My father recently purchased a new eMachines T5082 without asking my opinion and as such I have been tasked with configuring it. The first question, of course, is why is Windows Vista so awful slow the system is unusable? Let us list the reasons.
First, the base of this model ships with only 512M of PC4200 DDR2. Running Windows Vista with all the bells and whistles turned on by default, the system is so slow it ought to be a crime to ship a Vista ready system with so little RAM. One huge mark against eMachines.
Second, this system ships with a underpowered integrated ATI Raedon Xpress 200 with silly shared memory. Hardly sufficient for a factory configured install of Windows Vista with all effects enabled. What was eMachines thinking? (That’s rhetorical; Obviously profit margins, profit margins, profit margins!) That’s mark number two.
Third, the T5082 ships with the nasty McAfee Security Center. Upon boot McAfee began to scan, making an already slow Vista experience virtually unusable. We’re talking let’s pretend it’s defragging and get some coffee and come back after type slow. McAfee infests seemingly every component of the system, popping up nonsense about green sites under IE and Firefox during my Google quest to find printer drivers for the Epson Stylus Photo 925 legacy printer Vista didn’t have drivers for. Awful. Simply awful. Thrice has eMachines now been struck down.
Simply for good measure, I can’t help but mention how lame this Logitech keyboard the T5082 ships with is. The keys immediately to the left of the number pad are compressed into two columns instead of three, making the keys completely out of place. When groping for the traditional end and home keys as vim shortcuts don’t work in Firefox (to the extent I’ve bothered to investigate) I find myself deleting characters instead. Lame.
Which brings us to the worthless bundled software that comes preinstalled, including some questionable software. I already mentioned how much McAfee SecurityCenter sucks, but I’ll go on and mention its interface is quite awful and it’s a challenge simply figuring out how to make it stop interrupting my Vista experience by adding to its slowness. Additionally, eMachines thought I’d care about:
Power2Go 5.0, BigFix, Napster (wtf?), and a wide range of crappy games from some company calling itself WildTangent. I am suspicious of a program simply called Browser Address Error Redirector as well.
Finally, it’s worthwhile to note that Vista’s own experience rating for this eMachines T5082 is only a score of 2. Clearly, one has to ponder what eMachines was thinking? (Rhetorical; Say it with me now: Profit Margins ™!)
Update, February 24th. As noted in the comments which I forgot to mention, you lose even more memory due to the integrated, shared memory based graphics card sucking up physical RAM for itself. Such a graphics card is also an awful companion for Windows Vista ™.
Update, March 1st. Vista fails to run a variety of proprietary insurance industry specific software. Further, the interface is so foreign some employees aren’t able to effectively use it. What a plague upon small businesses. Ugh. We’re installing XP Professional on this box for another few hundred. Sigh. I’d love to move to a virtualized Windows instance using RDP and replace each install of Windows XP with KUbuntu Linux, but OpenOfffice.org just isn’t there yet.
Update, September 10th. Thanks to those in the comments that pointed to the drivers for this system. I finally got around to install Windows XP Home.
For the video card you need drivers from ATI. Download the right drivers by selecting your version of XP, then Integrated/Motherboard, then finally Radeon Xpress 200. Be mindful of the automatic install of the driver, which will try to install Steam crap on your system for ‘online games’ or some such nonsense. (NVidia doesn’t pull nonsense like that, but I digress!)
For the sound card, you need drivers from Realtek. They seem to have the market on weak, embedded audio chipsets.
Instead, you may wish to download Intel’s versions of all the drivers you need. There’s an updated driver for the network card versus what ships with Windows XP. The video drivers for the Xpress 200 are a year older than what ATI offers, though.
Arthur Berkhardt said,
February 20, 2007 at 2:12 am
I just bought this same computer two days ago, and I wish I would have read your review before buying it. Your experience almost exactly mirrors mine. 512 MB of RAM is a joke with Windows Vista; this machine is very slow right now. The 3.0 Ghz processor is more than adequate, so I’m pretty sure the RAM is the problem. I definitely will upgrade the RAM, and hopefully that should cure the problem. By the time I spend on upgrading the RAM, I could have bought a more substantial computer. I’d advise others not to purchase this model.
robert said,
February 22, 2007 at 11:19 pm
What the hell do you want for the price. I bought a package that included a lcd monitor and printer/scanner.
I also purchased a radeon x1300 card and 1 g flash drive.
The above with the mcafee gone and all the crappy stuff that is set to turn on turned off the computer runs great.
If you want loads of memory and a kick ass g card out of the box then spend more $ and stop the crying.
Dale Bourne said,
February 23, 2007 at 2:25 pm
A friend just got the same system about a week ago. I got him up and running easily enough and am very disappointed with the VISTA OS. But that’s to be expected with any first release from MS. Too bad it’s so hard to find a new macine with XP anymore. Rather than fight to overcome the myraid of probs, I think I’ll put Win2000 on in place of VISTA, at least until the next release. Wish me luck!!!
jasonb said,
February 23, 2007 at 2:50 pm
@robert:
I don’t care about the price. However, eMachines should not be selling systems preloaded with Vista that offer such exceeding poor performance. 512M of RAM absolutely guarantees poor performance out of the box on a Vista system. Offering such a configuration to customers is disingenuous and laughable.
abei villafane said,
February 24, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I just bought this system for $414 at bestbuy today. Bought it for a friend on a budget cause his old one fried. I didn’t even REALIZE this was gonna have vista, so I was thinking 512mb was enough. MCaffee starts virus scanning immediately on boot but doesn’t ask or tell you, it took me about 2 full hours or more to set this computer up out of the box just to have it usable person. It took 15 minutes just to be able to click anything to stop the virus scan, then windows update took another 20 minutes at a glacial pace because mcafee decided to install updates for all its stuff, and I couldn’t stop it, and I didnt want to stop Windows Update. After everything completed i restarted about 2 times to configure the updates (another 15 minutes down the drain). So i think I’m done, i reboot again and bootup takes 2 minutes to get into a desktop, then 3 more minutes to load everything in the systray.
What I also found was THIS:
The processor is throttled to 80% for “POWER SAVING”!!!! omg this is a freaking desktop not a laptop. I forgot what control panel i went into cause i’ve never used vista ( i had to switch to classic view) and I found settings to change it. Once you do this, it becomes marginally usable (after you stop the virus-scan and finish updating and reboot 3 times)
The system only really has 448mb cause the video card takes some for itself. Physical memory usage is 80% used at 390mb while pageing File use is listed as 700mb. So the way e-machines set this up vista uses 1090mb of ram, even if they installed 1GB of ram it’d be slow slow SLOW. I’m totally mad at e-machines for one, microsoft for two, and mcafee for three.
My friend knows NOTHING about computers but all he will notice is that his brand spanking new 3ghz (he can read the label) is slower by about a factor of 2 than his old COMPAQ celeron 1.8 with 256 ram on XP. He’s going to call me up tomorrow to complain and I’d love to be able to let him keep Vista but chances are even with tweaking the video settings to minimal, it’s going to be brutal without upgrading the ram to AT LEAST a gig. (PS i cant believe they used 533mhz ram with an 800mhz FSB CPU, that woulda helped too). Tomorrow I’m gonna have to install a copy of XP for him. volume license edition. suck it microsoft. and since i hate e-machines now too, suck it e-machines.
Matt said,
February 28, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I purchased this same machine for someone on a budget. First thing I did was add 512mb ram to it and remove all the crap software including mcaffee and install trend micro that we already had. For the money its really not a bad but will take you some time to configure. I would not even bother booting it for the first time without adding ram.
Armando Fischman said,
March 1, 2007 at 10:45 am
Im in the process to take emachines Corp to Court to prove bad faith, they release a computer who is defective, even the Vista is crap, even the customer support waiting time in order to talk with a specialist is 1 hour 18 minutes in my experience, and in the end of my questioning they recommend me to call my Internet provider.
emachines should be renamed, ehassle will be more appropiate, I will prove in a Court of Law that emachines bad faith, consumers abuse, false advertising and I will originated a “class action lawsuit ” anyone interested to participate, please contact me at : pathcrusier@yahoo.com.ar.
Thank you
jj said,
March 3, 2007 at 4:23 pm
I to bought on a budget, and was eager to try out Vista. And true to everybody’s posts it is very slow, there is soooo much preloads it’s almost comical. Fortunately e-machines package this system with O/S Media that is only the O/S w/o the preloaded software. The 160 GB HDD is partitioned form the factory with a restore image on an 8GB extended logical drive but I simply wiped out the both partitions, recreated a single drive and reclaimed the extra 8 GB of HD space. I then reloaded Vista from the O/S disk provided, tweaked the OS after the install by removing all of the visual effects and annoying security permission pop-ups that eat up resources and layered with my own software, added another 512 of DDR2 RAM and the machine is rocking along.
