From the information I have read online, the potential success of the M5305 would carve eMachines a good entrance into the notebook market, from which they could expand their line to cover more price ranges and features. Since the M5310 is an admittedly minor upgrade, it might bee a little too early to tell the direction they are headed toward to currently, but I'm still very excited to think that in the future they may offer everything from powerful gaming laptops to thin business notebooks.

I'm just happy they decided to go with a widescreen format for their "first" entries into the market :)

Actually they had very low powered machine called the eSlate several years ago that did not catch on.

I remember it well, and the complaint about it was that it was heavily underpowered.

I searched for 3 weeks looking for a new notebook. My previous two notebooks were Dell's (the last costing $3000). So I decided to take on the challenge of finding a notebook with everything I needed for as close to $1000 as possible. That would allow me to replace them with newer models more frequently (say at least every two years). I purchased my M5310 from Best Buy for $1050 after mail in rebate ($1200 before rebate).

So far I have been extremely pleased. The single complaint I have with this notebook is the key layout. It differs slightly from the standardized notebook keyboard layout when it comes to specialized keys (pg up/down, home, end, delete, insert, ctrl and alt). It is taking some adjusting to get used to, but given a little time I will be as proficient on this keyboard as others.

Wireless connectivity has been very good. Much, much better than the Linksys PCMCIA card I was using with my other laptop.

Performance and Battery life have also been very good.

The display is fantastic. My screen does not even have a single dead or stuck pixel (I did note one stuck pixel on the display model at Best Buy). So they definitely aren't using cheap or second hand displays for these laptops.

One note regarding the wireless addition to the 5310 - the wireless hardware is just a mini PCI card in the slot on the bottom of the laptop. Thus it may be possible to add WiFi to a 5305 in the same manner without having to use up the PC Card slot. One thing I note is two wires coming off of the PCI card which disappear into the innards of the notebook. I assume they go to an antenna embedded in the notebook, probably in the screen. It might be worth a look to see if the 5305 has two free wires in the PCI bay as well.

Dan

Have you looked at how the RAM is configured in the notebook? Like is it 2 bays both with 256 sticks or 2 bays with 1 512, or (yow) 1 bay with 512mb. I'm most def looking into purchasing this laptop when the rebate goes back up (if it doesnt than in 2 weeks) and just want to know for expanding purposes. On a side note- great site, just found it and have been reading over everything for the last 3 days- Very nice! Thanks

I think it has a single free ram slot but I would ask the company

I have had the mine for about 3 weeks now and love it. To answer your question there is only one slot with a 256 stick in it. The other 256 stick is somewhere inside the case and would require a complete disassemble to change. And that is assuming it is removable. Hope this helps.
Eric

I bought this computer a couple weeks ago and its great. It runs quickly and handles my favorite games (Civilization 3 and Morrowind) very well. The ONLY problem I had with it is the vents on the bottom to cool it off, if they get blocked for more than a few minutes the laptop overheats and turns off instantly with no warning whatsoever. Other than that, it's great and you wont find a better deal on the internet anywhere (I've checked for weeks on the best deal). Don't buy this computer from emachines.com because they want to charge you an extra $60 for the AC adapter. I ordered mine through bestbuy.com and got a $150 rebate on it and the AC adapter is included. A truly great deal!

I just bought this unit from Best Buy. My question is: How do I "calibrate" the battery? It is not real clear to me. How exactly do I leave it on for 2 hours till it dies....do I just use the computer. If you could help, that would be great. Thanks. Great website. Very helpful.

Brandon just use it on a flat level surface so the vents do not get blocked. If you buy it from emachines.com the AC adapter is included and the 60 is just for a second AC adapter. You would get the exact same package from the website as you would a store. I sort of like how standardized the machines are. My notebook has never over heated.

Eric. Charge the battery to 100%. Go to the control panel power management and set it to "No Power management" Then leave the computer running until the battery dies. Should be about 2.5 hours. Then charge the battery with out turning the computer on.. just plug it in. wait about 3 hours to charge it and then you have calibrated the battery. If you have more problems check the manual or tech support. I just reviewed it and I am not tech support.

I just purchased this unit from BestBuy. I also own eMachine's previous laptop the eSlate 450K. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the unit. However, I tried running RTCW (Return to Castle Wolfenstein) but the system access violates everytime in the ATI driver. Has anyone gotten Quake engine based games running on this system? If so, did you have to tweak anything in the bios or on the game itself to get it to work? I'm still puzzling over this.

Aside from that though, I've had no problems with it. It's much zippier than my old laptop. That's for sure.

