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eMachine Miscellaneous Defects

eMachine • Power supply • RAM specs • Rebates • Service • Worm-infested • Misc. defects --- • Taiwan's Acer Buys Gateway, eMachines • Gateway Buys eMachines

Theresa of Ocala FL (05-01-04):
I just bought an eMachine at Best Buy less than a month ago, and it is freezing up constantly. It is horribly slow and will not allow me to play any games on other sites. The sound will not play either most of the time. I am VERY ANGRY! We paid several hundred dollars for this piece of crap and we are senior citizens that live on Social Security. I want my money back or a different computer entirely!

Noel of Brooklyn NY (04-08-04):
I purchased an eMachine off the Internet as a NEW system and found out it was a refurbished machine. It has never worked properly.

When I turned the machine on for the first time a window appeared saying that Windows XP had not been seated properly. I called the eMachines support center and they had no clue what I was talking about. So I reinstalled Win XP and I was fine. About a week later, though, the computer started going to a blue screen with the following message: "Your computer has halted. Call your hardware vendor. Memory Parity Error. Shut down the computer." (Not word for word but basically this is what it said.) I called eMachines back, but they had no idea what this error was either. They sent me new memory (which they charged me for). I put new memory in all the memory slots and it made no difference. I still got the memory parity error.

Later, I did research on this and finally found some information on this error. It seems to be a motherboard defect. So I now have a machine that is no good. I want to know if this is a problem that you can help me with and if this is a common problem. I am starving college student and single parent, and I can't afford to purchase another system.

Bradley of Beaumont TX (03-31-04):
My wife and I baught a t2882 Emachine. Two weeks later it developed a potential virus. Customer service said the only way to fix it was to restore the computer with the restore disks. After 4 days, I came home from offshore and I went to scan a document and it reverted back to Microsoft Works. Apparently, it turns out that Word takes out Microsoft Works 6.0. I finally found someone at customer service that would agree with me on this issue. In the meantime we went through 4 restores and back to customer service. I finally had to use Microsoft Word 2000.

The thing about it is, I also have a 2 month old HP and it never had any problems with installing anything, even Microsoft office with Word 2003. The HP also came with Microsoft Works 7.0. But this eMachine came with 6.0. What's the deal?

Anyhow, the following morning my wife was playing her games on the Internet, and turns out the Java virtual machine would not download. I called customer service and they suggested a restore. I told them I have been restoring this thing every day that I have been home. I asked them that since I am still under warranty, what can they do to get this thing fixed? They said they would not replace the machine, and that I would have to purchase time with a tech to come out and find out what was wrong and fix it.

I hung up and went to Circuit City, where I purchased the eMachines PC, and since it was 17 days after we bought it, there wasn't anything that they could do. They told us to go back to eMachines. I said "What, you're not going to stand behind the product that you are selling?" The manager said again that there wasn't anything he could do since it was past 14 days. Well, I have been working with computers for a very long time and I know that it takes longer than 14 days to figure out if anything is wrong or not.

Right now, it seems that there isn't anything we can do. My wife is ready to take a baseball bat to the eMachine. I am ready to take it to Circuit City, throw it on the floor and tell them to take this piece of (%&^$)^ and do with it what they will. We spent $900.00 to buy this thing and my whole time off has been restoring EVERY DAY. We are finished with the eMachine. When we get the money, we WILL purchase an HP and then I will take this piece of *&%(& up there.

Anthony of Glen Burnie MD (03-28-04):
After buying an eMachines t2542 at Best Buy, I took it home and set it up. Within 5 hours it started giving me problems. The onboard soundcard (integrated) fizzled out and took a good pair of headphones with it. The right headphone speaker got so hot I could smell the solder melting.

Needless to say I took it back to Best Buy and they gave me another one. This was my second mistake: I should have just exchanged it for another brand of computer, after reading about all the nightmares people have gone through with these sorry pieces of junk.

It's been three months, and now the replacment they gave me is having lots of problems. I am getting RF oscillating noises any time a motor runs in the hard drive, floppy disk or CD-ROM, and any time you move the volume slider it crackles and pops, along with making various beeping noises and hissing. This thing sounds likes an AM radio with dying batteries.