This may be a little much for some of you to attempt however if you want to enjoy this machine this is probably the only way (in my humble opinion) to accomplish it.
If you don’t want to go through all the trouble, just uninstall all the preloaded software and bump you’re RAM to a minimum of 1GB and you should see a big difference in performance.
Ciao,
~JT
michael rosado said,
March 5, 2007 at 9:29 am
I bought this machine 2 weeks ago and its been nothing but problems. I find that some programs dont work. My email dont work conflicts within the os, now windows media player dont work the library is corrupt and the the solution from ms
dont work either. I tried system restore but now that does not work. i am so dissapointed in this machine.
I have a win 2000 computer that is 5x faster than this which i got from the garbage. READ VISTA IS NO GOOD.
I WOULD LOVE TO GIVE THIS OS A CHANCE ONE MORE WEEK OF FRUSTRATION AND I WILL GO TO XP.
If anyone is having similar problems please email me m.a.rosado@verizon.net
Jack said,
March 6, 2007 at 11:53 pm
I bought this computer for my daughter 12 days ( 2 days BEFORE I can return it for a refund ) I thought it was just my imagination that this computer is slow. I bought a Dell 2 years ago with XP on it and I bought a laptop a year ago with XP - I am not computer savvy, but I just knew something was wrong. This computer is terribly slow & I do not know what to do. I am not a computer whiz like all of you. I just wanted to buy my daughter a computer that will carry through high school with a few little changes along the way, but this computer isn’t. I am too scared to reinstall the O/S that came with the computer for fear the computer will not be the same & I do not know how to add memory to the computer & plus what is the cost of more memory ???? UGGGGGHHH I am so disappointed! I have through Thursday to take this machine back - but then what next? Shop around - the one thing I did like was the price that included printer/monitor/speakers —- I knew it was too good to be true.
Kevin said,
March 10, 2007 at 10:27 pm
i bought this system today.. i was well aware of the ram problem.. but nothing a nice install of xp cant fix =) i had a nice lil video card from my old pc.. the machine is great.. even for my games.. half life 2 runs like a dream.. but of course use the pci express slot for upgrading.. maybe search the net for some good ram for a cheap price.. you will have a nice PC for some serious computing.. windows vista is garbage until MS do a service pack or something =/ but hey XP professional is the way to go.
KMVgK said,
March 12, 2007 at 3:16 am
Bottom line is that this PC stink. I have never felt so ripped off in my life. Even though its not mine, my conservative money spending wifey may never ever cease to try and make herself believe the opposite of a great bargain she encountered. I’m so frustrated on how I should deal with this situation, only to relieve myself of her complaints and ongoing cursing she claims are meant only to the performance of this “POORLY PUT TOGETHER PC.” But for some reason I’m begining to think she blames me for her cheapness. indirectly she speak storms of disaster that the blame blows right pass her only straight piggy on my back as i am the filthy bastard.
stay sane, don’t buy an E-Machine
Sheila said,
March 14, 2007 at 11:48 am
I bought my emachine T5082 3 weeks ago at Best Buy not knowing what I was going to face with incompatibility issues of all kinds, etc. Managed to turn off the auto scan in McAfee, disabled the UAC which Micro$oft now constantly reminds me to turn back on.
The ATI Radeon Xpress 200 graphics card that comes with the machine did NOT pass the test on the AMD/ATI website. Not enough RAM they said!!! Oh yes, I’ll get more RAM but the graphics card goes back to emachines and they will either replace with a better one or I’m off to see an attorney and/or dis them on every computer forum on the internet. This graphics card should be on emachine’s “recall” list for sure!
Windows Vista is a useless piece of garbage that you have to ask “Mother may I install this or that” to which sort of puts us all into the category of children don’t you think?
My son is coming over this weekend to reformat, install XP Pro which is much more user friendly and I’ll finally be able to use my Epson printer/scanner, software, etc.
The only joy for Vista is for those who own stock in Linux! No joy at all for those of us who thought we were getting a machine that would at least run with Vista - shameful at best and nearly criminal at worst.
Yes, I’m willing to join any class action lawsuit against emachines - they deserve it for fooling us all.
Michael said,
March 14, 2007 at 7:07 pm
This computer rocks if you get rid of all the vista shit!! It is the fastest computer i have ever used.
Chu1661 said,
March 18, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I bought this machine yesterday and found the same problems —-SSSSSLLLLLOOOOWWWW boot up.
I don’t want spend $$$ on extral SDRAM — unless their are on sale.
So I reload my XP Pro OS, it only took 40 sec open the windows.
It FAST but I found even XP Pro don’t support some drives like:
* Video controller
* PCI Devices
* PCI communications
* SM Bus controller
most of its should come from chip set — ATI Radeon Xpress 200
anyone know where can I find the chip set drives for WinXP ??
I checked with eMachine wedside about T5082 but it only support VISTA OS.
Need help !!!
REJonez said,
March 19, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Here’s a link for the XP drivers.
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/integrated-xp.html
Plan on adding a 1 gig stick of system Ram. It’s going for $70.00 these days.
http://shop.kingston.com/partsinfo.asp?ktcpartno=KVR533D2N4/1G
According to E-machines tech support this is compatible with the 512 Megs you already have.
You can always run on Linux if you really can’t stand Vista.
lampard21 said,
March 20, 2007 at 2:15 am
I have emachines T5082 and I don’t know if I can install Windows Xp on this….
I can?…or…not?
want help.
G. J. K. said,
March 20, 2007 at 12:06 pm
My brother just gave me this site and I wish I knew about it before I bought my emachine T5082. (He recommended it because it has Pentium 4 and thought it could be faster than the AMD Athlon processors). Anyways, I bought it at Best Buy. I am on the budget too and I bought it for my girls to use for their school homework or research. Yeap, it was very slow. Best Buy recommended and talked me into using (and buying) Micro Trend Anti-virus and Spy Sweeper. Well, to make my story short, my emachine started to suddenly shut down on me. I kept the machine for a week and it was getting worst. I took it back and exchanged it for the same brand and model. What do you know, it’s doing the same thing! I tried to uninstall the anti-virus and spyware software coz I thought those are the one causing it to shut down. Anyways, my brother, who is an IT Manager, determined that this emachine is a piece of crap!!! When I returned it for the 2nd time, the desktop just freezes when the Geek Squad guy turned it on. And so, I got myself a Toshiba laptop instead and just paid $200 more. So much about saving money eh?!
D2 said,
March 22, 2007 at 12:48 am
chu661…..you can locate the drivers from ati.com I am doing the same thing myself
ken said,
March 30, 2007 at 12:25 pm
It ran slow until I did a scan disk and ran msconfig to turn off some of programs on start up. I had to download quicktime and real player twice. Macafee won’t install using msn premium and verizon dsl. Engineers from verizon are working on a solution. It’s definately running faster.
George Gray said,
March 31, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Dunno…bought this for my wife and it is fine. We got it from CompUSA and…with the rebates…paid like $250. First thing I did was blow away that McCaffee stuff and installed AVG 7.5, turned on the Vista firewall and updated Defender. Since she will be using this on our big screen hdtv, I got an el-cheap ATI Radeon x300 PCI-e graphics card with tv out and freed up that ram that the in-built Radeon x200 crap would have used. Next, I installed a wireless keyboard w/integrated mouse. Oh, I also installed a wireless nic. The machine is whisper quiet and fast. I don’t see the slow downs everyone is talking about. Vista Basic, while not as pretty as the ‘home premium’ that I run on my notebook, is running just fine. It has yet to crash (we’ve had it about three weeks now) nor has the performance slowed. Granted, she uses it mainly for word processing, internet surfing and email. No heavy duty games here. So far, the machine has worked great. I recently purchased the Home and Student edition of Office (which is fantastic, btw) and installed in on the t5082. All in all, it has proven to be a workable and solid pc for her. She is more than happy with it and for $250, so am I.
Mikey said,
March 31, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Gahh you people are making a good computer look bad, its micro$hits fault for selling such a poorly designed os. Here are the windows xp drivers for everything!
ATI Radeon Xpress X200 Video card/Chipset
http://ati.de/support/drivers/xp/integrated-xp.html
Sound Card (realtek ALC883)
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
Windows XP Pro Corp.
http://www.isohunt.com/download/18147038/windows+xp+sp2
Mikey said,
March 31, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Oh and the modem, just run windows update and it should get the drivers for it.
