Windows 7 Memory Question

A relative of mine needs a new tower PC and some other relatives are
chipping in to buy her a low priced one. We found
an E Machine. It comes with Windows 7. I'm on XP and know nothing of
anything beyond Windows 7. I know my Dell is rock solid.

It comes with an AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz processor and 2GB of RAM.

Will my relative get decent performance from this kind of machine? All she
does is surf the net, pay bills, and do email, and maybe watch video on
netflix. Her son does gaming on his x-box along with netflix.


This PC tower is going for around $295 at Wal Mart.

Thanks

On 12/20/2010 7:59 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
A relative of mine needs a new tower PC and some other relatives are
chipping in to buy her a low priced one. We found
an E Machine. It comes with Windows 7. I'm on XP and know nothing of
anything beyond Windows 7. I know my Dell is rock solid.

It comes with an AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz processor and 2GB of RAM.

Will my relative get decent performance from this kind of machine? All she
does is surf the net, pay bills, and do email, and maybe watch video on
netflix. Her son does gaming on his x-box along with netflix.


This PC tower is going for around $295 at Wal Mart.

Thanks



From the usage I have had so far, 2GB should be fine for normal
run-of-the-mill use as you described. Only the Netflix video may tax
the memory. Not sure. I do not use Netflix.

I am less than thrilled with eMachines, which often use a crappy power
supply (same as HP Pavilions and Compaq Presarios). When the power
supply goes, it takes the motherboard with it, because it does not have
protective circuitry built in. The world is littered with dead
eMachines systems. I have tossed out a number of perfectly good
eMachines cases, after stripping the boards for the local electronic
recycler. A shame, too. The cases are generally well made out of
sturdy sheet metal without sharp edges to slice you up... Ben Myers

"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
On 12/20/2010 7:59 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
A relative of mine needs a new tower PC and some other relatives are
chipping in to buy her a low priced one. We found


I am less than thrilled with eMachines, which often use a crappy power
supply (same as HP Pavilions and Compaq Presarios). When the power supply
goes, it takes the motherboard with it, because it does not have
protective circuitry built in. The world is littered with dead eMachines
systems. I have tossed out a number of perfectly good eMachines cases,
after stripping the boards for the local electronic recycler. A shame,
too. The cases are generally well made out of sturdy sheet metal without
sharp edges to slice you up... Ben Myers


She currently has an old Dell with XP on it. Whenever it screws up I do a
complete factory restore and it seems to run
ok for a few days but then screws up again. I wonder if it has too little
ram. I will do a factory restore and a week later they can't use Explorer
to search the net. They have to use Chrome. Then the router which is
hooked up to the computer and xbox screws up - only one is able to be used
at a time. Either the computer can be plugged in and online or the xbox can
be plugged in and online. There are ports for both the computer and xbox,
it's a Linksys. But for some reason only one can be used.

On 12/21/2010 1:24 AM, Von Fourche wrote:
"Ben wrote in message
...
On 12/20/2010 7:59 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
A relative of mine needs a new tower PC and some other relatives are
chipping in to buy her a low priced one. We found


I am less than thrilled with eMachines, which often use a crappy power
supply (same as HP Pavilions and Compaq Presarios). When the power supply
goes, it takes the motherboard with it, because it does not have
protective circuitry built in. The world is littered with dead eMachines
systems. I have tossed out a number of perfectly good eMachines cases,
after stripping the boards for the local electronic recycler. A shame,
too. The cases are generally well made out of sturdy sheet metal without
sharp edges to slice you up... Ben Myers


She currently has an old Dell with XP on it. Whenever it screws up I do a
complete factory restore and it seems to run
ok for a few days but then screws up again. I wonder if it has too little
ram. I will do a factory restore and a week later they can't use Explorer
to search the net. They have to use Chrome. Then the router which is
hooked up to the computer and xbox screws up - only one is able to be used
at a time. Either the computer can be plugged in and online or the xbox can
be plugged in and online. There are ports for both the computer and xbox,
it's a Linksys. But for some reason only one can be used.