-Cliff

Yeah I run Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Quake 3 all the time on my 5305. You sould update your Direct X drivers ( http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/ ) and reboot. I like to run it with medium detail and 800X600. No need to tweak the bios just make sure you are running the latest patched OS software and patch your games.

I've had the m5300 for two weeks and used it for a week long business trip. I love it. The 6.5 lbs. was not an issue for me at all and is very reasonable when you compare it's weight next to some competitors with widescreens. The speakers aren't great, but they aren't the worst. I used to have an IBM ThinkPad and this machine REALLY out performed it and is generally easier to use.

Sorry... that should have said m5310,

So how exactly would you be able to get the maximum of 1 gig of RAM in the machine if 256 is embedded somewhere? Short of buying a 1 gig stick and having it not fully work?

I don't know you should contact eMachines. 512 is plenty enough ram for me.

I bought one of these (the 5305) to take on vacation with me. Basically, I just used it to download pictures from my digicam, web browse, read email, and watch DVD movies. For that, it was perfect.

It seems they've fixed a few things with the 5310 update. Built in wireless is good, as is the usable firewire port. Unfortunately, the graphics are still the same slow shared-system-memory graphics. If they updated the graphics to use something fast, I would upgrade and hand this one down to a family member. As it is though, I'm sticking with the 5305 and a cheap wireless card for now.

I'm contemplating buying one of the D-link PCI wireless cards that has a miniPCI card on it and trying to plug that into the mini-PCI slot on the bottom of the 5305.

I'm also planning on upgrading to WinXP Pro and maybe upgrading the memory to 768 or maybe 1GB if I can figure out how to get at the other slot.

Yeah that is my main complaint. if they made the machine $100 more they could have put a killer graphics chip in it.

I'm thinking of buying M5310 and have read some reviews on it. It seems that most owners like the unit. I just have a few questions on it.
1. Can you play extreme games on it? (like car racing)
2. Can you upgrade the video card to a more powerful one like ATI Radeon 9200?

1. Yes and no it can handle about 80% of the games on the market right now but the super high end games that push the most powerfull cards are not going to work on it. The graphics chip is it's weakest link. It depends on what the specs of the racing game is.

2. No there is no notebook on the market (currently) that has an upgradable graphics card.

Thanks for answering my questions Jack! That was very helpful. Sorry, I have another question, does the graphic card affect the quality of the dvd movies?

oops, I meant "JAKE"

Well a bad graphics chip can affect the quality on the movie. This notebook has absolulty wonderfull picture quality when watching DVDs. The ATI Radeon IGP 320 is a great chip for video it is just not the most powerfull kid on the block for 3d graphics.

Hi, i'm thinking of getting the M5310 as well and i was wondering how the built in wireless lan works. I'd like to surf the Internet when i travel or even while i'm driving, is that possible?

Well the wireless LAN is Wifi and it is a limited range of about a 300 to a thousand feet. There are cellular modems that you can use with a cell phone network but that is very expensive and slow.

Not to mention that using a PC while driving is illegal in the US and very very dangerous.

Wifi is great when traveling because you can find a pub, cafe, library or hotel that has a Wifi hotspot.

Thanks for that quick response Jake. I'm not familiar with Wifi, is that a service i would have to pay for? or can i just go to any of the Wifi hotspots and surf the net for free.

Wonder how's the reliability of the m5310? Do you ever have any problem with it and need to send it back for servicing? I thinking of bringing one overseas for long-term posting. Thanks.

some are free, some are next to free and some are too much. Here read these

http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/jake_wifi_killed_the_internet_star.php#001412
and
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/jake_review_seattle_wifi_cafes_the_zeitgeist_and_auriface.php#001420

Well I have had a m5305 since they first came out several months ago and I have had no problem. I have had an eMachines PC for three years that never had any problem and my folks have had two for four years. They have a good rating for tech support but we never have had to call them.

I would get a spare battery but that is it. And make sure that you have the right power adaptor for the country that you are going to.

OK, so I want THIS. One question.. has anyone tryed any highend 3D Graphic apps on this like Maya/Houdini/XSI?

It would be awesome if this would run those apps decently.

I don't care for the games, but it is great that it can handle most.

Thanks!

Yes I have run Maya on it and I run 3d Studio Max on it all the time. There is alot of ram and the video card is enough to handle some complex models as long as you work effeciently

I've tried the M5310 @ the staore and liked it, but how does it handle Photoshop, Illustrator or Corel Draw?
Hedwig

I run Photoshop, Flash, Freehand and Fireworks on it daily and it works quite well.

