Emachines T2542 Will Not Power On

silkysix · Joined: Dec 27, 2005 Posts: 2

This is my first post. I apologize if I am dredging up an old problem that has been covered a bunch of times already, but here goes!

I have two identical eMachines T2542 computers. Last week one of them would not start up. No beeps, no LEDs, no response when the start up button was pressed. However, the PS fan was always running whenever the power cord was plugged in. I thought it may be a PS failure so I swapped the power supplies. ( My bad!) The original failed computer still did not work with the known good PS. The second computer worked fine for an afternoon with the PS from the failed computer but would not start up the next morning. Now, both computers are down! They act as if a fuse is blown. I purchased a new 250W PS at Best Buy. It did not help either computer.

I tested the power on switch. It is good.
I can not see anything that looks burnt or blown.

If the cpu fan is bad will that prevent a power on?
Could I have fried the fan or motherboard in the second computer by putting in a bad PS?

What should I try next?

Rons · Joined: Dec 07, 2002 Posts: 5667

Welcome to the forum.

Put in the New 250 PS in either system. Disconnect all non-essential hardware, ie hard disk, CD, floppy [if you have one]. Does the system now boot to the BIOS screen?

Do the same on the other system. Results?

Let us know. :hmm:

silkysix · Joined: Dec 27, 2005 Posts: 2

Paragon · Joined: Jan 13, 2006 Posts: 5

I have the same problem with an identical emachine T2542. Here's the problem description.

When I start to power up, the Start/Run LED flickers... and I can hear the mobo fan sort of pulse to the flicker of the LED. If I 'pulse' the power chord, I can get the mobo fan to run at full speed, but I never get any drive LED to light or anything on the screen. The PS fan appears to run everytime the pwer chord is engaged.

Of course, I have to unplug the machine to shut down.

Doesn't this sound like a PS problem? With the pulsing and all? :hmm:

Morbius · Joined: Sep 05, 2005 Posts: 1712

Power supply is bad or just too weak to power up the system.

Or,,,,some component in the system is shorted and preventing the boot up.
The PSU will not start if there's a shorted part in the system or just too much of a load.
I've seen adding just one little case fan, crash a PSU. Talk about under-powered! :thumbdown:

Look for bulging capacitors on the motherboard. If they are bulging, they are at least partially shorted.

Never replace a 250 or 300 w. PSU with a like sized PSU. That's not enought reserve power for todays systems.
Start at 400w and go right UP from there.

The day I built my system, I removed the 300w PSU that came with the case and installed a 400w. Since then I've upgraded again to a 550w, dual fan model. I know I'm not going to overload my PSU by jacking in another hard drive or some other component.

Good Luck with your eMachines. The old ones were junk,,,,,but I do like the brand new ones.
They come with some good stuff installed and have much less Bloatware installed than the other name brand PC's. That makes installation a lot simpler.

:cheers:
Morbius Cool

Paragon · Joined: Jan 13, 2006 Posts: 5

If I disconnect the everything but the hard drive and it STILL doesn't boot, would that increase the possibility that the PS has failed?

I checked for bloated caps ... didn't find any.

Can a VOM check on the leads tell you much .. or do you have to check voltages under load make sure it's failed?

adkmom · Joined: Jun 18, 2003 Posts: 471

Paragon · Joined: Jan 13, 2006 Posts: 5

Paragon · Joined: Jan 13, 2006 Posts: 5

adkmom · Joined: Jun 18, 2003 Posts: 471

Unplug the tower (just pull the power off the tower itself), push the power button, clear the cmos. Try again- video & ram only...

Tracy

goretsky · Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:24 am Post subject:

Hello,

If you look carefully around inside the case, does anything appear to be shorting out, for example, could the motherboard be making contact with the chassis anywhere?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

adkmom · Joined: Jun 18, 2003 Posts: 471

f-w · Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 2

Wow, I'm faced with a similar problem on the same PC. Someone asked me to fix their Emachine T2542 computer. It basically didn't turn on. I did the PSU (250W) check by shorting the green and black wires on the 20pin connector, and sure enough, it was the power supply. So, I got a new one (300W), which passes the check. However, the comp still doesn't turn on.

When the PSU switch is turned on, the ring of light turns on (which should only do so when PC is on, it's connected through the 'power LED' cable to the motherboard). If I turn off the PSU, the ring of light stays on for around 7 seconds, then turns off.

I've read online that to check if the PC power switch is broken, I should short the 2 pins where the "power sw" cable goes on the motherboard. I've tried that, but nothing happened.

Does this mean it's the mobo? If it is, are there other ways to confirm it?

Thanks,
f-w

adkmom · Joined: Jun 18, 2003 Posts: 471

f-w · Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 2

Thanks for the excerpt. As you can see from my post, I pretty much already did everything they suggested. Seems like the damn mobo is dead, along with windows. Great! I can't wait to deliver the news to the owner. Smile

There is one little thing that I haven't mentioned though. I haven't done the shorting of the green and black wires that many times. But on previous good PSUs, the fan came on (if the PSU was good). However, when shorting the wires on the new PSU I bought, the PSU fan only turns 1/3 of a revolution and stops. Is this some protection circuit in the fan, or can this new PSU be bad as well?

Thanks,
f-w

I_compute · Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 5

I had a simillar issue with an emachin PSU will not start. I bought a new mainboard ASROCK 7 with A socket for AMD. I put it in and now is the oposite problem power will not shut off and CMOS screen does not appears. Any help.

adkmom · Joined: Jun 18, 2003 Posts: 471

LlamaMan · Joined: Feb 08, 2006 Posts: 1