The old Dell may also have an old and failing hard drive. This is one
possible explanation for a system going south regularly.

Or gremlins entering from the outside world... Ben Myers

Ben Myers writes:

On 12/21/2010 1:24 AM, Von Fourche wrote:
"Ben wrote in message
...
On 12/20/2010 7:59 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
A relative of mine needs a new tower PC and some other relatives are
chipping in to buy her a low priced one. We found


I am less than thrilled with eMachines, which often use a crappy power
supply (same as HP Pavilions and Compaq Presarios). When the power supply
goes, it takes the motherboard with it, because it does not have
protective circuitry built in. The world is littered with dead eMachines
systems. I have tossed out a number of perfectly good eMachines cases,
after stripping the boards for the local electronic recycler. A shame,
too. The cases are generally well made out of sturdy sheet metal without
sharp edges to slice you up... Ben Myers


She currently has an old Dell with XP on it. Whenever it screws up I do a
complete factory restore and it seems to run
ok for a few days but then screws up again. I wonder if it has too little
ram. I will do a factory restore and a week later they can't use Explorer
to search the net. They have to use Chrome. Then the router which is
hooked up to the computer and xbox screws up - only one is able to be used
at a time. Either the computer can be plugged in and online or the xbox can
be plugged in and online. There are ports for both the computer and xbox,
it's a Linksys. But for some reason only one can be used.




The old Dell may also have an old and failing hard drive. This is one
possible explanation for a system going south regularly.

I had an early machine with one bad memory stick, and somehow
that led to HD corruption periodically until I diagnosed the
bad memory and removed it. This was in 1995, I don't know if
that could happen today.

Or gremlins entering from the outside world... Ben Myers


--
Andrew Hall
(Now reading Usenet in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell...)

"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
On 12/20/2010 7:59 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
A relative of mine needs a new tower PC and some other relatives are
chipping in to buy her a low priced one. We found
an E Machine. It comes with Windows 7. I'm on XP and know nothing of
anything beyond Windows 7. I know my Dell is rock solid.

It comes with an AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz processor and 2GB of RAM.

Will my relative get decent performance from this kind of machine? All
she
does is surf the net, pay bills, and do email, and maybe watch video on
netflix. Her son does gaming on his x-box along with netflix.


This PC tower is going for around $295 at Wal Mart.

Thanks



From the usage I have had so far, 2GB should be fine for normal
run-of-the-mill use as you described. Only the Netflix video may tax the
memory. Not sure. I do not use Netflix.

I am less than thrilled with eMachines, which often use a crappy power
supply (same as HP Pavilions and Compaq Presarios). When the power supply
goes, it takes the motherboard with it, because it does not have
protective circuitry built in. The world is littered with dead eMachines
systems. I have tossed out a number of perfectly good eMachines cases,
after stripping the boards for the local electronic recycler. A shame,
too. The cases are generally well made out of sturdy sheet metal without
sharp edges to slice you up... Ben Myers

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus
signature database 5728 (20101223) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com




Ben,
I have heard of this power supply/motherboard issue with eMachines. I
currently own 3 eMachines; a T3306 & 2 T5243's. The worst problem I have had
was the DVD burner self-destructed after a year on the T3306 which is almost
5 years old now. However, I have just purchased a docking station for my
daughter's Dell laptop & took over her T5243 (you don't want to know the age
of the Dell XPS it is replacing). It was dual-booting Vista & 7 but I
downgraded to XP & 7. Now I am concerned about the power supply. Is it a
standard PSU? Would a preemptive replacement with a new PSU prevent any
issues?

Also, on an off-topic note, I contacted eMachine by e-mail to ask what the
fastest processor this motherboard would support (MCP61PM-AM). They wanted
pay-per-call tech support to call me the answer. It currently has an AMD
Athlon 4000+ (2.1Ghz). I have figured out that this is a Brisbane core
running it at 65W. I think the 5600+ is the fastest at 65W but there are 95W
processors running up to 6000+. Would you know what the fastest processor
would be that would run natively on this board?