Lorraine said,
April 2, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Thank you guys soooooo very much I was waiting for my friend to come over so I could go and buy this emachine. I am so GLAD I found you frist. Thank you so very much for you advice and help. if anyone knows a good inexpensive computer that wont have a melt down on me let me know. thanks Laurie
lojamandzac@msn.com
Roger Wú said,
April 3, 2007 at 9:10 am
Great!!!
Thanls to Mikey!!!
I got the drivers ok!!!
Every thing up and running!!!
Thanks a lot!!!
Shahab said,
April 4, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Agreed Mikey … Good Harware bed choice of OS…
They actualy used a good Intel Motherboard! Download drivers from Intel and reload XP Pro and be happy!
Here is the link to all drivers you need from Intel:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2367&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Professional&lang=eng&strOSs=44&submit=Go%21
kevjohn said,
April 7, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Sorry for yelling, but THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS COMPUTER!! i bought one from Circuit Sh*tty for $400. It is a huge leap forward from my last budget PC, a 1Ghz Pentium III P.o.S. HP with 256MB of memory. I paid more money for that thing a couple of years ago and the eMachines represents a big step forward in the evolution of bottom-dollar computing. Nice processor, double the RAM, workable video card (OK the video card blows, but it’s better than NO video card, which virtually every other budget PC has come with up til now).
The only problem with this system is the software package. Vista blows like the North Wind, and will probably blow on most PC’s that aren’t considered to be “high performance.” I too had the hours-long initial start-up accompanied with multiple reboots. It is not a life-altering, traumatizing event. Boo-hoo, get over it! It was no more painful than when I updated to Windows 95 via 10 floppy disks I paid half this system’s cost for. Get rid of, or at least TAME, Vista and you’ll be halfway down the road to happiness. Cut off all the B.S.: the visual tricks that eat up memory, the System Commander (or whatever it’s called) that asks you for verification of everything you do, anything else eating any system resources that you don’t want/need. Drivers are hard to find, but what’s so new about that? I’ve always had difficulties finding usable drivers when a new WinOS comes out. Windows NT was especially nightmarish; I kept that on a machine for exactly 2 days before I reverted back to Win98. There are thousands and thousands of peripherals out there. To expect a new OS to come out and be able to support all, or even most, of them is being extremely optimistic. Optimism doesn’t really pay off too well when you’re dealing with computers.
The MacAfee suite is a beast unto itself. I’m not sure what difficulties you had with it though. It took me all of 90 seconds to locate and turn off the automatic scans it was running. I would have wiped the entire suite off my machine entirely, but I’ll keep it around for the virus scanner until I track down one I like better. Also, they don’t yet have a version of ZoneAlarm for Vista. So MacAfee, operating by MY instructions, will do for now. One thing’s for sure, you can’t beat the Mac’s pricetag — free with the new PC.
One last thing. My eMachine came with a standard keyboard, so I don’t know why you got some kind of alien reject. But from all the store-bought machines I’ve purchased in my life I have like 3 or 4 unused keyboards laying around anyway. Most “computer people” I know could say the same thing. The mouse, on the other hand, was a true piece of crap. I didn’t even bother to plug it in. As if they’ll ever make a mouse worthy of replacing my Logitech Trackman!
Bottom line: don’t buy a budget computer and expect it to rock like an Alienware or VoodooPC box. This is a pretty nifty PC for the price, once you get the lousy software under control. Who cares about software anyway? Software is pliable, and easy to delete and replace with whatever you want. It’s the hardware, stupid. And for 3 or 4 bills, this hardware ain’t bad.
Harsha said,
April 8, 2007 at 9:58 am
Bought this comp for $250 at Compusa. When I booted it for the first time It was too slow, slower than the other celeron computer I had. Then I formated it and installed windows 2003 server on it. Now it runs faster and better. May be to run vista it needs some more RAM. ANyways I love my T5082.
matt said,
April 10, 2007 at 5:30 pm
i have this computer i have only one problem with it, its loud the fan revs up and stays like that for a few minutes then is quiets down then it revs up it drives me crazy… anyone know how to make it stop? i know it shouldnt be that loud
kelosbo said,
April 16, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I started this computer and as stated from others, it waass ssllowww, but I ADDED 1GB RAM, reformatted the hardrive to get rid of all the true crap that was preinstalled, put in e geforce 7300 gt (100 bucks) on pci express and the machine burns fast reliable.
kelosbo said,
April 16, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I forgot to mention i put vista premium on it and it rocks better than my XP machine whitch has a faster processor
George said,
April 18, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Is there any news on the lawsuit? Im game! I am very dissapointed in this computer & the misleading.
dj said,
April 20, 2007 at 3:49 am
i bought the 5082 on 3/05/07 took me 5 hours getting vista working and a nother 2 hours dumping it and installing xp the 512 megs of ram is death for this unit but when running xp its a decent machine any ways 22 days later my cdrom stoped working completely the place i work at were seeing them come back left and right for bad power supplys, dead boards and bad cdroms this unit really isnt all that good if u notice threw the bios it says gateway this was built by gateway for emachines so first ur looken at a a crudy place making a computer in the first place for a company who profits on selling crap this unit should be the emachines prized possession right here creem of the crop for emachines on fuking people over i persionaly dont suggest this unit to any one UNLESS u buy a service plan bc trust me your going to need it (reasion i got this? bc after the 4th time to service i get a new one mine lasts a year and i already have 1 in so yea ill be getting a new cpu in a less than year or so)
RB said,
April 22, 2007 at 2:50 am
Bought this PC from Best Buy 4/18/07. The initial boot time is extensive, so much it’s logged in event viewer with either a critical or warning error. Received a rundll32 error (and mind you this was on a 1st boot), after about an hour of getting the desktop to load I transferred files from another system using the built in NIC and to transfer 1.5GB took a little over 1 hour!!! Realizing this was not the way the system should be I called eMachine, talked with tech support and their 1st step was to do a system recovery. So I did just that according to their suggestion, unfortunately the same issue remained. I inspected the event viewer further and there was 61 incidents recorded in Event Viewer!! Unreal. One particular file was fragmented, most error messages indicated something was affecting system performance…of course, my 512MB DDR2 RAM scored a 2.0 in Performance! Ouch, this system is painful.
You can certainly tell your performance degrades when trying to open multiple windows, taskbar may turn white while loading a simple view such as control panel. This system is horrible out of the box.
It’s Vista Home, Home Premium suggests 1GB of RAM…ok, so I should be able to get away with 512MB with this system. Sadly, it’s turning out not so. It’s evident something is failing with this system, the event log tells you so. Check the logs, call eMachine and take it back to Best Buy/Circuit City and NOT pay the re-stocking Fee. Consumers don’t need to troubleshoot a brand new PC out of the box.
I love my XP box, I’ll wait for Vista Service Pack 42 before I invest in this OS.
kelosbo said,
April 22, 2007 at 11:55 am
you have to be careful about how to download software on vista, get to know how vista works before cramming all your favorite software on it. vista is causing the problems, not the componets of the computer, if you install XP you got to change the drivers vista is a different os the chipset has to be xp drivers there is nothing wrong with emachines t 5082
Betsy said,
April 22, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Ok - so how do I load XP onto this machine (emachines T5082)? I put the disc in, and Vista refuses to run it! I’ve tried reformatting the hard drive, but Vista won’t let me. I tried calling emachines, but they refused to help me - they were real touchy about it, actually. I even tried putting a hard drive with XP already loaded onto it into the T5082, but the T5082 would not boot. I suppose that’s because I need all the drivers discussed above - so I went to look into downloading them, but got confused. Is there an easy way to do this myself?
Brice said,
April 23, 2007 at 5:55 pm
i bought this emachine a while ago and has been working fine but i did have 1 problem i, was trying to download a game but i didnt have enough RAM can anybody tell me how much RAM this pc has out of the box?
The Q said,
April 24, 2007 at 5:59 pm
George Gray…. just read your comment about installing the ATI Radeon x300 PCI-e graphics card into this system. I have read and heard from several that you MUST upgrade the Power Supply on the T5082 eMachines Tower from a 250Watt to 350 Watt power supply. My question to you is did you do this? Or are you running that graphics card with the original 250Watt power supply?
Betsy said,
April 25, 2007 at 8:13 am
MIne came with 512 MB RAM (which I think is standard) but I bought 2 1 GB sticks from Kingston for $60 each and now it runs great! (There is a link to the Kingston sticks above.)