Are you able to put this on your bed and use it without it burning up?
Or do we have to buy a cooler pad...

-ELmO

Just wanted to update to say I picked this baby up- on it right now- I am very impressed with it thus far! The wireless works flawlessly. This is my first laptop and the keyboard is taking some getting used to.. :)

i just bought this laptop from bestbuy for 1049 after rebates, and it is a jewel. i am a computer engineering student at the univ of arizona, and will be using it heavily for programming/compiling etc. i am confident it will do well. the widescreen is awesome, clarity and resolution are unbelievable, and its really crisp. also, i have halflife/counterstrike installed and i have the video mode on opengl with 1024x768 resolution, and its excellent. no lag, no octagons, it runs better than my desktop (2100+xp, 512MB, 64MB Radeon ATI). i would definitely recommend this laptop

Well I still have a normal Microsoft keyboard and mouse that I use when I have a lot of typing to do on it.

I never had any overheating problems and I never block the cooling vents.

How is the mouse touch pad? Or does everyone use an external mouse?

The mouse touch pad at best buy is terrible and cannot be used accurately..sliding around too much.

-ELmO

The mouse touchpad works fine and the touch scroll bar on the right of the touch pad is very cool. I use a touchpad when I am mobile and a mouse and keyboard when it is on my desk. It depends on the setting of the touchpad if it is set to fast then it slides around.

Question: I have the M5310. Just got it actually. It works OK. But, I had trouble setting up my wireless network...probably because I am NOT really into computers. In fact, when I called tech support they informed me that I had to press Function and F2 in order to turn on the wireless card. Once I do that the indicator light for the CD lights up...because, get this, they made a mistake labelling some of the laptops. And, until I called tech support again, I had to turn on the wireless card and reconfigure the network EVERY TIME I turned on the computer. After MANY phone calls to the great people at tech support, they seem to have fixed the problem. 2 days in and I am pretty happy with the unit overall. Thanks for the review. They were the deciding factor in me getting this laptop

How about Everquest? Anyone try playing Everquest on this machine?

No I do not like Everquest but the requirements are met so you can play Everquest on it if you wanted to.

is it possible to disable the fan as it is loud and very unpleasant.

i am afraid to open the pc. is there a way to control it via software?

Disabling the fan is a very very bad idea. There are some software aps out there but the fan is there for a reason. Disabling it will cause your notebook to over heat and crash. This can cut the life of your notebook by years and if you disabled the fan cold turkey I doubt your PC would last a month.

Did anyone try the install a Mini PCI 802.11 card into the M5305? Does it look possible?

I am seriously considering this laptop but I am wondering if anyone here is doing any Java or .NET Development on these laptops? (Compiling...web servers etc...)

Also has anyone tried Linux on this laptop (the 5305 or the 5310) I heard that Broadcom 54g wireless drivers are not available on Linux yet, so I think I just want the 5305 and try to install the mini-pci card.

I have never installed a mini PCI card in my M5305 because I use my Linksys PMCIA card instead.

I do web development and multi media development on my notebook including 3ds Max. Notebooks are not really suited for web servers that need to be always on due to their portable nature. But if you wanted to get a notebook and never take it any place why not just get a desktop. I guess you could install a Linux like Redhat on it and use the Wifi connection using the PMCIA slot but I have not installed Linux on this.

One thing I just discovered that's disconcerting about the M5310 (and I think this applies to the M5305 too): it comes with a one-year parts-and-labor warranty, but unlike their desktops, you can't purchase any extended warranty plan. I didn't see mention of this anywhere and wish I had. Parts and labor doesn't cover much - especially when accidental drops are so common with notebooks. Other manufacturers (like Toshiba) do offer accident plans. This is ridiculous and should be rectified by eMachines.

Can't you buy an extended warranty from a store that you buy a PC from. I can't even go by a Best Buy with out them wanting to shove an extra warranty up my ass. I have yet to drop my notebook.

I am buying an emachine for college and it'll get to me apartment in about two days. I'm told by the emachine website that there is 64 meg of video memory on their website, emahines.com however best buy or circuit city, and you say there's 32. What's the deal? "shared" do I have to change the bios?

It is 64 megs of "Shared Memory". Meaning the ATI Radeon IGP 320 video chip uses the same DDR memory as the main ram. This is not as fast but it is a cost cutting measure. I never said there were 32 megs of video memory. That memory comes out of the 512 in the unit. "320" is part of the name of the chip.

Oh... okay well I don't think I need the graphics I'm just using the cheap laptop to run my car's engine and fuel managment systems

Does Win2k work on the 5305/5310? Has anyone installed it sucessfully?