Any help appreciated.....Thanks.

Rich


__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5728 (20101223) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com

On 12/23/2010 6:44 PM, Rich wrote:


"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
On 12/20/2010 7:59 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
A relative of mine needs a new tower PC and some other relatives are
chipping in to buy her a low priced one. We found
an E Machine. It comes with Windows 7. I'm on XP and know nothing of
anything beyond Windows 7. I know my Dell is rock solid.

It comes with an AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz processor and 2GB of RAM.

Will my relative get decent performance from this kind of machine?
All she
does is surf the net, pay bills, and do email, and maybe watch video on
netflix. Her son does gaming on his x-box along with netflix.


This PC tower is going for around $295 at Wal Mart.

Thanks



From the usage I have had so far, 2GB should be fine for normal
run-of-the-mill use as you described. Only the Netflix video may tax
the memory. Not sure. I do not use Netflix.

I am less than thrilled with eMachines, which often use a crappy power
supply (same as HP Pavilions and Compaq Presarios). When the power
supply goes, it takes the motherboard with it, because it does not
have protective circuitry built in. The world is littered with dead
eMachines systems. I have tossed out a number of perfectly good
eMachines cases, after stripping the boards for the local electronic
recycler. A shame, too. The cases are generally well made out of
sturdy sheet metal without sharp edges to slice you up... Ben Myers

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus
signature database 5728 (20101223) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com




Ben,
I have heard of this power supply/motherboard issue with eMachines. I
currently own 3 eMachines; a T3306 & 2 T5243's. The worst problem I have
had was the DVD burner self-destructed after a year on the T3306 which
is almost 5 years old now. However, I have just purchased a docking
station for my daughter's Dell laptop & took over her T5243 (you don't
want to know the age of the Dell XPS it is replacing). It was
dual-booting Vista & 7 but I downgraded to XP & 7. Now I am concerned
about the power supply. Is it a standard PSU? Would a preemptive
replacement with a new PSU prevent any issues?

Also, on an off-topic note, I contacted eMachine by e-mail to ask what
the fastest processor this motherboard would support (MCP61PM-AM). They
wanted pay-per-call tech support to call me the answer. It currently has
an AMD Athlon 4000+ (2.1Ghz). I have figured out that this is a Brisbane
core running it at 65W. I think the 5600+ is the fastest at 65W but
there are 95W processors running up to 6000+. Would you know what the
fastest processor would be that would run natively on this board?

Any help appreciated.....Thanks.

Rich

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus
signature database 5728 (20101223) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com




The T5243 probably uses a standard-sized ATX12v power supply, but I
cannot say for sure. All of the eMachines I have seen since their move
to the black case with silver front were standard microATX cases.

Either measure the dimensions of the power supply or take a photo of the
back of the case and send it to me off-line. The hole pattern for the
mounting screws is important, too.

eMachines along with HP/Compaq have used the trashy Bestec tower
supplies known for taking out motherboards when they failed. I have
scrapped dozens of eMachines boxes with perfectly good cases, bad power
supplies and fried motherboards. For a long time, there was a hot and
expensive market for replacement eMachines motherboards.

Under the new Acer ownership, eMachines computers may have better power
supplies. I do not know for sure, because the last eMachines box I
handled was either a pre-LGA775 P4 or an older AMD box. I would be
curious to know the brand of power supply in each of your eMachines
computers.

I have miniscule expertise with AMD CPUs, so I can't advise as to which
CPU upgrade would work. Beyond the CPU wattage are considerations of
BIOS support for various CPU speeds. Also note that CPU wattage
consumption generally increases as CPU clock speed increases. I am
skeptical that all AMD Brisbanes consume 65w. But, again, I have not
really read any of the specs on AMD CPUs.

eMachines is like any other compnay wanting to charge for tech support
these days, especially when the topic is CPU upgrades, something in
which they cannot make any money.

