I bought a T3104 on March 3rd (2006) to put my Windows stuff like Quicken and Turbotax on. Unfortunately, as of the date of this post, I still cannot use it!The basic problem is in the networking. After a period of time, the connection just stops working. It still shows as connected but nothing flows. This is usually accompanied by the Sent Packet count in the Local Connection Status resetting to 0. (eMachines recently sent a add-on PCI card. This was the third one I tried. For it the link stopped but the count didn’t zero.) As I said, it is after a period of time. However, I can accelerate it just by starting a large download. It usually fails in a few minutes.I have gone through uncountable troubleshooting procedures with eMachines with many repeats. I have sent the system back to them, at their request, THREE times and it has returned with the same problem THREE times. I don’t always know what they do, but I have seen indications of memory swap, etc. The most recent attempt was the above noted add-on PCI card. Now, I am waiting to see what they want to do next.I finally gave up a few weeks ago and acquired another system, a Compaq. It works fine! Note, with the same cable, router, etc. that didn’t work with the eMachines. However, also note, multiple cables and routers have been involved in trying to find a solution.

All of this is too bad as I once owned an eMachines M5305 laptop and had an excellent experience.

Standby for the latest news.

Posted in: Devices.
Last Modified: September 17, 2013

2 comments on “My Recent eMachines Experience

  1. richard.mitchell

    The latest news is that eMachines wants to try and fix this machine for the FOURTH time. I have it packaged and ready to go to FedEx. I am going to write a note to explain how to run the file download test and enclose it, but I suspect it is a waste of my time and paper. I’ll let you know what happens.

    It has now been FOUR MONTHS and TEN DAYS since I bought this system and I still can’t use it!

  2. richard.mitchell

    It came back after being repaired for the FOURTH time. Again, it did NOT work! I just conducted my relatively simple test of downloading a few GB file. After 3000+ Received packets, the Sent packet count zeroed and the link stopped working.

    I sent my email to eMachines “suggesting” a refund. It has been escalated.

    Meanwhile, I loaded Fedora Core 5 on the machine. The NIC works fine there. That points to a driver problem with the motherboard, VIA, and/or NIC under Windows.

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