Eventually, I took the second machine back to Best Buy (and purchased an extended warranty). They took three weeks just to tell me they couldn't find any problems with it, and to boot wanted to charge me $25 dollars for a "no problem found diagnosis."

Well, they didn't get 25 bucks and I still don't have my new computer. I took the $25, went to a Goodwill store and spent $15 on an old Packard Bell D-130 with a whopping 16 MB of RAM. At least I can check my mail and complain about the raw deal I've received from eMachines and worstbuy. I am going to back to Best Buy and try to get them to take a new one out of the box, plug it in and say look, do you hear any noise from this one? (providing the new one even works) then take the one which they claim has no problem and compare the two. I don't know how they think they can get away with this.

Anthony of Glen Burnie MD (3/28/04):
After buying an emachines t2542 at BestBuy, I took it home, set it up and within 5 hours it started giving me problems. The onboard soundcard (integrated) fizzled out and took a good pair of headphones with it, the right hesdphone speaker got so hot I could smell the solder melting. Needless to say I took it back to BestBuy and they gave me another one. This was my second mistake, I should have just exchanged it for another brand after reading all the nightmares people have gone thru with these sorry pieces of junk.

Well it's been three months and now the replacment they gave me is having soundcard issues. I am getting rf ocilating noises anytime a motor runs in the HDD, floppy disk, cd-rom, anytime you move the volume slider it crackles and pops along with various beeping noises and hissing -- this thing sounds likes an a.m. radio with dying batteries.

So I took it back to BestBuy (purchased ext. warranty) -- they took three weeks just to tell me they couldn't find any problems with it and to boot want to charge me 25 dollars for a "no problem found diagnoses." Well, they didn't get 25 bucks and I still don't have a computer.

I took the 25 dollars, went to a Goodwill store and spent 15 bucks on an old Packard Bell d-130 with a whopping 16mb of ram. At least I can check my mail and complain about the raw deal I've recieved from emachines and WorstBuy.

Alvin of Omaha NE (3/13/04):
I have talked and chatted with Emachine several times since I bought this expensive non-working computer. I have twenty games that I have tried to download on it to no avail. I have talked to the techs and all they tell me is it's not compatible with the Windows that I have, they say you can't go back to the Windows that it worked with. This machine has lived up to none of the expectations I had for it.

I have given away all the games that I have no use for, I can't afford half the problems this thing is causing.

Lisa of Omega GA (1/22/04):
Last year my husband and I purchased a New Emachines T-1980 from Circuit City. Our home had recently been destroyed by fire, only 3 weeks after Christmas. My 9 yr. old daughter had gotten a new computer for Christmas which was now gone. We decided that no matter how tight things were, that we would get her a new one.

Well, we did, and only 3 weeks after the warrenty was up, I was doing a systems upgrade when it shut down during the process. Never to boot up again, only a continuous beep. Emachines has been of NO HELP at all. Nobody at Tech Support will even answer my questions w/out me paying them 20.00 first, or sending them the computer at my expense. I owe $800.00 for a piece of garbage that doesn't work, my daughter has no computer for her homework, and we havn't the money to replace it.

Carrie of Pearl MS (11/17/03):
My mom bought an eMachine T2615 w/the cd/dvd player installed as standard equipment. It had 512mb and 2600 on space. It was working fine one morning. But, by 2:00 p.m., it was a useless piece of junk. It just quit after 2 months.

My mom takes online courses. I had to start driving her to the college an hour and a half away just to use a computer because our library did not stay open late enough. She has to stay sometimes until 1:00 a.m. to do assignments. Then, get back home to go to sleep to get up at 5:00 for work. Best Buy said it was infested w/bugs and voided warranty. We could not afford another computer.