Thanks, Neil

WIll Command and Conquer General's work on this spunky machine?

I called eMchines to ask about the warranty and the guy I spoke with said they have a warranty plan in the works, just not sure exactly when they will make it available, the notebooks are new for them. So time will tell I guess. I wish I had bought the warranty at Best Buy I think. Too late now...

It might not be too late to buy that warranty, I mean I know Best Buy let my buy a warranty on their radar 18 days after I bought it. But I hate best buy's warranty, I mean it's the worst, and they never stop trying to sell it. I go in and tell the guy I don't want it, so he walks with the product and myself to the cashier. He talks to the cashier and say "He already declined the warranty, but offer it to him again." Urgh..!! it's so irritating, I bet they view it as free money, but anyways CompUSA has the best warranty program. It's better then if the thing breaks it's like you can replace just to upgrade. MY friend did it with a video card after owning it for 9 months, and got all his money back. The problem about best buy is that you'll never get you cash back. I mean I bought a PDA and they were like get the warranty, so I figured it's a PDA and it'll probably break sooner or later knowing myself. I get kicked while walking to class by a friend, who would soon by my new enemy and the sonly Clie, get's a shattered screen. $400 poof, it's gone. I thought SWEET! I'll actually use the Best Buy warranty, I mean it's honest mistake. Nope, I got nothing, and I actually paid more for the warranty, I call it a robbery

Sorry about the massive mis-spelling's, it's just too early with sonly I meant sony, anyway's what's better Best Buy's vpr MAtrix of these emachines? It's kinda odd that Best Buy is selling these emachines, I mean isn't it hurting the sales on their very own computers? Best Buy builds the VPR's don't they?

Tell you what I would not mind getting that game so I will download and try the demo of Command & Conquer: Generals tonight. It requires a Radeon 7500 so the Radeon 320 IGP might handle it. I have never used a VPR matrix so I can't say. This is a damn good deal for your money.

the VPRmatrix cost about 100 more and do not include a wireless modem. Instead, it's got a nvida graphics card and comes in a magnesium alloy frame or housing. And would you believe this? Best Buy had the porche, as in the speedy car, design this notebook. It's literally impossible to find one in a Best Buy store as you'll have to buy one on the net.

The vpr Matrix 220A5 has a Pentium 4M that is going to SUCK for battery life. I am still glad I got an eMachines. It is Wifi not a Wireless modem they are not the same thing.

You act like I bought it or something, just to let you know I already bought the emachine and it should be at my door steps Friday. I'm a little anxious, the reviews through pcMagazine said the sound quality sucked on the emachine. So I decided to invest $100 on the Bose computer speakers. Have you seen these? they're actually really nice and quite amzing that it's only two speakers. Hands down, it beats the 5 or 6 altec lansing speakers in sounds quality, maybe not in Sub, but in overall sound quality. These should complimant the Emachine

Here's a good place to see the cons and pros of the two

http://reviews.cnet.com/eMachines_M5305/4852-3122_7-21183515.html

Cnet liked the speakers in the M5305. They are good for a notebook speaker when portable but I have some good Lansing speakers for when it is on a desk and I want to watch a movie.

Aside from the battery which has the better graphics card?

The VPR matrix. a Geforce 4MXGo is better suited for games than the Radeon IGP.

Woah, Cnet gave the VPR a much higer rating nearly a flat 8. I hate having second thoughts,

Cnet also gave the VPR a 9 in battery life!?!??! what's the deal and a 9 in performance!?!?! that's what I need right there http://reviews.cnet.com/Best_Buy_VPR_Matrix_200A5__Pentium_4_M__2GHz_/4505-3122_7-20572496.html?tag=pdtl-list

But back to basics, I hate Best Buy, and their service and everything about them stinks, so it's probably got a horrible warranty, lol, read the user reviews http://reviews.cnet.com/Best_Buy_VPR_Matrix_200A5__Pentium_4_M__2GHz_/4852-3122_7-20572496.html?pn=2&tag=top&fb=0&ob=0

Well I say do your research first before you buy. I did my research before I got my Emachine M5305 and I am glad that I did because I was impressed with the desktop that I owned by then. If you really want to you can still return that computer and see if you can get a refund.

I'm considering buying the M5310. Pardon my ignorance, but I read something about this system not coming with CD burning software. Is this true - and if so, is it easy to get?

Thanks a lot for the useful info.

Windows XP home can burn CDs.

