week ago I was on internet and my computer shut down. went to turn back on and the light in the front came on but would not boot up. called bestbuy. where i purchased my emachine T2825 about 1yr and 3months ago. yes - 3months after my warranty ran out. they stated could be power supply , changed that , still no boot up. tech stated then it has to be my motherboard. this is where the fun begins. went looking for a motherboard. then to find out everyone (techs) i talk to are stating i must by motherboard from emachines cuz i will have problems with restoring windows xp cuz emachines flashes the board to only reading their motherboards. and of course the motherboard i need-- fic au31 - is out of stock and they dont know when i can get it. ebay had one but sold before i could out bid someone. can i buy another motherboard that will work with my emachines setup?? any suggestions? looking for quick fix, cheapest route but efficient would that just be to get rid of emachines all together . not sure what to do? eric

I would think you could install any mobo that will accommodate your processor and ram. Chances are that Windows XP will install the necessary device drivers without any loss of data. Of course the new mobo will come with a CD for installing what else is needed. Your best bet is to check www.pricewatch.com in the search bar type in FIC motherboard. Pick a board with compatible specs to your system. FWIW, ECS mobo's offer a lot of bang for the buck as well. ==================== If you're willing to pay a little more for the board, take the 'puter to a local computer shop and have them test the board. You may find that the cpu is bad and not the board. However, chances are that it is the board. sLLs

*LL* thank you for your reply - you stated the ram would also have match my computer specs. 512mb ddr is what i have now . so i must at least buy a board that has 512mb ddr ram or more or the same. i was looking at asus boards - the a7n8x-x model - has more ram - would fit my processor - would this most likely work? comes w/ a disk to load anything windows doesnt- my form factor is micro atx-- do i have to have the same form factor? eric

You don't have to buy 'more' ram. You want a board that matches your board. IOW, you wouldn't want a board that supports up to 2700 ddr if you have 3200 speed ram. Be sure it also supports your processor speed. You have an atx micro-board, therefore you'll probably need to buy an atx micro; anything other may be too large in size to fit your case. www.tigerdirect.com has a good page for mobo purchases. There you can see a pic of the board and the specs. You will still probably get a better price using www.pricewatch.com, but tigerdirect is very competitively priced as well. sLLs

*LL* ok, i think i have found the right mobo on newegg.com. i read the reviews however and they stated they had to load windows -- will my hard drive pull all the programs that I have on my other mobo-sounds like a stupid question to me but with only having a restore disk from emachines, i dont want to buy a mobo and not have my original programs. i guess my question is that plugging my 120gig hd into the mobo will give me the same programs ,again thank you for your time eric

I had the same problem with my T2810, 1 yr and 3 mo's later. bust open your box and disconnect ALL plugs from your mother board and plug em back in. workt 4 me mmmmmmsmith