I’m curious about whether the power supply needs to be upgraded in order to upgrade the graphics card as well!
kev meredith said,
April 27, 2007 at 6:31 pm
hi i have got the e machine e3038 it came with xp home i have just put vista ultimate on and it runs fine has any body got a e machines vista disc they could zip up and email me i need the driver for the media card reader just give me an email on kevmass [at] vodafone.net cheers
kev meredith said,
April 27, 2007 at 6:32 pm
ps only running 768 mg of ram lol
Sebastian said,
April 30, 2007 at 4:45 am
Well from what Ive been reading it must of been a nightmare when it was first released. I got mine no more then a month ago, and to tell you the truth I havent had a “major” problem with it. The only thing that buggs is the little boxs that pop up when ever you want to do something the “are you sure your sure” boxes, but you get used to it fast. I bought a gig of ram ($55! @ http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=T5082, they also have 2 gigs for $108) and a XFX Pine Group GeForce 7600 GT 256MB DDR3 Fansink PCI-Express Video Card ($137 http://www.datavis.com/cgi-bin/product.exe?prrfnbr=468863&site=GOGL) and i can run pretty much any game thrown at me ;). When I first turned on my computer Mcafee scanned but in no way did it make my computer slow, infact all you need to do is uninstall the spam killer and privacy blocker from McAfee and it runs great! Also all I had to do was restart my computer twice. And the key board is like every other key board I have had (except for the shiny windows start button :D) but I will admit that the mouse that came with it sucks a whole lot but laser mouses are cheap as hell! Its a great Pc for a great price. if you can spend $200 more on an allready great Pc you’ve got yourself a steal ;).
Mikey said,
May 1, 2007 at 2:53 pm
One good things about these Machines, they don’t use the defective Bestec power supply’s. The on board graphics card can go up to 256MB but the downside is it is shared. I wish they had dedicated like some other computers. But I don’t see why It couldn’t run an additional video card with the stock power supply. It is 300w. I am running two hard drives in mine. But the wattage might be dependent on the video card you choose.
Mikey said,
May 1, 2007 at 2:56 pm
hi i have got the e machine e3038 it came with xp home i have just put vista ultimate on and it runs fine has any body got a e machines vista disc they could zip up and email me i need the driver for the media card reader just give me an email on kevmass [at] vodafone.net cheers
No drivers needed. Just make sure it isn’t disabled through device manager
Brice said,
May 3, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I have a question and i would appreciate very much if someone could answerit for me I recently bought world of warcraft and the minimum requirement was 512MB RAM wich this computer has i installed the game and it was lagging really bad. I was wondering if i got more RAM installed if it would fix this problem?
Brian said,
May 6, 2007 at 2:53 am
I bought this pc from best buy, brought it home did some tweaking and it was decent, but not good enough, so i went and got the pentium d “dual core” 3.2ghz cpu dropped it into the board… added 2 1gb sticks of ddr2 533 kingston valueram. and an extra 160 gb hd, along with an extra dvd/cd rw. upgraded the vista to Ultimate and im very happy with it now.
James Berman said,
May 17, 2007 at 8:53 am
Hmm, well, thought I’d toss in my 2 cents here.
Is the machine staggering, no, I bought it, and for $250.00
as a package it is great..
For a $250.00 package.
I added a 1GB Ram stick into her, and she is running a bit better.
I ordered XP Pro, and am going to wipe her, and put this onto it,
that will make it much better.
Vista, is sloppy, slow and bloated, but, such is life with a new
OS..Especially when the one they toss in there
is BARELY Vista.
If you hate Vista, WIPE IT, put on XP PRO..
You got the Vista Disks..
If Vista makes any advances later on, you can always revert back, and get the updates..
This is what makes the PC FUN FOLKS!!
Letting Geeks, be geeks..
So, if you are not a geek, no worries, make friends with one..
They will love the potential of the unit, but laugh at the OS, and the incomplete package..
Then, let them have fun with it, in about 3 hours, you will have a machine, that will
be worthy of FUN!!
JimmyJames
Rob said,
May 22, 2007 at 3:10 pm
I bought one of these fine machines. Blah blah blah, By the suggestion of the Geek Squad, I removed the 512mb and installed 2-1gb pc 5300 ddr2 dt Kbyte modules the OS is only showing 860ish mb RAM I know the video shares the RAM, but this is stupid crazy. Any Suggestions???
vinnie said,
May 26, 2007 at 10:33 pm
just got this computer. 1) what is this really all about; vista sucking, the bundled software sucking, or the t5082 sucking? 2)computer was an superb deal and you can easily and economically add more memory (just check the usual online memory outlets). 2) most people resist progress, but guess what? vista is here and it isn’t going anywhere for a while so evolve or go extinct troglodite, the writing is on the wall. i didn’t have any of the preinstalled software described, of course if i did, i could easily reinstall the os without the junk. the internet holds all the information i need to figure out how to do this (i don’t need to cry to emachines about it). vista is a little different, but nothing like going from pc to mac or linux, i have been able to find all of the familiar control panels thus far without fuss. i can’t relate to the expressed feelings of unfamiliarity, and many of the claims have been unfounded, looks and feels like yet another microsoft product albeit a wanna-be osx. the post by Sebastian is the most accurate. the only gripe about vista i have is that some of our favorite software and hardware are not yet compatible, otherwise, i can vouch that vista is stable! this to me is crucial. the t5082 can be had for a bargain, it has a P4 dual core processor and the board has expansion slots for whatever suits your needs. you could not build this computer yourself for the same money. so what i’m going to prescrible for you and your father is to go buy some cheap ddr2 and you can google how to install it, ok? as for the video card sharing the memory, you do know that you can buy a different video card, right? you can even buy a different board if you want, but what you can’t do is build this computer for this same price.
jasonb said,
May 26, 2007 at 10:54 pm
@ vinnie
Yawn.
Seriously, why would anyone consider an interface redesign progress? It’s a regression for anyone that simply wants a computer that Just Works ™ and after six years of XP have to re-learn how to use Windows. Many of the same people had to re-learn Windows after upgrading from 98 or Me.
It’s retarded and a horrible waste of time; And it’s needless.
I’ve been using the same KDE desktop under Debian GNU/Linux since 1998. Every new release of KDE is faster, better, with incremental feature improvements and usability improvements. But I have never had to re-learn how to perform the same tasks. Funny, that.
But, T5082 does come with Vista, yes. And eMachines decided to ship with only 512M of RAM. Dell actively recommends a minimum of 1GB of RAM if you try to purchase a new system from them. Shame on eMachines, seriously.
I’d agree about the crap video card; if you want a gaming system the T5082 is not it unless you install a dedicated graphics card, which you certainly can.
Vista software compatability issues are amusing, given Microsoft has had six years to figure it out.
As always, buyer be ware. Corporations aren’t interested in your welfare.
vinnie said,
May 27, 2007 at 1:45 am
sounds reasonable. thats the beauty of it, vista works. it hasn’t crashed on me yet, even with the limited memory. not only that, but vista is beyond an interface redesign. it is designed to take advantage of the new architecture. i understand that it seems a little counter productive to redesign a working interface that everyone has gotten used to, but i can see that MS has tried to simplify and beautify the interface ala mac. It is the responsibility of the software developers (not MS) to make software compatible with vista (and they will). maybe its just because i’m an econ major, but i’m not very critical of corporations. they bring products to market (good or bad- its subjective) i decide which ones are worth my hard earned money, and at the end of the day, i am reponsible for whether or not i recieve a good deal. its up to me to educate myself so that 1) i know what my needs are, and 2) which products will satisfy those needs. emachines put a highly visible sticker on the machine itself with all of the crucial stats including the 512 mb ddr2 in bold lettering. you can buy the 2 gig memory kit for less than $100. i, however, can get by with the 512 right now. eventually i’ll probly spring for 1 extra gig at a cost of less than $50, because every now and then i edit video. inevitably, all meaningful software and hardware will make the transition. vista has been more stable than my last xp machine thus far. sure there are amds and celerons in the same price range, but its tough to find anything in this price range with a pentium 4. how do you buy the base model then bad mouth it? plenty of people still use pentium 2’s. why slander emachines for bringing vista and the power of a p4 processor to the masses? corporations? i just don’t see how emachines has transgressed upon you. should emachines be required to call you every night to check the status of your welfare? to be honest, i discovered the sound drivers were not installed the first time i turned this thing on. my first thought wasn’t, “man, i better call emachines tech line so they can fix this”. i just dl’d then installed the drivers and kept on trucking. i don’t hold a personal grudge against emachines because my sound drivers were not installed though. computing is a constant learning process, the technology is in constant flux and vista is just another manifestation. this not a gimmic like ME was, it is obvious that MS has committed significant resources to this product. if you’re one of those “things just ain’t what they used to be” progress resenting people thats thinks everything they can’t intuitively understand is stupid, you are not a computer person. computers are modular; like your old keyboad (or mouse) more because you’ve memorized all of the keys? unplug it from your old box and plug it into your new one. spring for the memory upgrade and bury the hatchet. linux is a different animal with different aspirations, the fundamental goal of most distributions is to refine and perfect the same central concept. the fundamental goal of MS is to generate profit and gain control over the market(s).
jasonb said,
May 27, 2007 at 2:15 am
It’s the responsibility of the platform developer to provide for a sane migration path between different APIs. Apple had the same challenge as Microsoft and moved from their proprietary platform to a BSD based UNIX environment! Clearly it can be done in a sane way. Microsoft’s usual colossal failure in this area cannot be overlooked.