I bought the 5310 about 3 weeks ago and have been quite pleased aside from one issue. I bought a DV camcorder with hopes of capturing movies via firewire to and saving them on vcd. The trouble was I could never get more then 5 minutes captured without the video freezing on the screen. after hours of troubleshooting at home, I spent almost 3 hours troublshooting with the crew at Bestbuy - only to find that the problem is with the video card. If you turn your color setting down from 32 bit to 16 bit it works without a hitch, but otherwise you wont get more than a few minutes. They gave me the option of trading for another brand but bottom line - nothing has as much for the money! Hope this helps someone avoid the headaches I went thru.

Wow, this discussion has really taken off!

Brandon and ELmO:
I've used mine extensively on my lap and with the notebook sitting directly on the bed, covering the heating vents on the bottom. Over 3 weeks of intensive use (I'm a software developer and this is my primary machine) it has never even hiccuped the first time. Brandon, I have a hunch that yours may be more sensitive to overheating than it should be. On the back of the unit next to where the power jack is you will see a row of heat vents. When your laptop begins to warm up a fan should kick in. You should feel some pretty hot air blowing out of those vents with good force. If not then your fan may not be operating properly. The fan should run almost the entire time the laptop is on, and should blow harder (and louder) the hotter the CPU becomes.

I would like to add another comment to my earlier post / mini review.

I have found one design issue that I feel needs to be corrected. The battery release is on the right side of the case (when sitting normally). Twice now when I have grabbed the sides of the notebook to take it off of my lap I have slid the release forward (it only has to travel around 1/4"), and the battery has fallen out. Thankfully both times I was on external power, so it was inconsequential. This could be so disasterous while on battery power that I'm tempted to place a piece of tape over the release.

At least I was able to determine that the battery appears to be hot-swappable while on external power. :)

Dan East

My Names is James Bennett and I am poor. Right now I'm saving up for an efficient laptop to record music on. Most speciffically work with Reason 2.5. My Question is this. I know the speakers for the emachine m5310 laptop kinda suck but with a good set of headphones how does the sound come out. If its excellent then i'll probably buy this system.

Well the speakers are damn good for a laptop but that is no where near the quality of a good set of desktop speakers. The sound chip is good and you can get great sound out of the machine using external speakers or headphones.

Thanks for the insightful comments. I just purchased a M5310 from Best Buy in Canada. I never thought I’d end up buying an eMachines product (I’m more into Dell) but so far I’m very impressed with the package. I was a little worried also about having an AMD processor but based on the research I’ve done they seem to outperform Intel processors in many cases. The notebook is quite light compared to what I’ve carried before and it actually looks pretty cool! The resolution is incredible. For the price it definitely is a very good buy!

Well what's the deal?!? does General's run or does it?

It ran but was too slow to run well. General is a really advanced 3d engine and was too much for the chip.

Does anyone know if M5310 reads DVD+Rs? I heard that VPR Matrix doesnt, it will be good if this one does.

Well, my battery fell out for the 3rd time, this time I wasn't on external power. I'm going to write eMachines about this, because it is a real design flaw. Anyone else accidentally trigger the battery release while picking up the notebook by its sides?

Dan East

hello again, just a quick reply to a guy above who asked about Java or .NET Development. i use this laptop for two of my java classes, and it compiles/runs beautifully, never a hitch. havent used it for .net, but for java its definitely a go. (eclipse IDE w/JUnit plugin)

I've owned the m5310 for two weeks now and 8bit is one of the only places I've been able to find a real discussion about this laptop. I have had a few issues with it though, not problems but issues really.

The wireless works well, when it works. I've had some spotty connection issues with my symbol ap. My previous laptop uses an Orinoco pccard and I didn't have any issues working in the same environment, the emachine will completely drop my connection every 10 minutes or so. Moving the ap and antenna have helped, but it still drops my connection from time to time. I didn't have this issue before but I suppose that's the reason I bought the Orinoco in the first place, they're the best.

The m5310 has a parallel port but no serial port. I have to use a serial to usb adapter when I use my gps. There are three usb ports, so it's not too bad, but come on, does anyone really use a parallel port anymore?

Battery life is about 2.5 hours tops and the fan is noticable. I got three dead silent hours out of my toshiba. It was also 900mhz with half the screen of this bad boy.

BestBuy wanted $250 for an extended three year warranty. Major selling point was that it covers your battery, so you could get a new one when yours dies in a year. I told them I could buy two more batteries for the same price and keep all three.

This laptop is fulled loaded at this price. I think mine's great, no problems I haven't been able to work around yet. The widescreen makes writing code a pleasurable experience.

