emachine DVD150 / Lomita 010116 M/B Problem

[Davegal]

I have been given a non-working pc by a business contact that I was hoping to get working again for my young son.

It is an emachine DVD 150 and the previous owner said that it was working absolutely fine until a couple of weeks ago when it failed to start up.

It has a Lomita 010116 M/B with on-board graphics and sound and, I believe, an Intel Celeron Processor.

When I switch the machine on the fan inside the power supply seems to work ok but nothing else, including the CPU fan.

When I keep the on/off pressed to turn the machine off the cpu fan actually turns through a couple of revolutions.

I am unable to see exactly how the cpu fan is attached because it doesn't appear to have any screw fixings.

If anybody is able to give me some pointers as to possible tests/examinations I should try in order to pinpoint what is actually causing the problem I would be very grateful!

 

[eggplant]

Hi,

Could be many things, when you power on the machine, do you get any beeps at all?
As for the cpu fan, assuming its connected (usually a 3 pin conenctor onto the motherboard) if the fan isnt kicking in then the machine isnt post'ing, again could be many reasons, board,cpu,ram,possibly psu. Initially, I would remove any plug in cards and disconnect all drives, reseat ram and cpu. Do you have any components you can substitute to try and find the cause?

 

[Davegal]

I've tried replacing the psu with one that I know is ok and exactly the same thing happens.

There are no beeps when I turn on the machine however I can hear one very slight 'click'!

I have also tried removing one of the two fitted Ram modules, one by one, and trying it with just the one but whatever one I remove it still refuses to work.

 

[Igorian]

Try a basic system with just motherboard, memory, graphics adaptor and psu. Remove any plug in cards and disconnect all drives.

Another possibility is that the CMOS battery on the motherboard is completely flat. While some boards will revert to defaults, others simply won't boot.

Also, with the mains disconnected, carefully examine the area around the CPU. Do any of the capacitors (i'm assuming you know what I mean) look bloated?

 

[Davegal]

I have checked the capacitors and they are all clean (no leaks) and normal size!

I have also tested the CMOS battery, assuming that it is the round flat one that fits into the blue socket on the motherboard, and I am getting a reading!

 

[Expertboy]

E-Machines in general are a nightmare to repair, you want to try matching up the memory modules, impossible.

My opinion is that if you have a lot of patience and money, delve in and fault find, but basic parts that are compitible fail to function ..... i no longer touch these machines as you cannot make any money repairing them.

 

[Davegal]

I'm now thinking of trying a replacement motherboard!

I know that the Lomita is a Socket 370 so can I replace it with any Socket 370 board or do I have to look out for certain ones?

 

[johnb80]

We have had absolutely shed loads of 'E' machines in our shop and in almost every case we've replaced motherboard and CPU to cure the problem. Sometimes you can get away with motherboard only but in our experience customers are back pretty soon with a failed machine again and this time it's the CPU. At first I thought maybe my engineers were not fitting the heatsink correctly but after further investigation it seems that the EM/c motherboard damages the CPU i.e. weakens it so it works for a short time. Motherboard and CPU these days doesn't cost the earth and the machine will be much, much better. Also double check the PSU, the last E M/c I looked at had only a feeble 145w, how it ever ran is amazing, 450w PSU is about £12.

Regards - JB