If you don’t employ rational scrunity of corporations, you aren’t paying attention or simply don’t care.
eMachines didn’t include a sticker that said Microsoft strongly recommends 1GB of RAM for Windows Vista to perform adequately. It’s lunacy to expect someone that needs a computer for odds and ends to know or care how much RAM Vista requires to run. Consumers do not have perfect information and never will.
I didn’t buy the base model. I wouldn’t personally ever buy an eMachines. My father purchased the system for his small business. With the time pressures typical of a small business, he didn’t have time to intimately research the issue thoroughly. His previous eMachines system, an AMD based system, was fine, so he bought another eMachines. Sadly, you cannot go merely on brand name when buying a computer. You have to investigate model, revision, and perhaps even serial number.
If he’d had time to bring it to my attention I would’ve suggested more RAM or getting a copy of XP Home. He ultimately loaded a spare, legit copy of XP Home on it from another system that came with Home, but ended up with 98.
It’s interesting to note the profit motivation of Microsoft. Its goal is to maximize profit. Further, it’s a convincted monopolist, having engaged in predatory pricing. If you’ve studied antitrust economics, you’ll be familiar with the effects a monopoly has on a market and the transfer of ‘good will’ from the consumer to the producer.
Microsoft is the _last_ company I would expect to have any interest in its customers or their experience. It’s sole purpose is to maximize profits at the expensive of customers and technology progress. I could go on at length about Microsoft, but there isn’t much point.
Windows Vista speaks for itself — customers everywhere are complaining about how ridiculous it is that its necessary to re-learn how to use the Windows ™ OS. Vista is commonly listed as a negative in many system reviews when nothing else is listed as a con. Dell actually started offering XP again with its systems there was such demand for it.
Apple’s OSX platform is a good example of how to do an API — and entire platform for that matter — migration correctly. Honestly, I’d almost suggest anyone annoyed with Windows to buy a Mac. Or, dare I say it, KUbuntu Linux. The operating system does not _have_ to get in your way. Microsoft just seems to think it should.
vinnie said,
May 27, 2007 at 3:50 am
“Windows Vista speaks for itself — customers everywhere are complaining about how ridiculous it is that its necessary to re-learn how to use the Windows ™ OS”
maybe i’m just an optimist, but i’m glad that hackers and malware developers have to re-learn the OS.
‘MS is the devil…’
they aren’t putting guns to ppls heads. market share being the measure of a good product in a free market, MS makes the best product. simple as that. apple’s market share has grown no-doubt, but why so easy to forget their mistakes…. and if they or linux made the best product, they would inevitably have the greatest market share. last time i checked, we were no where near that point. BTW, UNIX is extremly proprietary and linux has an eternal cloud over it because of that. if a distribution were to be “redesigned”, as you put it, like a vista instead of “incremental feature improvements and usability improvements” then linux would finally free itself of the eternal cloud.
“Microsoft’s usual colossal failure in this area cannot be overlooked.”
i disagree, not much failure associated with MS; still is the universal model of sucess. and MS is not a monopolist, consumers have freely chosen windows over the alternatives. i’ve owned a commodore 64, amiga, multiple pc’s and a mac in my lifetime. people had options and they made choices. most people made/make the same choice; MS.
you know, i really don’t mean to be contrary, but the mention of dell touched a nerve with me. the ad campaign featuring that obtuse degenerate with the catch phrase “Dude, You’ve Got a Dell” said it all. if were the type to respond to this ad campaign, chances are you don’t know jack ish about computers; the perfect sucker to buy our sub par propriety component laden products. i guess dell was pissed their proprietary software wasn’t compatible with vista so they tried to retain xp. dell’s target demograph does not include the computer savvy. this t5082 just replaced a Dell pos 8100 lap. mine was a refurb to begin with because this model had a common defect involving the power supply. my cousin and a former instructer both owned one and had this defect manifest itself (rendering it worthless and unrepairable). since the hardware was proprietary (dell) out of warranty and cost prohibitive to repair through dell (over $400 just for the part), it equated to programmed obsolescence. i was lucky however, my power supply (transformer or whatever it was) never failed, just the optical drive and lcd screen. so i bought this t5082 to replace it and i’m happier now.
“Microsoft strongly recommends 1GB of RAM for Windows Vista to perform adequately.”
its just a recommendation. i’m using it right now and its way more responsive than my old pIII 8100.
look at the facts, the market doesn’t lie. emachines may not be making the best product in its market but MS is and the t5082 is ok in my book.
jasonb said,
May 27, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Laugh.
If you think crackers are having to re-learn anything, your knowledge in this area is extremely limited. Thanks for playing, though.
“they aren’t putting guns to ppls heads. market share being the measure of a good product in a free market, MS makes the best product. simple as that.”
False. It’s demonstrably false. You must be too young to remember DOJ v Microsoft in the late 90s.
“BTW, UNIX is extremly proprietary and linux has an eternal cloud over it because of that. if a distribution were to be “redesigned”, as you put it, like a vista instead of “incremental feature improvements and usability improvements” then linux would finally free itself of the eternal cloud.”
That’s actually false.
Further, the incremental improvements I speak of are for KDE, the K Desktop Environment which runs on top of any platform that runs the X Window System, including all distributions of Linux and all UNIX variants.
“i disagree, not much failure associated with MS; still is the universal model of sucess. and MS is not a monopolist, consumers have freely chosen windows over the alternatives. i’ve owned a commodore 64, amiga, multiple pc’s and a mac in my lifetime. people had options and they made choices. most people made/make the same choice; MS.”
Heh.
Platform ownership doesn’t give you a free pass for ignoring reality. Microsoft does engage in predatory pricing, under the law, and was found guilty and convicted. That the Bush ‘administration’ essentially dropped the charges and walked is a topic for another time.
You seem willing to ignore facts to ensure your world view remains intact. I see no basis for further discussion as a result.
On the key point of Microsoft not being a monopoly, I expect you, as a economist, to explain why the case against Microsoft brought by the DOJ in which Microsoft was convicted for violating antitrust laws is actually invalid. If you can demonstrate that, other than simply ignoring reality, a basis for discussion still exists.
Good luck.
vinnie said,
May 27, 2007 at 9:19 pm
points were made, time to move on. as far dept of justice case, well, the letgitimate business world is full of illegitimate activity. have you ever wondered how pyramid scams continue to thrive in america? what about these “investment schemes” that promise “wealth” you frequently see in ads and on tv. what about AT&T’s recent resurgence? what about real monopolies like cable and utilities industries? manufactured scarcity- oil prices? why doesn’t the DOJ do something about these issues? there are enrons out there right now, right this moment, yet MS produces a legitimate product in a free market and they are the target of the DOJ. its political, there is always that incompetent element out there that resents excellence. that case wasn’t really about antitrust laws. in that case, you have a case for antitrust against almost any publically traded company because they’re all trying to gain control of their respective markets. companies operate in varying degrees outside of the law every day. some corruption conveniently gets overlooked and at the same time some become victims of witch hunts. just the way it is, the way it always has been. you are conditioned to believe that right is right and wrong is wrong and laws protect the innocent and punish the wicked. but this isn’t reality. you should be old enough to understand that.
with the right resources, you could make the case that mc donalds has caused you psychic harm and that kobe bryant raped you.
jasonb said,
May 27, 2007 at 10:43 pm
You conveniently ignore Microsoft’s distribution agreements with vendors in the razor thin PC market disallowed bundling of competitors’ products. Period. When you have 95% of the market that’s anticompetitive behavior and Microsoft was convicted in federal court. Period.
I realized you’d like to make this about how great the free market is, but your claims are blatantly false. I realize facts are inconvenient, but your rhetoric is ineffectual.