Well to my dissapointment the Emachine can not handle General's and I said what the hell I'll get a Dell. So i ended up getting the Dell Inspiron 8600. Have you seen this thing? It's sweet it's got the same 15.4 wide screen display but get this, it has a 128 MB DDR NVIDIA® GeForce FX Go5650 video card, what beats this? =)

I also just purchased the M5310, at BB, last week, and so far I am mostly impressed. DVD playback is brilliant, and the speakers are adequate - at least in a reasonably quiet room. Speed is surprisingly good on business apps, however, the hard disk is noticeably slower than my VPR desktop with a 7200 rpm. The series of Windows XP updates took about 30 minutes to install (after download time) - mostly disk cranking.

I purchased a D-Link DI-624 54g wireless router (and downloaded the latest patch), which installed and connected to the M5310 in the blink of an eye. Monitoring the wireless speed on the M5310's utility, I get 54mbps speed and "excellent" signal strength -- as long as I'm in the den with the router. If I'm through one hollow wall in the kitchen, I register at best a "weak" signal and cannot connect. I'm concerned that this may be a defect, but not sure how to tell -- any help appreciated.

I also agree with another poster I read elsewhere: a trackball would be an improvement over the touchpad included. I haven't tried to tweak it (there are instructions), so maybe I'll try that. Until then, I have a Microsoft mini mouse that works great.

One other tip I'll need to investigate. I've used Sleep mode, but had half the battery drain overnight. I'll have to check if the wireless card sleeps when the notebook sleeps.

The M5310 feels very solid and sturdy, not as tinny as some others, so i would expect good reliability. I have an eMachines desktop from 1998 which has been superbly reliable. Too much - my wife didn't want to let me buy the M5310 since the "other computer" still works fine!

Well my brother just bought the Emachine M5305 and I was able to play with it for about 3-4 hours. I must say this is a NICE laptop. Amazing...I have only owned a Dell Latitude before but this laptop smokes it. The Dell casing was a lot cheaper than the Emachine. The speed was nice.

I can't wait to see what Emachines does for their next laptop model--hopefully they will read the user comments and make a laptop w/o shared video memory.

Anyhow I just had to post my delight with the 5305 (not the 5310 but basically the same.)

Does anyone know the difference in the AMD XP-M 2400+ and the 2200+? They both are clocked at 1.8 ghz from what I read everywhere. Are their FSB or something? What makes them faster?

(I'd really like to find some technical references to the AMD XP-M 2400+ and the AMD XP-M 2200+ anyone?)

Anyone have some Sandra benchmarks on the M5310 they could post?

I would say my eMachines beats it. I have a Gamecube and a PS2 for when I want to play games. The Dell note book you mentioned is $1,848 to my emachine notebook that was $1000 after rebate. For the price differance I could get a desktop machine with a kick ass Geforce card. I think you paid $850 to much to run a $50 game. What beats that?

That sounds like a problem with your wifi router antenna. Try placing it higher and if you have lots wiring and concrete in your walls it can cut down the wifi reception. But low connection is still workable. The speed does not get cut unless it gets a very weak connection. Place your antenna up high with no large metal objects near it.

Sleep mode drains the battery because it keeps the ram alive. Hibernate mode saves a snap image of the ram to the hard disk and totally powers down. Then it can boot up in under 20 secs.

I've had the 5310 for about 2 days. The best thing about it is the awesome screen.

Now for some bad things. My CD LED is broken. It never turns off so I can't tell when the CD is actually being accessed. The second bad thing is I can't hibernate. The computer will blue screen after it wakes up. That's annoying since booting up takes a long time with the slow hdd.

It wasn't just a video card I got a better prcocessor and more ram, A twice as better screen which produces a better picture, or at least quality. Oh and can I say dell warranty which is way better then anything emachine would produce. And hey my mom got it for me for my birthday, I could care less about price.

My point is that it is apples and oranges. What could be better than that?

> Now for some bad things. My CD LED is broken.
> It never turns off so I can't tell when the CD is actually being accessed.

Mine does the exact same thing. The CD LED stays on all the time, even if there is no disc in the drive.

> The second bad thing is I can't hibernate.
> The computer will blue screen after it wakes up.

Sounds like a problem with XP. You might try reinstalling. Boot time for me is very fast, so again, there may be some problem with your Windows installation.

Dan East

I use my laptop (M5305) mostly for programming, and i have to say that it is the best purchase i have ever made. Like everyone else, i have a problem with the shared video ram, but i'm not a hardcore gamer, so it's not too bad. I only own two games, jedi outcast and splinter cell...to anyone wanting to play these games, jedi outcast plays perfectly, and splinter cell barely plays.

