[halfwaynowhere]

My emachines T2778 has had so many problems its not even funny anymore... the motherboard has been replaced once before, and then my current problem started. The computer will restart at any given time, usually when using a lot of memory. Last time i sent it in for repairs, they replaced the memory, but the problem persists, which leads me to believe that my problem is in the motherboard, not the memory. another emachines we had was having a similar problem, the second memory slot wasn't reading anything. anyways, i looked at the system specs just now and realized that it was only reading the memory as being 192 MB, instead of 256 MB. Is there anything i can do, software-wise, that can fix this? The computer is no longer under warrantee, and I don't have money to replace anything, but I do need a working computer as soon as possible..

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What brand is that memory? I bought some off brand the other day and it registered half of what it was supposed to. I took it back and they exchange it for a stick of Kingston. The entire 128MB is now displayed.

Set your pc to blue screen instead of rebooting. Go to Control Panel>system>advanced>startup and recovery. Uncheck 'reboot on system failure'. It should blue screen with an error message.

Defective capacitors on the motherboard can cause reboots. Take a good look at them. Look for any expansion or bowing out.

I would sweep the machine for virus's, spyware and trojans and submit a Hi-Jack log.

[macten]

What brand is that memory? I bought some off brand the other day and it registered half of what it was supposed to. I took it back and they exchange it for a stick of Kingston. The entire 128MB is now displayed.

Set your pc to blue screen instead of rebooting. Go to Control Panel>system>advanced>startup and recovery. Uncheck 'reboot on system failure'. It should blue screen with an error message.

Defective capacitors on the motherboard can cause reboots. Take a good look at them. Look for any expansion or bowing out.

I would sweep the machine for virus's, spyware and trojans and submit a Hi-Jack log.

[halfwaynowhere]

the first thing i did several months ago was to uncheck 'reboot on system failure'. it still reboots. i'm pretty sure the machine is fairly clean as far as viruses and such, but i will check again. usually checking it screws up my computer, too...

[halfwaynowhere]

okay, for that hi-jack log, what program do i need? thanks in advance, i feel so dumb at the moment... i really do have a decent computer knowledge, its just that right now there are so many issues that i don't know what to do...

[macten]

That Hi-Jack program can be found some where on this website.

Two other posibilities for reboots would be a CPU that is overheating and a defective power supply. I bought a power supply tester at Compusa for $12 or so. It's a small plastic thing with several LED's on it.

To eliminate the possibility of to much heat in the case, you might want to remove the covers and position a fan to blow into the case.

I would reseat the cpu. Perhaps dissasemble everything and put it back together. Could be poor conductivity somewhere.

[Tim Wellman]

your emachine probably shares it's memory with the video card, and you have the video memory set to 64m.. 256-64=192

emachines usually have some nice components, good motherboards, etc... their one shortfalling is the power supply... it's the main reason emachines aren't the #1 selling computers in the world. If you find your mouse won't move sometimes, or is jerky at times, that's also a symptom of a bad power supply... well, not bad, just unpowered for the system it's on.

personally, I've owned 3 emachines and never had any trouble out of them, but other people I know have gone through several powersupplies under warranty, only to buy a good aftermarket power supply and solve all their problems.

Using a lot of memory, putting stress on the cpu, adding any pci cards, using the net, having usb devices plugged in (especially ones that don't have any external power, such as digital camera card readers)... all these things come at a price of wattage used... so, at some point the weak power supply says, well, that's it for me... and stops... the computer acts as if switched off, and simply reboots...

one cure is to buy a new case with at least a 300 watt power supply, and swap all your parts into that. You can also buy new power supplies, especially check ebay for good prices

There may be some other cause for your rebooting problems, but the power supply should be the first suspect

[macten]

I think Tim is right....it's got to be either the power supply or not enough memory.

You've got on-board graphics...that's something to avoid in the future. Speaking from experience.....don't buy a cheap power supply. They short out and tend to take out motherboards and in my case two hardrives. A lot of power supplies that come with cases are cheap junk.

Find out if your machine is built to ATX industry standards. If it is I would buy a power supply that is at least 350 watts. You can always use it in your next pc. A couple of good brands are Antec and pc power and cooling.

I think that I would look in the BIOS and see if you can disable the on-board graphics and buy a video card with on-board memory.

[halfwaynowhere]

okay, now i really do feel stupid... and i was so convinced it was a memory problem, too.... the power supply has been replaced once before, it probably should be replaced again. thanks so much for your help. i really can't believe i was acting that stupid... i'll check out getting a new power supply.