Thanks for playing.
vinnie said,
May 27, 2007 at 11:38 pm
ok, so do you think the DOJ “conviction” will change anything? do you think windows won’t continue to rule in the wake of this judgement? what are the implications of this ruling? all i’m saying is that MS control of the market is WELL beyond ‘bundled software’. nothing significant will come out of this, because MS will continue to dominate. in fact its a moot point because i, as an end user, still find windows pcs easily a better value than a mac. so what does “predatory pricing” mean to me? i, as an end user, don’t really care about some company’s disallowed ‘bundled software’. it honestly doesn’t have an adverse affect on me, just as the disallowing of junk mail and shampoo samples to be sent to my mailbox wouldn’t have an adverse affect on me. if i want a product, i’ll seek it out. if a company is finding it tough to solicit me with their products, then poo poo.
btw, i’ve alread tried a couple of the better free linux distros and they were unstable and not very practical. finding drivers (almost have to write your own) and basic applications were too much work, fun if you like to tinker, but just not practical at all. i think the at-cost distros defeat the who purpose. don’t brag about linux to me. only thing its good for, to me, is cracking wep.
jasonb said,
May 28, 2007 at 1:57 am
Weary I grow of such pointless antics. The only case you’ve successfully made is to demonstrate your knowledge of economics and the world around you is quite limited.
I shall leave you to your illusions.
Have fun!
Rick N said,
May 30, 2007 at 1:27 am
I bought the T5082 this weekend on the spot at Best Buy as an interim computer after my three year old machine smoked its motherboard (my fault). My intention was to play around with Vista until I have a chance to build a better machine (and probably go back to XP unless Vista matures).
I was using a very stable, multi-hard disk, multi-partition XP system so I haven’t lost any data using the super safe approach described on the “radifed” site (link: http://radified.com/index2.html). As an aside, his advice on using Norton Ghost 2003 from DOS to image an XP/Programs partition has saved me several times (of course this only applies to virus and hard drive problems, not a smoked motherboard)
The eMachine was terminally slow so I upgraded to 2gigs; then the speed was OK. But loading and using iTunes destroyed Vista (even after the latest patches) so I re-installed from the recovery disk. First time I ever used an OP recovery disk; the good/bad thing is it reloaded Vista without all the eMachine add-ons. That’s OK, I’d rather use AVG free anti-virus than McAfee :).
An interesting thing happened during the recovery process. While it was loading I actually read the “user/license/whatever it’s called” aggreement. In part it said something like “If this doesn’t work I have the right to a previous OP (mentioning Windows XP Pro by name). I don’t know the exact wording but I have been bounced around from MS to eMachine tech support hoping to get a free copy of XP Pro (I’ll buy it anyway if I have to).
Later tonight after downloading and safely storing the XP drivers listed in this thread I plan on trying to install iTunes again. Assuming it destroys Vista again (how can Vista not be compatible with one of the most important programs out there?) I’ll do another recovery and write down the exact wording and try to post it here. Maybe you guys (who have been so helpful with XP driver links) can get the valid XP OP you deserve.
Other improvements:
- Put in a top notch 500W PS scavanged from my other machine. Doesn’t quite fit the screw holes right but fits tight enough so it doesn’t vibrate.
- Installed a second hard drive (scaveneged from my other system). This was a SATA drive; I didn’t know you could mix and match.
- Installed a floppy underneath the DVD which did require a bit of drilling. I need a floppy for DOS based diagnostics and my Ghost image diskette (assuming I go back to XP).
- I have a decent $130 video card with two DVI outputs on order (I normally use two monitors).
Assuming this post sticks (I’m not even sure it will; never posted on a blog I found Googling) I’ll post updates.
~ Rick
Rick N said,
June 3, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Quick update:
Version 7.2 of iTunes worked fine. I’m now having no significant problems with the eMachine or Vista Home Basic; in fact I’m starting to like Vista quite a bit.
Will probably work with this machine a few months then pass it on to someone in the family who needs a faster machine (compared to a eight year old desktop) and build a new machine from scratch using either Windows Vista Home Professional or Windows Vista Ultimate (I like the security, backup features in Ultimate and it’s only about $80 more in OEM packaging)
~ Rick
mattfrompa said,
June 26, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Not sure if this was mentioned above (too much to scroll through) but just in case anyone who isn’t buying a dual core system these days NEEDS to contact Microsoft and just bitch about how you hate vista because of poor performance. Trust me I have worked with many people who did this and if you keep pusdhing you WILL get Windows XP Pro for FREE. You may even get to keep the license for your copy of vista (if you want it for later). Just remember rules can be bent to make customers happy. There is no good reason to put up with Vista…
Chris said,
July 25, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Does anyone know if the bios on this machine has an option to enable Intel Virtualization Technology?
The Pentium 631 supports it and it allows running fully virtualized instances of windows OSes under XEN / Linux! and FAST.
I have been searching all over the place to try to get a virtualzation server at the desktop tier that I know has the right:
CPU - (P4 631 will support it: http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL9KG )
Chipset - Still don’t know for certain which do
BIOS - you need to be able to enable the VT in the bios.
Anyone who could take a few minutes on their T5082 and check through the bios screens for it, would have my undying gratitude!
By the way, running CENTOS and xen, and TWO instances of windows XP in DOMU’s would STILL probably smoke a single instance of VISTA Home.
I plan on packing this thing with memory, upgrading the PS and setting up all sorts of virtual servers in it.
Thanks!
Scott said,
July 26, 2007 at 9:19 am
“Mikey said,
March 31, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Oh and the modem, just run windows update and it should get the drivers for it.”
How were you able to get the windows update? Without the modem drivers, I will not be able to log on to the internet. Anyone have a link to the modem drivers for XP?
Randy said,
August 1, 2007 at 1:36 pm
I just bought the 5082 for $269. There was also a deal on 512mb ddr2 ram for $20. Total shipped to the door $320.05…….with 1GiG of ram. I know how to clean up the junk and uninstall programs. With 160 GIG HD, dvd burner, 3.0Ghz P4, this machine is a steal. At $269 you can buy all the ram you need, a new keyboard, and a better video card, and still have a value price for a mean machine. If you’re computer illiterate, maybe you should spend the $$$ for a loaded pc. You get what you pay for. Don’t expect a blazing game machine for under $300….Tigerdirect.com sells these and others like it or better every day. Check them out before you go to BestBuy.
Jerry said,
August 5, 2007 at 1:01 am
Yah ..i just bought too, but I don’t know is it work good with 2 Ram (1gb) 667Mhz? And I don’t know model of motherboard of this comp ..anyway I thinks it’s good duel right?
kelosbo said,
August 11, 2007 at 1:00 pm
I bought a pentium D 945 3.4GZs 4 mb cache put in 5084 and this computer works great! nproblems since Ibought it in dec. 2006
Dave said,
August 28, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Thanks to Mikey for the drivers. My niece got this computer a few months ago from Office Depot. It was cheap.
Hard to turn a little girl down “uncle can you help? My computer takes forever to load up and I have school work to do.”
Changed the boot to cd rom and loaded my XP disc. Mikey had the drivers listed for the on board video and the onboard sound . They work great. Just remember to reload the USB drivers from the install of XP and all the card readers and usb ports will work fine.
I am so happy to find this site.
dave
Craig said,
September 1, 2007 at 1:41 am
I purchased the T5082 on line at Tiger. Smae issue with Vista. A lot of hardware and software doesn’t work with Vista. Also, sites like secondlife.com do not support Vista.
I removed Vista & installed XP SP2. All problems gone except that I am having trouble finding the correct driver fro the integrated Azalia 6 channel (5.1) High Definition Audio. I have searched Gateway support, emachine, Azalia…no luck.
Anyone have any ideas?