They claimed that most likely It was just a power supply needed. A comp repair friend went to get part from them. They said that part could only be furnished by Emachine. Emachine would replace part for $100 dollars on a credit card upfront. Fortunately, Computer Service center looked at the emachine tower. The motherboard and processor chip were totally fried after just TWO MONTHS. Most likely, the memory chip is fried. The damage would cost $285 w/o power supply or if needing power supply, It would be $350. THEY HAD ALL THE PARTS. We could not afford the cost to repair this one or buy a new one. So, My boss lent me an old tower w/ windows me. IT is old and problematic. But, at least it works!

Claude of Bowling Green MO (11/6/03):
Purchased a PC at Wal Mart. Retail store warranty expired after 15 days. At day 32, computer crashed. Called eMachine's Customer Service (NOT AN 800 NUMBER) to troubleshoot and they determined it was hard drive. Ordered same and was told I would have it in 3-4 business days. On day 5, after not receiving part, called Customer Service again (AT MY EXPENSE) to see where it was. Told it was backordered and should have it in few days.

Finally, after six calls to Customer Service and three weeks, no part. Was told it shipped on 11/01 with FedEx. Called FedEx with tracking number, they didn't have it. After five more calls to eMachine's (MY EXPENSE), was told two days in a row that a manager would check status and call me back. Fourth day, no one had called me back, but received hard drive - 22 days after order was laced!

In the meantime, I had to buy another PC as this computer was used for my business. Put hard drive into machine ... didn't work! Called eMachine's again - after talking with two people, including supervisor, was told to send PC in - must be mother board! Contacted corporate office and was told no one in Customer Quality at the office took calls from the public!

William of Canton MI (10/17/03):
The CD-rw on my emachine C1904 stopped working. The computer would not recognize that the drive existed. Tried the online chat with customer service and was told to call. There is no toll free number for service. Was told a new drive would be sent out and after swapping drives to send the old one back or I would be charged $75 to my credit card. After 3 weeks and several unanswered emails to the company, I installed a CD-rw from another computer into the emachine and it works just fine. I still want the correct drive for the computer but I have a two year warranty that I can't use because I can't afford to keep contacting the company via long distance phone call.

Anna of Connecticut (8/9/03):
So we made this huge mistake. That's right, we bought an Emachine. To be precise, we bought an Emonster 550r. From what I've read of other complaints, our problems weren't so bad, but here we go: Right off the bat, we knew this was NOT the greatest computer. We set it up, and nothing from floppy disk would copy onto the hard drive. We had to transfer all our information onto CD on our old computer before we could install it on the trash head- I mean Emachine.

Besides that, things were fine...for a while. Four months after buying this computer, we could not longer turn it on using the ON BUTTON. To turn our lovely computer on and off, we need to hit the emergency power button on our lightning box. The hard drive is weak, and seems to struggle desperately whenever we force it to do anything strenuous...like whenever we move the mouse. Basically, this is a hunk of junk. We can't even install a better sound card or more ram, because whenever we so much as touch the tower, our power supply dies completely for about a week. That's always fun.

Another cute trait of this computer? It likes to randomly delete files when it gets bored. I think it's an Obsessive Compulsive, as well. It likes to refresh everything four times before it finally settles into its routine of making our lives miserable. And don't bother asking for help from those wonderfully trained circus monkeys at Emachines. You'll just get a teenage girl named Trisha who would rather beat herself to death with a teaspoon than, like, omigod, no WAY! Like, tell you anything useful.

Here's a sample of the conversation: My husband: Well, our power supply seems to be malfunctioning, we have to turn it on with the lightning box. Trisha: *dramatic sigh* Well, you can, like, still get the thing ON, right? Oh my God, WHAT is your problem, you're just using a different button! Jeez..

Damage resulting: Well, we wasted over a thousand dollars on this piece of junk, we've lost some VERY VERY VERY important files, and I think it's giving me an ulcer...

Leo of Bremen OH (7/14/03):
I have a t1980 and have had repeated problems with it shutting down repeatedly and locking up. At first I thought it was a virus I got from the net...but I have not been online on that computer for months. I have had to restore my system numerous times...just lost 50 g of video production and countless hours over the past 13 1/2 months that I have had the computer.

