emachines EL1360G-UW12p

[brandonkick]

For whatever reason my younger brother decided to offer to work on one of these. He knows a little bit about a few things here and there... mostly what he's picked up from me and from me fixing his personal machine.

Anyways he comes back with a power supply for this machine, stating that one of his friends had said computer and it needed a new power supply. He came to this conclusion because they have three of these identical machines and swapped a power supply out of another one into the non working machine.

He said it "fired up" but didn't hook it to a monitor to verify anything. I'm not sure why.


So I order a power supply for this machine. Not an exact replacement mind you, because the customers don't have a lot of money and they were willing to gamble on a $30 PSU that "might fit and work" vs the proper one which is selling for quite a lot more on ebay. IIRC even that wasn't an exact match but much closer.

Anyways i get the new one and install it, re seat the cpu and apply new compound (because my brother removed the HSF in taking out the old power supply).

I fire it up and nothing on the screen, nothing on the green LED on the front of the machine. I compare the 24 pin connections on the power supplies (old and new) to verify everythings as it should be. No cables are swapped or missing, with the addition of a white wire in pin position #20 which in a 24 pin atx connector is N/C or in other words no connection. In pin 18 of a 20 pin connector this white wire is -5 volts.

It's the only thing I can think of? I reseated the ram, even removed it and got no memory beeps. I'm thinking of cutting that white wire and seeing if it makes a difference. I can't think of anything else?

 

[NYJimbo]

I can't think of anything else?

I can.

Why did it come to him for repair ? Your post says as per him it needed more power, but nobody upgrades a PSU for no reason, so what was really wrong ? What did he do to the machine that you can verify ? Did it REALLY "fire up" like he says, any proof ?

As to the PSU, it's a weirdo so I don't know if it needs some special wiring. If it does then only an exact match will work. You could toy with the wires but without a schematic you might just be guessing.

Anytime a noob gets into a machine like this you don't know what was really wrong. So unless you can really be sure of what they did I would just push it back at him and tell him next time to take notes.

 

[mr m]

I'm thinking of cutting that white wire and seeing if it makes a difference. I can't think of anything else?

That white, -5 V wire was required at one time but not anymore. ATX/microATX mobos from I think v2 on don't utilize -5 V anymore. It won't hurt anything because it has nowhere to go.

Treat your brother like any customer and start from zero. Since he said there are 3 identical PC's have him bring them to you. You'll fix it in no time.

 

[brandonkick]

I can.

Why did it come to him for repair ? Your post says as per him it needed more power, but nobody upgrades a PSU for no reason, so what was really wrong ? What did he do to the machine that you can verify ? Did it REALLY "fire up" like he says, any proof ?

As to the PSU, it's a weirdo so I don't know if it needs some special wiring. If it does then only an exact match will work. You could toy with the wires but without a schematic you might just be guessing.

Anytime a noob gets into a machine like this you don't know what was really wrong. So unless you can really be sure of what they did I would just push it back at him and tell him next time to take notes.

It doesn't need more power, it wouldn't turn on at all. So he pulled a power supply out of one of their other identical emachines and put it in this machine.

He said it then "fired up", however he didn't have it hooked to a monitor. Just because a fan kicked on doesn't really mean crap. So I'm guessing that both the power supply and the board got toasted.

I do really wish he hadn't torn into it at all, as he doesn't "remember" much of anything.

That white, -5 V wire was required at one time but not anymore. ATX/microATX mobos from I think v2 on don't utilize -5 V anymore. It won't hurt anything because it has nowhere to go.

Treat your brother like any customer and start from zero. Since he said there are 3 identical PC's have him bring them to you. You'll fix it in no time.

The problem with this is that these people are 40 min away, and they are cheap. Normally I wouldn't deal with a customer like this, I just know better.

You are right though, if I could get access to the other working machine then this would be a rather simple one.

I'm all but positive the power supplies are exactly the same pin out wise, all the wires are the same color and in the same places. I'll go through them pin by pin with a meter double checking that they are the same.

 

[brandonkick]

The motherboard is shot.


I've tried re seating the processor, insuring that nothing was wrong with the fitting of the CPU to board.

I metered all of the pins on the power supply and they all meter in a very acceptable threshold. I've even cut the -5V wire and it's made no difference.


The replacement thankfully is only $45.