[mlh8087]

My husband called me at work tonight to say our computer died. It's an emachine W3118, the basic package-plus I added another memory card sometime ago. My daughter was trying to send a picture to one of her friends and the first thing to go was the mouse. Then the computer monitor went. The blue power light to the hard drive was on but no picture and no mouse.
So when I got home at midnight, I tested the computer using another monitor. No mouse and no picture on the other monitor. All I hear coming from the hard drive is the fan or motor or something running. What happened to my computer and can it be fixed. E-machine people won't help without making a service call that's going to cost an arm and a leg. Right now we are in a money crunch so that won't work.
Anyway, the front of the computer says we have:
AMD Sempron 3100+Processor
1.8Ghz 256 KB L2 Cache
1600 Mhz System Bus
nVidia GeForce 6100 GPU with available PCI slot
80 GB Hard Drive
256MB DDR SRAM

Note: I think this is where I added the extra memory, 512MB.

Is my computer fried? Should I try to repair it or just get another one?

[daddyhominum]

This can happen if the keyboard connector comes loose. Check all connectors to electrical outlet, monitor and peripherals first.

[mlh8087]

I checked all the connections. Still nothing on the computer monitor. The blue light is on the hard drive and I can hear the fan blowing. The little yellow light that shows the computer is running is not coming on.

Now what do I check?

[win2kpro]

Most eMachines have Bestec power supplys. These power supplys fail on a regular basis. Unfortunately, when they fail, about 80% of the time they will also take out the motherboard.

I would suggest you take the tower to a repair facility, and have them test the power supply. If the power supply is bad, which I suspect it is, have them "jump" a known good power supply to the motherboard to see if it is still functional.

[D X Mage]

Another think you might want to do is unplug the power to the computer and monitor and let them sit for five minutes or so. I have seen some systems that seem to be working (fans power up HD powers up but nothing to the screen) but not fire up correctly after the slightest hiccup in power. Plug them back in and see what happens then.

[mlh8087]

I just tried to plug my printer into my laptop and now I find out my printer won't come on. Could it be possible that we had a power surge that burned thru the surge protector and took out my printer and my computer?

[D X Mage]

It is very possible. This summer at the office we had lightning hit near the building and the surge blew out a few systems. It didn't matter if they had a top of the line uber APC surge suppressor or not. Some systems lived some didn't.

[StillLearnin']

Better follow win2kpro advice:

" I would suggest you take the tower to a repair facility, and have them test the power supply. If the power supply is bad, which I suspect it is, have them "jump" a known good power supply to the motherboard to see if it is still functional."

It does sound like the power supply may be partially damaged or the mobo partially blown out. Go to a reliable store in your area ( NOT BEST BUY)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[D X Mage]

most reputable computers stores can give you a quick test though they might charge a small fee. And yes stay away from Best Buy.

[mlh8087]

What kind of power supply would the W3118 use and how much would it cost and where in blue blazes does it go?
Plus if I've lost the motherboard have I lost everything on the hard drive?

[D X Mage]

The PSU is the big metal box inside of the computer that your power cable goes in to and if that is all that has gone bad then you shouldn't have to worry about the data on the hard drive. They range in price from 30 bucks to hundreds. I would recommend a decent brand name like Sparkle or Thermaltake 80-110 bucks. A cheap PSU doesn't last very long typically.

[RogueSpear00]

Try plugging it all into another outlet before taking it anywhere. I'm not sure if you said you tried that already or not, sorry.

[daddyhominum]

Reboot while constantly tapping F8 to bring up Safe Mode. You may be given the option to boot into the last good configuration, so choose that. Otherwise enter safe mode and use the restore program in Accessories.

If you can't boot to Safe mode:
Switch off the power.
Open the box and touch the frame to ground yourself.
Now, reset the BIOS by removing the battery for 20 seconds or more.

Before you power up again , disconnect all cards and peripherals except the video card.

At this point, your machine should be at about the same settings it was at when you bought it.

If nothing has changed, turn off the machine and reboot while constantly tapping the control key to open up the BIOS settings page.

If you can see the BIOS settings, your machine is likely ok but your Windows operating system is crashed. You will need to re-install windows from the windows disk

[StillLearnin']

Since your printer was plugged into the computer and it won't work now when plugged into something else........it still sounds like a PSU, PSU/mobo or mobo problem. It needs to be tested by someone who knows how to check the PSU and mobo for shortage/burnout problems.

[mlh8087]

I want to thank everybody for your responses. We did take the computer in to be looked at today. It turns out to be the motherboard that died in the machine. The guy I'm talking to says he can replace the motherboard but then he will have to replace other things as a result. It's just cheaper to get another computer and he will transfer my stuff over to it. He also sells refurbished computers so I will just do that. His prices are about the same as anything I can get on line and he's local so I know where to find him if things don't work right.

So again, thanks everyone for your responses. You taught me alot and I could halfway understand what the computer guy was talking about.