Louis said,
September 3, 2007 at 5:27 am
I just bought a new T5082 and i was suprised at how shockingly slow it ran, and after looking at the specs i said no way it can run this slow, so i did some research on windows vista (lol) lets say 8 hours later, i’d DBANED the hd, and had xp on.. the only thing was i couldnt even find my xp cd so i had to look for like 4 hours but i got it !
dave (onepunchlou) said,
September 6, 2007 at 5:19 pm
when i bought my T -5082 at best buy the geek sqaud ripped me for about $600.00 xtra what a f-n rip off ,not only does vista crap mess up the ram drives its way to slow /microsoft has a problem with a (ATI )utilities not knowing how to correct the problem they keep telling me that when they figure out how to fix it they will notifi me .man ive had some problems not only will it not reboot when shut down some time if i turn it off it takes me about 2-3 hours to fix the problem ive had to reset the computer to a time line that it ran ok/lost information and the catalyst controll center just about wiped out my computer/almost fried the programs but luckly i set the computer back to a time line when it was running ok. i repeat do not mess with the catalyst program unless you really know what you are doing/ me my self am kinda comp/stupid so i dont mess with to much /so in return the computer is slow and i cant keep e-machine page from popping up every few seconds when im doing a project if any one know how to fix this problem give me a E-MAIL at llouie@netzero.com also ive had problems with my set up for my web network programs that seem to overlap and run on the same line conflict with each other wich in turn wont let you run your internet provider if another aplication is running on the same ?program so watch out how you set your dialing preferences ?? it takes a long time to figure out how to fix the problem allmost to the point of throwing the computer out the window/micro soft made some money off of us people who are computer illiterate like my self. wich im learning but i stiil have some querks to figure out so im working on it good luck because if like me you will need it to get through this i listn to frank marino&mahoganyrush it seems to help with the computer blues sincerly dave aka onepunchlou (llouie@netzero.com) submit help answers to me because i think i need it>
Russ said,
September 11, 2007 at 10:46 pm
I bought this computer it was soooooo slow, the keyboard also sucked but is starting to work better now that the keys are breaking in….Never had that problem with any other keyboard before… I would like to mention that I added a gig of ram for $48 dollars that I got from best buy this thing runs way better. I only paid $269 for this with a two year extended warranty at office depot so I can’t complain and I’m sure once I add a PCI E video card this machine will be perfect since just adding that ram helped alot.
Delion said,
September 27, 2007 at 10:52 am
Hi i just bought this computer 2 days ago and installed windows XP. One of the problems i noticed is that the monitor momentarily goes off for about 1 second anytime i scan for new hardware in device manager. any1 experienced this problem? also, i’d like to upgrade to a 256mb PCI express video card. any1 got any suggestions of those that are compatible? thanks!
Steve Brown said,
September 27, 2007 at 11:54 am
I just need help big time with my eMachine T5082 Vista Home (now XP Pro). I have 1gig ram. To be consistant with the work computer, I reformatted the hd and installed XP Pro. The are three errors under Diver Manager Other Devices. (1) PCI Device, (2) SM Bus Controller, and (3) Video Controller (VGA Compatible). Other that that the machine runs fine. My attached Logitech webcam. has not error. Where do I go to download the necessary driver(s) to correct the above errors. Emachine does not support anothing other than the original configuration. Please guide me to the actual program instead of general directions, such as “go there and find out”.
gina said,
October 1, 2007 at 4:15 pm
I don’t know I only paid $199 for the system and put 2G’s of ram into it and I think it’s so fast sometimes that it blows me away. Don’t mind the Vista either …just seems like a regurgitated version of XP. I knew I was buying a cheap system and it like they always say “you get what you pay for”.
Greg said,
October 3, 2007 at 11:12 am
4 power supplies, 2 motherboards, 3 months down (i’ve only owned it for for less then 6 months, customer service that lies (even when caught), and thats just the hardware. Vista itself is horrid. If you turn off user controls it reminds you (constantly) that this can be fixed by clicking on……(enough)
Between Emachines customer service policies, and a machine that can’t get out of its own way, I’ll never buy another one again. Emachines is on its way out at this pace.
Jamm said,
October 10, 2007 at 7:03 pm
There are a lot of tweaks you can use on Vista, optimizing vista’s performance. It’s a pretty flexible program that I’m starting to enjoy.
¿Uninstall the memory eating programs.
¿Type ‘power options’ in run box & set to ‘opimize for performance’
¿Type ‘indexing optins’ Modify: Show all: unckeck all exept Start Menu
¿The T5082 has groovy card readers. Insert a memory card or a usb flash drive ener the drive properties through explorer: readyboost: use
¿a 512mb - 1g stick of DDR2 240 pin RAM is really going to help
with a ram upgrade you could utilize the full capacity of the video card & up the mb use to 128 through the bios.
Roger said,
October 13, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Bought this as a second computer had the same problems as mentioned… but hey you guys are going overboard…..simple and cheap to address….Deleted Macafee, added 1 gb of memory and actually this computer runs well WITH vista….I usually build my own computers but wanted a cheap decent computer for light use and this computer is ok with the minor upgrades….I do not know why ANY computer company or individual would ever sell a machine with VISTA with less than a gb(really need a bit more) or RAM…..unless as previous posters have said…PROFIT MARGINS and that does suck!
Robert said,
October 18, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Here is how to fix this system in a nutshell:
1) Wipe the drive and install Windows XP Professional
2) Upgrade the RAM to 2 sticks of matching (DDR2 PC2-4200 1GB 533Mhz Non -EEC)
3) use AVG Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware
4) Upgrade the Video card to a PCI-Express 16 Nvidea 7300GT or better
5) Get a SoundBlaster X-Fi card
6) Stop the bitchin!!!!
7) If you want a lightning fast computer, cough up the cash!!!
Optional: Upgrade the Hard Drive to a SATA drive or 2
Enough said!!!
Fran said,
November 1, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I bought 1GB DDR2 PC4200 533MHZ PC2 4200 240 IN 1 GB 533 RAM memory card. When I installed it and turned on the computer, the fans ran and ran and I never got a log on screen on monitor. I removed the memory card & also the old one, and I reinserted the new card & the computer did the same thing. What am I doing wrong? Can anyone help me? Thanks
agent 009 said,
November 2, 2007 at 11:33 pm
robert said it all
“6) Stop the bitchin!!!!
7) If you want a lightning fast computer, cough up the cash!!!
Optional: Upgrade the Hard Drive to a SATA drive or 2
Enough said!!! ”
you get what you pay for, i have this same computer, yet i got 2 GB of RAM for it ( the board dosent support anything over 533Mhz for memory), and it works very nice, sooo, all you really need to do is get a new graphics card, beef up your RAM, then you will have a decent computer,and i pity you for going back to XP, tisk tisk. This is the same BS people were saying when windows 98,2000, ME, same story - people are afraid of change, its time you XP pushers relize that XP is a thing of the past, trust me, in about a year- youll be FORCED to go to Vista when the XP boxes will suffer from what i like to call, Technology Advancements….
a.wiens said,
November 23, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I have this computer and was wondering if I could add RAM to it.
It has 2 slots, one of which is filled. I went out and bought 1GB of DDR2 RAM. This is compatible?
Can I add it into the other slot? I’ve heard that you must add RAM in pairs, i.e. since I already have 512 MB of RAM I must add either another 512 MB RAM, or I must take the 512 out and add two 1 GB of RAM.
PLEASE HELP
lashandar said,
December 10, 2007 at 3:42 am
Well, I bought the T5082 earlier this year and it’s been good to me, so far. I didn’t experience the problems that others report and everything is still running smoothly, except now I want to add more RAM. I’ve been primarily using for general web browsing and writing/documents. Now I’m trying to get more into 3D art creation, which I’ve been able to do but think it will be a lot better/easier with more RAM.
I realize I have to add the “DDR2 4200 DIMM 533mhz RAM” but I’ve never actually installed any hardware so I’m reluctant to try, but I’d definitely save money doing it myself so I am willing to at least try. I just hope I don’t mess anything up.
There is a video online about the T5082 — http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1119265440&channel=823870976 — so at least I know where to put it. Hopefully after this I’ll be up to even more upgrades since this system seems really expandable.
I personally think it was a good deal, being so low cost. I think it’s great for regular users but also good for more advanced users since they can add on to it.
jeff said,
December 26, 2007 at 5:01 pm
i have the same model as stated before but I totally disagree with this guys critiques. yeah it comes with a butch of useless software but one you lose nmacafee and all that other junk and put about 1g of memory(just buy another 512) it runs great.
