Jesus I hate my parents computer. I think it has a 2Ghz processor and 256MB of RAM (which should be enough) but it sucks so bad. It takes 10 minutes to do what would take 1 minute on my computer and mine has a 1.2Ghz CPU and 512MB of RAM. What does Emachines do to make their computers so goddamn shitty? I know I have heard others complain of the same thing with their Emachine. It shouldn’t take 15 seconds to open a music file or 20 seconds to load a webpage.
I agree that it sounds like something is wrong with your parent’s computer but I think it’s likely software related. Have you checked for spyware? If not check out the sticky in GQ on how to detect and remove spyware.
Also, how much hard drive space is remaining? There may not be enough space to create a decent sized swap file.
Cheap processors with no L2 cache, slow front side bus speeds, and shared memory for video.
To an extent, you get what you pay for.
Probably loaded with spyware. Or just has 1001 unnecessary processes & programs running. Maybe it just desperately needs a defrag. Parents are seldom versed in keeping their machines tidy. Can’t be worse than Compaq!
Subpar components, basically. Emachines are the worst computers ever. I really don’t know how they sustain a market; I know some people can’t afford an expensive computer but as long as you’re shelling out $700 for an Emachine you might as well spend $850 for a Dell or Gateway. Those computers aren’t great either but they’re miles ahead of Emachines.
But hey, five years ago twenty seconds to open a webpage was lightning fast speed. Count your blessings?
Hell a new CPU/motherboard combo is only $110 on pricewatch. And that is for a P4 1.5Ghz or an AthlonXP3000. Perhaps I should buy them one this model probably has a Celeron or something.
I’ve had my emachine for 4 years now. Never have upgraded it or done anything but add the usual antivirus and Spybot, things like that. I only use my computer for the internet and I don’t download music or anything. I’ve never had a problem with it, and with my DSL, it runs as fast as I want. Pretty good considering it was basically free (my car got hit in the parking lot of the Best Buy just before I bought it and after the rebates, the cost of the computer was exactly the same as the check from his insurance company, so that worked out nicely for me.)
I have a hand-me-down Dell sitting in the closet for when my emachine conks out on me, but so far not one problem with it.
Emachines used to be total crap, but they make some nice boxes these days. Especially the notebooks.
I third (fourth?) the suggestion to run Spybot, Adaware, and an antivirus scan.
It might be worth slapping in another 256MB DIMM, too.
Yeah, 256MB is the (bare) minimum for Win XP. I skated by on 128 for a while, but only by heading in to the service manager and chopping out everything that wasn’t directly necessary (I got it down to 111MB post-boot, a proud moment…). 256MB and a slow hard drive will make any computer painful, no matter how fast the CPU is.
E-machines subsidizes their PCs by loading them with spy- and crapware at the plant. I bought one for my son, knowing what I was getting, and it ran fine once I cleaned it out and added memory.
Still can’t beat $400 for just the box…
they’re made (assembled) in Korea… what do you want!!!
I bought an eMachines computer a couple years ago. I don’t know which was worse…the system or the customer service. eMachines refused to take it back, so I brought it back to Walmart. A manager there tried calling their tech support to see what happened and got put through such a nightmare of undocumented repeat calls that he took pity on me and took it back even though the 30 day grace period had expired.
My dad has already run a variety of anti-viral software programs so that can’t be it. I guess another 256MB stick of RAM is a good idea for him, i’ll have to buy him one. I forget whether he uses DDR or SDRAM though or what PC rating it uses (2700, 3000, etc). I’ll have to ask.
$850?
You can currently get a Dell with P4 2.8GHz processor, 256Mb RAM, 40Gb hard drive, and 15" flat panel monitor for $499.
Add $50 to double the RAM, $30 to double the hard drive size, and you’ve still got a perfectly decent basic machine with a nice monitor for under $600.
Next time i buy a new computer, i’m probably gonna build my own, but right now my Dell does its job just fine.
eMachines can be fine computers. Not the best gaming machines, however a look at the newer models show that they have a lot of potentional. They make great computers for college students because they are really good word processor and Internet machines. Otherwise, it’s not like eMachines make their own hard drives and motherboards. They just buy the parts and assemble them. The hard drive can be a Seagate model, cdroms can be SamSung model, etc… I had a 400hz Celeron eMachine with 256mb of ram and a 5400rpm harddrive with XP installed, and that would kick the OPs parents computers ass. I’ve also helped people with they’re newer models too, and they seem to be great PC’s for the money. Usually the things that go wrong with them is almost always operator error (sorry). There must be a ton of software apps, spyware, and possible viruses that are installed that are hogging the resources. I’ve never had to deal with customer service though, so I cannot comment on that.
This would be one bad motha with a video card and a memory upgrade:
http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_T5026
The lower models would also play a lot of the latest games with the same upgrades. So from a hardware perspective, they’re not that bad.
I’d like to concur with the sentiment that eMachines sucks hairy ball sacks. My niece has an eMachines, and it’s been nothing but trouble. From day one, the monitor was always a bit fuzzy, and then it conked out completely. We replaced it with the monitor from my old NEC, but that was slowly corrupted as well. Not long after we hooked up the DSL the computer was riddled with spyware, and YES, we did run Spyware and AdAware, but that never cleaned everything, and shit kept coming back. On top of all that, add the incredible slowness, despite having a 1.0 Ghz processor, and the fact that from time to time the CD-RW drive will refuse to read any CDs, and you’ve got yourself the worst computer ever made.
I had one as well. THe reason I bought it was that it was dirt cheap. It was an Intel Celeron with 800 mhz, 128 of Ram and a 20gig HD that I bought in September 2001 for $150 with all the rebates. Eventually I swapped out the original CD-rom for a CD-burner, and put in another 256Mb of ram. Once I put in more Ram it ran much better. I also ran Ad-aware which helped improve the performance.
Look, i know nothing about eMachines computers. Never used one. Probably never will.
But you can’t blame eMachines for your computer’s viruses, spyware and trojans. No matter what sort of computer you buy, they all have some basic things in common: motherboard, processor, memory, hard drive, and a way of connecting to the internet (either modem or ethernet). They also have an operating system, most likely Windows.
Any system with all these components is susceptible to a variety of malware from the internet, and whether or not you get that malware has very little to do with the quality of the computer or its components; it has to do with the installation (or lack thereof) of specific pieces of software (firewall, anti-spyware, virus protection, adware removal, etc., etc.), hardware (a router with hardware firewall is a good idea), and the correct configuration of these things (e.g., closing unused ports).
eMachines may suck hairy ball sacks, but replacing your eMachines computer with a top-of-the-line IBM won’t stop you getting spyware if you don’t take the proper precautions.
I love it when girls talk geek.
I have an emachine that I bought about five years ago. It’s done basically what I needed it to do, but it has…issues. There was software bundled with the PC that I’ve never been able to run without the computer gacking. I won’t buy another. I’ll probably go Mac when it’s time to replace this PC, if for no other reason that the virus/trojan protection.