jtdoom]

and then perhaps the "OBVIOUS"
:rolleyes:

to switch off, she'd have to hold down the button at least five seconds....

that's the default setting in many BIOSes,
(mine is set to intand shut-off)

[Jonette]

I also noticed that there is NO power switch on the back. IF the power switch on the front doesn't do it then you have to pull the plug.

This machine is not that old so I am bewildered at the mess it is.

I guess you could say it is an E-Machine.

J

[Dodge]

Most Emachines, Compaq's, HP's, etc. wont have a Switch on the back. The Power supplies are to small to have one. The things dont even have fans in them like Standard PS's do. The fan is mounted to the outside of the PS case. Thats why they burn out so quickly.....