Another problem i have is with emachines and future shop. The problem is that it can't keep time. I took it in to future shop, and they replaced the cmos battery, and told me the problem was fixed, which it wasn't. Then they said that to fix the problem, i would have to send it to emachines, and i would be "lucky" to get it back in 2 months. all this for a laptop i had owned for only 16 days, 1 day over the refund period (although they didn't seem to care that they were "fixing" the laptop for 7 days of the 16 i had owned it).

This seems to be a very well built and powerful laptop, and i would recommend it to anyone looking for a low cost laptop.

I just noticed a weird side effect of my CD-ROM LED "breaking". It turns off when I turn off my Wi-Fi and turns on when I turn on my Wi-Fi. I guess it now has a different use. LOL. :)

I was thinking about exchanging it, but all my pixels are fine so I'm afraid if I exchange it because of the little LED, I'm gonna get one with some busted pixels. (My sister's HP has a streak of bad pixels that don't turn for all colors....thus is the way of LCD manufacturing.)

Quite right. The CD-Rom appears to light as long as the WiFi radio is on.

My screen is perfect as well. The display model at BestBuy had one stuck pixel (as did my last Dell laptop). So far the eMachines LCDs appear to be at least as good as anything else on the market.

Dan East

Could someone please post some benchmarks for the M5310? I want to compare the M5305 with it... :)

Preferably with SiSoft Sandra

Hi, just got an eMachine for a birthday present (not a bad gift huh?) has anyone had problems with the mouse pad? the tap feature was working when i first got it running and now doesn't want to work. the scroll feature is on again/off again. I hate to back to best buy...

The CD-Rom light issue
I noticed this day one with my 5310 and called emachine about it. Since the 5310 and the 5305 are in the same case, the wifi light took over the cdrom spot. So everyone with a 5310 just has a mismarked light. It's working fine but only for the wifi. Hope this helps.

Beth,
You have to double click on the touchpad icon next to the clock, select the Device Settings tab and click on setting in the middle of the box (right next to disable). This will open the pointer settings. Click ON the word tapping and not on the plus sign. You will notice to the right of the word Tapping there will be a box you can check mark labled "Enable Tapping" Thats it. Enjoy and I hope this makes since.

Scrolling features are in here too :)

"The CD-Rom light issue
I noticed this day one with my 5310 and called emachine about it. Since the 5310 and the 5305 are in the same case, the wifi light took over the cdrom spot. So everyone with a 5310 just has a mismarked light. It's working fine but only for the wifi. Hope this helps.
Posted by: Eric at September 8, 2003 09:10 PM"

Hmmm. That is so weird because I could've sworn it was working correctly when I first got it. It blinked as it accessed the CD-ROM. If what you're saying is true then eMachines should document it on their web page so that people (like me) don't get confused.

Off topic but I got to try out the WiFi. My god it's fast. Hehehehe. I took me a few minutes to download all the patches from Microsoft. Unfortunately, it took another 45 minutes for the patches to install. Seems the hard drive is the bottleneck. Is it a 4200 or a 5400 RPM drive? Too bad a nice Hitachi 60GB 7200 drive is $299. Anyone know where to get one for cheap? And has anyone put one in the M5310 or M5305 before? Does it kill the battery life?

I just got my 5310. Does anyone have a faint noticeable line on the bottom of the screen running from edge to edge. It's about 4 or 5 pixels thick. If you run your taskbar on the bottom I doubt anyone would notice but I run mine vertical on the side and it stands out. If anyone can check that would be appreciated.

As well it seems the screen suffers from the same issues like my dells. From top to bottom the brightness/contrast gets higher. As a test if you visit slashdot.org for example, the green banners on top are darker then the ones at the bottom. Anyone else notice this? Anyway I want to like this laptop cause other then the screen issues it's great. Hopefully it's just this unit and not a "normal" thing. Thanks for any feedback.

Hi Min0,

I also have a 5310. I looked as hard as I could and I couldn't see any lines on the bottom of my screen. Also, the entire screen is evenly lit, but certain parts of the screen seem darker than others depending on the position and angle of my head in relation to the screen. If I move my head directly in front of and dark areas and position the screen parallel to the plane of my face, it gets brighter. So I think what we're seeing is normal and inherent to LCD technology. (I tried with my sister's laptop and it's the same thing.)

I think that al LCD screens are like that. The eMachines notebooks have some of the best screens I have seen in a notebook computer

Excellent review and discussion - thanks!

Is there anyplace I can purchase this notebook outside of BestBuy or online from eMachines? I try to avoid buying anything from BB because I've had so much trouble with customer service there.

