Don't Buy ANY eMachines Computer
Written: May 14 '02
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Pros: Inexpensive, had an offer to get XP home for 20 bucks.
Cons: Poor customer support, few expansion slots, unuseful preloaded software,
The Bottom Line: You get what you pay for. Bottom line: Dont buy an eMachines
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| hearseman's Full Review: eMachines T3100 PC Desktop |
We purchased an eMachines T3100 from Tiger direct in September. I've had problems with it since day 1.
I noticed how cheap eMachines were built and how inflexible they were when the box came via UPS. Additional memory was ordered for the computer. When I opened it up, I found that there was only 1 PCI slot available for use and there were also only 2 slots for memory cards. The machine came with both slots filled. Instead of going with a slightly more expensive memory card, they put 2 cheap ones in. I had to take out one of the ones it came with to put in my 128 MB. So I didn't get as much memory as I was expecting. Instead of using an on-board modem and Ethernet, this machine had cards. There is benefit to this. Some computer boards do not allow for you to disable the accessory if you want to install a separate one. If your modem or Ethernet card goes bad, you can replace them in this machine.
When starting the computer up, it goes through a little introduction (worthless). It came loaded with a bunch of worthless software such as Microsoft Works and Microsoft Money. Microsoft Works is a cheap excuse for Office. It hogs memory and system resources. If you have works on your machine, you should uninstall it (especially if you have Office too). I deleted both programs and some other junk right away.
eMachines use make terrible use of the processor and memory. When I open up Resource Meter and System Monitor, the computer runs at 60% with nothing I choose to run. There is a lot of junk running in the background. After deleting a bunch of software I didn't need and changing what ran at start-up, I was able to get 90%. However, when 1 program opens up, it goes right back to 70%. This is a result of poor engineering and cheap parts.
Because of 2 unrecoverable crashes, I've had to reinstall Windows ME. The computer comes with a restore CD, but no actual Windows discs. Basically, the restore CD is an exact copy of the entire computer when it shipped (also called a ghost image because it uses Norton's Ghost). The process is easy, thanks to Norton's. All you have to do is place the CD in the tray and restart the computer. It boots off the CD and gives the option to restore the system or go into DOS. Press ENTER on restore and away it goes. The only drawback is that you loose all you installed after getting the new computer and you have all the junky software again.
Because the system comes with a restore CD, there is no MS CD's and no additional software CD's. If you need to install something and the system asks for a Windows CD...I'm not sure what you'd do. If you uninstall a program and change you mind, you have to go backwards. Windows ME does help with a system restore. You can go back to a certain date of system state. By default it is set to automatically record. If you set it to manual, it will be up to you to set the time frames of restore.
The 2nd time the system crashed was partly due to Microsoft's IE 6. After upgrading it, the browser constantly gave errors, wanting to submit error reports to MS, the crash the system. I decided to uninstall the IE6 adn go return to the previous version. Apparently it uninstalled some of the wrong things or corrupted the files. The computer started up and got the login screen, but after logging in, it gave a shell32.dll error and would go no further. No start button, no icons, nothing! Of course, I didn't make a emergency start up disk either. Unfortunately I had files on the computer I needed and hadn't saved them anywhere else.
Tech support is free for 1 year but a long distance phone call. After 1 year, they charge a ridiculous $20 per incident. You can email support or use their Live Help from the website. Live Help is a chat similar to Instant Messenger. eMachines support is useless from what I could tell. In most cases, they tell you to use the system restore CD. They have no technical knowledge at all. My 7-year-old cousin could do this job. I came up with my own solutions.
Fortunately, the machine was purchased just as XP was being introduced. Although the computer came with ME, it had an offer to get XP home for 20 bucks. GOOD THING I got it!! Knowing how Windows upgrades work, I knew I could save all my important files by upgrading. I did and I got them recovered. I formatted the hard drive after getting files off and just started clean with XP. No useless software, just a new OS to learn.
My recommendation is to NOT buy ANY eMachines computer. So far, my favorite is SONY. They cost more, but are always worth the dough. Next time I will just spend the extra cash.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-RW
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
hearseman
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Member: Brandon VanOrden
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Reviews written: 87
Trusted by: 14 members
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