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eMachines T5224 - dead

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by tigerbyrd

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Machine: See Title
2 gigs RAM
250 Gig WD serial ATA hd
nVidia 7300GT video card /512 Mb Vram
Multi card reader
On-board Sigmatel audio
On-board Intel network
2 Extra cooling fans - on for video card and one for back of case
Acer 19" WS LCD monitor
Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse combo
Epson V200 Scanner
Vista Home Premium
MS Office 2007
MacAfee Security Center antivirus and stuff
2 Gig Memorex jump drive for Ready-boost.

Bought this machine at Best Buy - floor model, in July 2007. It has worked perfectly until last Thursday (3-12-08). The night before, we had a bad electrical storm forcast, so our firm shut down all the computers and turned off the UPS's. The storm didn't happen. Thursday morning, I booted the machine, installed a new handy-dandy Logitech webcam IM, and life was good. Turned the machine off after work. Friday morning it would not boot. I've done all I know to do, even re-formatted the hd, and of course losing all my stuff by doing so. Now, trying to re-install Vista from the DVD that came with the machine, it runs checkdisk and tells me I've got a gazillion errors every time I turn it on. In Safe Mode, everything runs fine, and it tells me the hd is fine, no errors, no problems. But it won't boot normally. Is this a mobo problem, or an hd problem. I've opened the case and modified the machine by adding a video card and memory , so my warranty's void, according to Gateway. Please help!

9 replies

by Former member

Computer to a shop for them to do a test to find out what is happening to your system.

You can try this, put in your Vista DVD disk and then when you see the "install" sign look down to the left you will see "repair" click on this it might help. Other than that the repair shop is the best option.

Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

by tigerbyrd

5 times in fact. It finishes, trys to reboot, and starts running checkdisk again.

by ic-it

Your warranty is still valid. Their warranty states that damage caused by non-gateway parts is not covered, however that has not been demonstrated yet. Adding parts does not void the warranty. Here is a link.
http://content.gateway.com/www.gateway.com/about/legal/warranties/8510870.pdf

2nd, I would remove the drive, slave it to another machine and do a thorough check with Chkdsk /R
Or download the UBCD and run MHDD on it overnight. Set the loop test and allow repair.
If the drive shows to many uncorrected errors than Gateway should replace it.

by tigerbyrd

Thanks for that advice. First, I've got to find another machine in the office that's new enough to have a serial ATA mobo, and isn't in use. I was trying to keep from pulling the drive, but that might be the only unbiased way to diagnose it.

by jiminpa

it works fine in safe mode sounds like a device problem or conflict to me. Try uninstalling the web cam and/or video card. Or boot into safe mode and reinstall the drivers for these devices.

by tigerbyrd

I've read on Logitech's support site that this has happened to several people when installing a Logitech webcam. In fact, I think there's even a main topic relating to this, and people screaming at Logitech to fix the driver. But the webcam is unplugged and uninstalled now. I'll try the video card next. This is just taking too much of my time. Thanks for the advice.

by tigerbyrd

I did an online chat with the tech support guys at Gateway. They sent me a link to an .exe file called GWscan.exe, which they say will diaganose any hd from FAT to SATA. I downloaded the file according to their instructions, made a bootable CD, stuck it in the eMachines computer, and the machine wouldn't recognize the disk. Gateway wouldn't even talk to me until I ran this program. But, I can't get the program to run. Then I talked to Best Buy tech support, and of course, their response was "it's a manufacturer's warranty, so box the machine up and send it to Gateway, Well, crap. I'm 90 percent sure it's the hd. But, until I can prove that, nobody will talk to me.

Anybody fooled with GWscan and know how to run it? It's supposed to be bootable to any Windows version all the way back to 98SE. The exe file has an iso file in it, but everything seems to have extracted the way they said it should. Next question: can you install an EIDE hd in a SATA mobo? Iv'e got a spare 160 gig EIDE/ultra ATA drive I could stick in the machine, but I don't know if it would work. What - change the cmos settings to legacy IDE? What about partitioning and formatting the drive, if it's compatible.

Thanks for all your help, guys, but I'm running out of patience, and I need this computer running.

by ic-it

If the gwscan.exe creates an ISO, double click the ISO and normally your CD burner's software will open and ask if you want to burn it to CD. Usually this will result in a bootable CD, but I have not played with GWscan

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