Your best bet would be to determine the make/model of the T5243
motherboard and to obtain detailed motherboard specs for the same or
similar motherboards from the board manufacturer. For the most part,
OEM boards for eMachines and HP/Compaq are "specials", not standard off
the shelf generic models. The special OEM boards are often crippled
versions of standard boards. The exception is when Intel supplies the
board, and it is often a standard model... Ben Myers

"Ben Myers" shared:
[........]
For the most part, OEM boards for eMachines and HP/Compaq
are "specials", not standard off the shelf generic models. The special
OEM boards are often crippled versions of standard boards. The
exception is when Intel supplies the board, and it is often a standard
model... Ben Myers


yikes! I would guess, then, that the "crippling" drops the price
that is charged to the OEM for the "special" motherboard. From
what you've seen, Ben, does this apply to Dell's motherboards as
well?

*TimDaniels*

On 12/24/2010 1:34 PM, Timothy Daniels wrote:
"Ben Myers" shared:
[........]
For the most part, OEM boards for eMachines and HP/Compaq
are "specials", not standard off the shelf generic models. The special
OEM boards are often crippled versions of standard boards. The
exception is when Intel supplies the board, and it is often a standard
model... Ben Myers


yikes! I would guess, then, that the "crippling" drops the price
that is charged to the OEM for the "special" motherboard. From
what you've seen, Ben, does this apply to Dell's motherboards as
well?

*TimDaniels*



With emachines, HPaq and others, the "crippled" OEM models lack many of
the BIOS features found in the generic boxed motherboards.
Overclocking, in particular, is not possible. Sometimes specific chips
are omitted from the motherboards, or less functional chips substituted,
e.g. 10/100 Ethernet instead of gigabit Ethernet.

With its motherboards-mounted-on-a-tray found in the Socket 478 and
early LGA775 systems, the Dell boards were custom by definition, to fit
the tray. However, they give every indication of being full-featured,
except for the BIOS. The older P4 and early LGA775 systems in the Mitac
microATX chassis all have a standard form factor, somewhat funky
physical connectors and they are all full-featured compared to similar
mostly Intel-branded models.

The newer BTX motherboard systems all seem to have standard
off-the-shelf motherboards. And so do the newer Vostro, Inspiron, and
Optiplex designs.

Dell, too, does not want people to overclock its systems. After all,
overclocking voids any warranty on the CPU and may well mess up the
system in other ways.

My summary, and this is no Dellbot talking, is that "crippled" is a good
term to apply to Acer-eGateMachines and HPaq motherboards, but not to
Dells. Many of the Gateway-branded P4 systems, up until Acer bought
them out, used Intel-branded motherboards and were generally of very
good quality. I have not had hands on with any recent post-Acer Gateway
boxes, but I can guess that if Acer is still manufacturing its own
(decent quality once upon a time) motherboards, that's what ends up in
Gateways now. But I have not seen an Acer branded motherboard in some
time... Ben

In ,
Ben Myers typed on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:59:09 -0500:

[...]
eMachines along with HP/Compaq have used the trashy Bestec tower
supplies known for taking out motherboards when they failed. I have
scrapped dozens of eMachines boxes with perfectly good cases, bad
power supplies and fried motherboards...

That is very interesting Ben. I had two HP desktops with Bestec power
supplies. And when they were four years old I stuck a new DLink wireless
card in one of them. Then all hell broke out. Even when I removed the
DLink card, the computer no longer worked by LAN or any wireless card. I
did get an error message from DLink software and wrote it down. And I
though something happened to the motherboard and what a strange
coincidence.

So I put that DLink card in the other HP. Dang, that one now has the
same problems and no LAN or any wireless would work with this computer
now either. Called DLink and asking them why their card ruined both
computers and I gave them that error code. They told me it wasn't their
card, but that error means a problem with the computer itself. So it
wasn't their problem.

Now thinking about this and you saying this about Bestec power supplies
are making me wonder if that has anything to do with this problem? They
work fine using dialup, but no LAN and WLAN ever works after that one
DLink card was plugged in. Although today they are terrible computers
and I am not interested in repairing them. But I am still curious what
really happened.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Centrino Duo 1.83G - 2GB - Windows XP SP3