I recently put in an old floppy that was likely infected and reinserted it into the computer after losing everything and starting over (again). I had several contacts with emachines and got a variety of answers. I bought a new hdd, I formatted the old one, switched them out, inserted the original as master and used the restore disc to start over.

I BELIEVE THERE IS A VIRUS WRITTEN ONTO THE RESTORE DISCS.

Ryan of Stoughton WI (3/6/03):
My eMachines computer came with a defective hard drive and a defective motherboard! I sent it in 3 times for repair and it was never fixed. Customer service was absabsolutelyeless and found every possible loop hole so they didn't have to help me. Their products are just as worthless as their customer service. I had to purchase a new computer. eMachines refused to reimburse me for their defective product.

Corey of Kingston, Ontario (3/15/03):
I bought an etower 366. The first thing to go was the 3.5 floppy. The next thing was the power supply. I took the emachine into Future Shop when the floppy went and they told me I needed to take a new computer. However I had spent hours and hours upgrading the hard drive and only wanted the floppy drive replaced. They told me that it was eMachines policy to replace the entire machine. I suggested that they move my hard drive into a new machine. They told me that I would have to pay for labour.

At that point I was furious and asked the manager who was going to pay for my labour. I stood at the customer service counter for 2.5 hours until I got my way. The power supply went twice and now I have a real one. The floppy is gone again in the new tower, but I'm not under warranty. What really irritates me beyond what I have mentioned is that when you call eMachine you have to pay for their help. The CPU fan also went twice. We're gettigettingll dude!

Gregory of Saginaw MI writes:
A friend has a emachine 667ir (seriously, it's not mine. All I've been trying to do for the past month is to fix it for him. I built my own and it never fails!) He bought it at a Big Box store because it seemed to him to be a really good deal and the store is well known for selling good products. The thing runs, no power supply problem, but I have replaced the modem twice and now the d***** thing won't boot, all we get is a blinking cursor in the top corner.

The world famous excellence in customer support tells me that his mother board is fried and believe it or not there are no compatible motherboards out there to replace it. Not even from their recommended (if thats worth anything) parts supply source.

His machine survived for 16 months so I guess he is one of the lucky ones. I love working on systems but this thing is a nightmare! I guess his next computer will be a Dell or maybe I will build one for him on my own. I can't blame the Big box stores, they got hustled as well. We all got screwed by eMachine's (those who bought them and those of us who have tried so hard to fix them).

Roy of Kingsport TN (2/15/02):
In January of 2001 I purchased a EMachine 633is, we had problems from the very start with it freezing up, and the cd rom wouldn't work either. We took it back to CircuCircuit where we had purchased it, they said they couldn't do anything about it, that we would have to deal with emachine directly.

After a month of useless communication with emachine trying to get them to stand behind what they sale in desperation we took it back to the store where the manager talked with emachine after a hour on the phone with the run around, CircuCircuit paid to have it sent to California to be repaired. After a month it finally returned, but still would not work, everything on the computer had been erased, and it will not run right.

We purchased an extended warranty through CircuCircuit, so after a year we took it to them to have it fixed, they said that what was wrong was not covered under the warranty and should have been fixed under the manufmanufacturesanty, now we have an $800.00 dust collector sitting in the corner of our office.

Tom of Covington KY writes (1/11/02):
My hard drive crashed. I took my tower to a local repair shop, they replaced the drive but told me the restore cd that had come with my machine was defective. They did have one there that could be used but that I should contact emachine for a new one.

Searching through the inadequate book that comes with the machine I found a phone number (long distance) called and got a recorded message that the person was out of the office. I left my name and number with an explaexplanationhat I needed. There was no return call. To date I have called 3 times and still have not had a return call and needless to say there has been no replacement cd. How can this company stay in business?

Bernie of Chesterfield MO (12/07/01):
I am writing this letter to voice my displeasure with a machine we received from you, a T3100. Upon receiving it, I quickly discovered that there was a problem with the sound card and immediately contacted tech support. I received a case id and worked diligently to try to get the problem resolved. Tech support acknowledged they could hear the static in the speakers/headphones and that there had been some problems with the sound cards on these motherboards.