P.S vista is a pos so either downgrade it or get the professional version thats the easiest way yeah it will cost a pretty penny but eh what can you do.
adam said,
January 5, 2008 at 1:07 am
I bought the machine, yeah I admitt I knew better. $300 for 3.0 ghz board…… something must be missing, I actually had to ask the guy if it came with the processor. I was thinking it was to good to be true(and it was), but I only had $1500 at the moment and wanted a lcd 32″ tv for gaming. My wife was with me which meant I was looking at an hp with three gigs of ram, my wife was staring at the price tag on this machine and kicking me in the chins for considering a $800 machine and a $1000 monitor with a $1500 budget.(you do the math) Well truth is I had more money but it took two weeks of the cold shoulder for my wife to finally concede the $800 limit she previously set for my puter/monitor purchase. Anyway, I unbox the beast plug it in and imediately dll32 error. I am comp savvy so it only took seconds for me to uninstall mcrappie virus and download avg(all hail shareware!). While the avg installed a hualled mucho ass back to circuit $hitty and picked up the extra 512 mb of ram my wife wouldnt let me have when we bought the system. (I snuck out the back door while she wasn’t looking) once that was installed I found the system almost acceptable. However within a few weeks I had to do several restores, I had a questionable experience with ati catalyst manager.(to this day one year later nobody knows wht that is really for, It does nothing but vista crashes without it…… hmmmmm) I bought a new video card, El cheapo ati 9250, found out it is not compatible with windows vista( big FU^%ing suprise) swapped with my more intelligent cousin who swears by xp for his brand new nvidia 5200(much better card if you ask me, suckit ati). I needed the extra graphics accel for battlefield 2, well when I got the card in everything went haywire, 12 hours later(after litterally disassembling and reassemling the whole tower twice) I concluded the power supply was pathetic and needed immediate genicide! (135 watts? barely enough to power up the machine! shame on emachines\gateway[for those of you experiencing spuratic shutdowns ITS THE POWER SUPPLY]) I am now awaitting my new coolermaster 500 watt power supply scheduled for delivery on the 7th of jan 08. I decided to bite the bullet and get a 2 gig upgrade(which is the highest the board is compatible with) while I wait on my ps.
so to recapp:
one gateway t5082= 349.99
one stick of 512= 35.99
500 watt power supply= 64.95
crap video card= 99.99
2 gigs ram= 89.99
___________________________________-
grand total= 640.91
Which translated into spanish is pronounced “ICOULDAGOTANHP”
WE all should have saved ourselves the trouble and bought one of the better models, but at the time we needed cheap. So, as long as you dont mind crashes, incompatability, constant upgrading and a neverending outward flow of greenbacks the emachinest5082\vista combo is agreat setup!
Brian said,
January 7, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I bought this computer with a killer rebate from TigerDirect. I was smart enough from the start to get an extra half GB of memory. I skipped removing software manually and immediately installed from scratch with the restore disk and turned off the Windows junk I don’t want. Works like a dream.
Having a 64 bit processor allows me to run Windows XP x64 with lightning speed even with only 1GB of RAM. Even though this isn’t a gaming rig, I can play Portal very smoothly. The stock hardware also works beautifully with OpenSuse, and I expect it will be the same with many other Linux distros.
This is not a high end PC and was never marketed as such, so nobody should be stupid enough to whine that it isn’t. It’s a budget PC, but it performs with flying colors with nothing more than a little extra memory. Do what the others suggest and add a modest graphics card and a SATA hard drive and it will pretty much be a gaming PC.
jasonb said,
January 7, 2008 at 10:55 pm
A budget PC it is, but no PC should ship from the manufacturer with a configuration that makes it virtually usuable, be it for $149 or $299. That’s just dumb.
Between Vista and Norton Security Center scanning for virus and trojans at boot, just opening the start menu was virtually a futile exercise for at least ten minutes. Shame on eMachines!
After all, the people buying this don’t necessary know anything about upgrades or disabling Norton or installing XP. Nor should they, or they’d build their own box!
Ed said,
March 19, 2008 at 9:20 am
Vista is probably the best operating system Microsoft every put out. That being said, the market (software/hardware) is not ready for Vista. Clearly eMachine does not care for their customers by selling this POS as is. I’m concerned that it is going to be a system that falls apart in the near future as the care that eMachine put into the quality of this system is obviously minor.
XP with 512mb runs ok period on any machine. Increasing the RAM typically solves most performance problems when your RAM is low. This machine with XP and 1 gig of ram runs fast! I agree with all of you though that eMachine should not have sold this machine as is.
I only paid $300.00 for mine, but WTF were they thinking? Hey, it is only money…IT IS MY MONEY!!! I bill $50.00/hour for system work. I’ve spent about 30 additional hours tweaking the machine with Vista and even applying the sp1 to try and make it work adequately to no avail plus now trying to get the sound working with XP on it. So, this $300.00 “deal” has cost me $50*30hrs+$300=$1800.00 (and I’m not done yet!) I could have bought a top of the line laptop by now with no worry’s! For $300.00 I could have built a brand new system myself (basically that is what is happening now anyway).
I’ve built many systems for gaming and this one was going to be for the Mrs. to be a no worry’s and no tweaking simple system for her to use. Even my wife that has little performance needs for computers was very unimpressed and in fact, physically angered by this POS. Is eMachines trying to get husbands beatin up or cause divorces? :-)
Ditto on the XP drivers on this machine. I’m still trying to get the sound to work with XP. I’ll try the drivers again from intel, but can anyone tell me specifically what they did to get the audio to work? CompTia A+ and many other certs with decades of experience and I still can’t get the stupid XP sound to come on this machine.
Their support pointed out that they can not support non-supported systems (T5082 with XP) but did send me the intel link for drivers and assured me they would work. Kuddo’s for this little effort on their part instead of just telling me I was screwed. These drivers don’t work. That is about all they would do to help…send me a link even though I told them it did not work. So I guess they have told me “you’re screwed” after all.
I remember what crap eMachines were in the 90’s so I never had one. I took a chance in 2007. I will NEVER EVER get another eMachine and will tell EVERYONE to steer clear of these jokers.
Ed said,
March 19, 2008 at 9:31 am
Brian (January 7, 2008 at 10:30 pm ),
“…nobody should be stupid enough to whine…” Certainly you did not buy the computer to run Vista on it like eMachine’s target customer has done. When a car is sold with a V8 engine, you do not expect to step on the gas and it run crappier than a poorly running 4 cylinder engine. You might as well by the 4 cylinder that runs good yes? This is what has happened with this T5082.
You are obviously in the minority with the T5082 since you lack the out of the box experience that most people have (you’ve made significant changes to the system like installing different operating systems, I also tried the restore to no avail with Vista).
eMachine should have shipped this machine $100.00 cheaper (or with a full gig or more of RAM) and without an operating system and with a DVD of drivers.
I agree with you that it is a fairly fast system and if you throw an 8600 or 8800 nvidia in it, that it actually would be a descent gaming system…with 2 gig RAM and XP.
Cordially,
Ed
Joe said,
March 31, 2008 at 10:53 am
Hilarious! Talk of class action lawsuits, “forcing them to take back the ATI graphics card”, etc. First- there IS NO graphics card, thats the point. It is integrated. 512mb of RAM is pathetic as well. I agree this is an underpowered system, especially for Vista. HOWEVER, that is why this system is dirt cheap. If you want performance, you MUST pay for it! As for the guy talking about buying a V8 engine and getting 4 cylinder performance? Wake up- you paid a 4 cylinder price, it gave you 4 cylinder like specs ON THE BOX. You are the moron expecting 8 cylinder performance! If you do not know anything about computers, maybe you should consult someone who does before you buy one. All I am saying is you get what you pay for. It is an old addage that apparently people don’t listen to any more. If you buy a dirt cheap computer, it will perform….. like a dirt cheap computer. There is no sense in getting mad at Emachines because you made a poorly informed decision. When is the last timew you heard of anyone buying a 3 cylinder Geo Metro and threatening a class action lawsuit because it didn’t go 0-60 in less than 5 seconds? Exactly. Do a little research and stop blaming the manufacturer for your lack of knowledge. Also, to the guy who supposedly bills $50 per hour for “system work”. No, you don’t. If you knew enough to bill people $50 an hour, you knew enough to know that this single-core, 512mb RAM, integrated video sloth would run like molasses.
jasonb said,
March 31, 2008 at 11:04 am
Funny, that Joe’s sole purpose for posting here is to trash other posters. Well done.
The next person that says “You get what you pay for” is going to get slapped. That’s about the fourth time someone has said that in the past 12 months.
Why is it the people that post and rant can never figure out what a paragraph is?
Matt said,
April 11, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I just laugh at this, yeah its Emachines and Vista’s fault. I am an IT Technician, have been for years now, and 1) Its dumb on Emachines part to ship a Vista system with 512Mb Ram. You can buy a 1GB stick of RAM on the internet for $20.00 to put in this thing. 2) Anyone who uses the Geek Squad, theres your second problem. Those guys dont know a thing and all they do is sell you garbage and overcharge you for everything. I couldnt even count on both hands how many people I know who went to the Geek Squad, paid all this money only to have them actually make the computer worse, and in 2 incidents actually break components inside the machine and then give it back and say they couldnt fix it. I dont understand how people can get ripped off that badly and they are still in business. I know not everyone knows alot about computers and doesnt always know someone who can fix them for them, but cmon those guys are a joke as well, and I used to sell computers at Best Buy before I went to college to be an IT Technician, and I knew more then the guys who actually fixed them and I didnt even have my degree yet. I just feel sorry for the people who get ripped off and screwed by them. I wish I could service every persons computer instead of letting them go to Geek Crap, I do side work and I could pretty much charge 4 people to do 4 jobs what the geek squad would charge to do 1.