When we were unable to fix the sound problem, the issue was escalated to an individual named Barbara - (801) 907-3366. I explained the problem I was experiencing, in hopes of getting some help and someone to empathize with a fairly knowledgeable user's problem. I was told that my machine would be replaced with one that was working properly. What I got was a promising response which quickly became indifference towards my situation. Barbara requested I send my machine in and that she would send me a FedEx mailer to return the machine. After three weeks and several phone calls, I finally received the return slip.

I immediately sent the machine in. Ten days later, I received my old machine back, plugged it in and immediately started experiencing the same problems. When I called her to inform her of this problem, she referred me to the individual who tested it - Vaughn. I contacted him in hopes of getting the problem resolved or getting a machine that worked properly. The response I got was "It works fine here - there are no problems with it". After trying to convince Vaughn for ten minutes that I still had a problem that I needed help with, I gave up trying to get it fixed.

I have already expended several hours trying to get this fixed and am frankly getting extremely disheartened. We are a small company, but we do have approximately 200 computers. We have purchased machines from you in the past, but the quality of your product and your ability to stand behind it leave doubt in our minds that these same considerations will be afforded in the future.

Mark of Mentor OH (11/12/01):
We purchased an eMonster 500a in 1/00. We have had the computer replaced once due to a myriad of problems, but basically it just didn't run very well. More recently the DVD-Rom drive stopped working and, after first straightening out their screwup with our extended warranty, I was told that they could not simply send me a new DVD drive, but that I had to send them the computer. I will commend them for picking up the tab for the shipping now, but the kudos stop there.

I shipped the computer to an RMA center on 10/11/01 and it has not been returned a month later. Before sending it in I was assured by Doug, a self-proclaimed, customer service manager, that it would take 10 days or less to receive our system back. I have called multiple times, each time having to explain the entire situation and provide them with the Airborne Express tracking number, only to be told that they can't locate our computer, but it will be put on a priority list to be released. They have absolutely no other answer for me and I have since filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau in Irvine, CA, the Ohio Attorney General's office (the RMA center that I shipped to is in Ohio) and I have had our family attorney send/fax a letter to their corporate offices. I have also contacted Best Buy and Circuit City with my complaints against eMachines, Inc, asking that they no longer sell their products.

We have been without our computer for a now. Our children had used it daily for schoolwork and my wife used it for keeping track of her schedule. I had been using it to maintain a website that we own. We have also spent a lot of money on long-distance calls (though mostly on hold). This had been extremely stressful and aggravating, especially after assurances from a manager that it would take only 10 days or less. I feel we deserve compensation for the time, stress and aggravation, in the form of a "better" system, and a monetary award to cover the telephone calls.

Yvette of West Richard WA (10/24/01):
The third computer I've been sent from eMachines had a defective hard drive. Number one had a defective DVD drive. Number 2, straight out of the box, had a defective sound card AND A: drive. We bought a sound card and kept the computer, thinking that number 3 may be worse even?? So after dealing with this for 8 mos or so, the CD Burner went kaput. I called and was sent a 3rd computer from eMachines. Mind you, these are "refurbished" at this point...well guess what??

The hard drive, instead of purring away like normal, went KAPLUNK KAPLUNK and froze. I called eMachines. Talked to a Vaughn there in CA. Told him, this is getting downright ridiculous! I said, we'd put in a hard drive if the company would send us one. He said no, that isn't how we do things but he authorized a $90.00 purchase for a "15 gig hard drive". Well we went shopping at Best Buy and found a great deal on a 40 gig!

Since we knew that a $90.00 check was on its way we bought this one, for $119. Then faxed Vaughn our receipt as he'd instructed. We waited and waited, check never comes. FINALLY we are told, again by Vaughn that he's mailed it to the wrong address? He promised to send out another check. Waited and waited. Mind you, we bought the hard drive on August 2nd. Now its October 24th and a few days ago a check arrives- for- get this - $75.00! Missing $15.00?

So I filled out a complaint form. I get an email today apologizing but "Vaughan authorized only $75.00 reimbursement"! I'm sick of eMachines, their faulty computers, and empty promises.

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