You can buy them form eMachines on their website. http://www.e4me.com/

Thanks Kien. The line I'm seeing really looks more like a shadow then a hard line. I'll have to compare it to the display models in the store.

I'm seeing the brightness/contrast variation when I look straight in the middle of the screen. Although since my dell's do this I'm starting to think this is normal for laptops. Although my 17" desktop Samsung LCD doesn't do this.

Jake I agree, overall I think this a great screen.
Sitting side by side it looks better then my samsung. Anyway this laptop has really impressed me after being able to play with it longer. Highly recommended.

Hi. I've created new forums for the eMachines notebooks. I certainly do not wish to take any traffic away from 8bitjoystick.com, but this simple comment mechanism is really not adequate for the volume of M53xx discussion that is occurring.

The url is:

http://dexplor.com/forums

Thanks.

Dan East

Hi,
Does anyone know why when I right click on "My Computer" the speed of the processor changes? I looked at this the first day I got the maching and it read anywhere from 518 mHz to the full 1.79 mHz. Is it something different because it's the "mobile" processor? My desktop always reads the same speed.
Just wondering...
Thanks.
beth

That is the "QuadSpeed" architecture in action. The Athlon XP-M changes speed based on how much demand is placed on it. Funny you mention it, because I just posted a message in the m53xx forum a few minutes ago asking if anyone knew of a utility to set the processor speed explicitly.

Dan East

Just curious if anyone has run Adobe Premiere on the M5310. (Either version 6.0 or 6.5.) How does it handle Premiere? Thanks in advance for any info.

Do you guys know of any M5310 forums? I bought my laptop about 3-4 weeks ago and I love it. Has anyone been able to update the vide driver. I have had some real hard time trying to get the new Radeon Catalyst drivers installed. Finally I just decided to keep the factory driver. As you all know placing the new video driver can boost the performance of video in games.

Very Useful App on controlling the CPU Performance on M5310

http://dexplor.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8

A little off the subject but...i'm trying to get my emachine notebook to share a printer with my desktop. when i try to set up a "home network" it gives a message that the desktop can't allow any other computers access. I have no problem sharing internet capabilities but can't get the printer. I get a message at the end of the network wizard that says "In addition to its internet connection, this computer must have a connection to your network"- any suggestions?

I just want to know what is upgradable on the M5310, such as memory or the vid. card, and what is the reliability on the M5310 so far i heard its good. How does this compare to a mega buck laptop like the DEll lineup of laptops. What Im trying to say is is it WORTH IT i've had a emachines desktop since my first computer and its still running as we speak. Thanx

there are no notebooks on the planet that have upgradable video cards. You can add more ram if 512 Megs is not enough it is for me. And the USB 2.0 and Firewire is great for adding hard drives and DVD-r drives. Mine has been very reliable. Nothing has broken.

You can also upgrade the hard drive. M5310 hard drive can be removed and people have actually been able to insert a 60 gig disk.

As far as another post goes - you have to enable file and printer sharing. My home network functions with the printer (ink jet) and I can print from my M5310.

actually the new alienware area 51m has user-upgradeable graphics :)

Yeah that is not out yet. It is also twice to three times the cost of a eMachines notebook

JAKE!
Thank you for the information on the video freeze during capture. I too experienced this problem and thought I made a mistake about buying the 5310. I was so PO'd when it froze that I haven't tried it again. I'll be trying it again tomorrow. Thanks again....

Also, I noticed there were several questions about the HD speed above, without a valid answer. I too would like to know if it can be upgraded.

Just got it 4 days ago. M5310. I love it. but, I upgraded the OS basically even before I started using it to Windows XP Pro. but now the AMD
CPU mang software is gone, and the antivirus is gone. I cant get them off the CD image. Any ideas how to get better battery(CPU) managment out of it if using windows XP ?

Thanks

You can download AMD CPU utilities from here
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_1276_807%5E871%5E2364,00.html

The antivirus is part of the package and you might want to talk to eMachines about that. Personally I just use a copy of Norton 2003 that I got for $25.

Initializing your battery really helps and dimming your screen when typing text helps. I actually ordered a 2nd battery so I can now get five hours off the two batteries.

I did a clean install of Windows XP professional on my M5310. Now the USB runs at 1.1 speed, not 2.0. Emachines tech support does not provide much help because they do not support XP pro. What do I need to do to get USB 2.0 speed? Thanks.

Sounds like you need to update or change your Windows USB Driver. it would be under your hardware profile settings. I can't help you more because I would not want to mess with it on mine. See if they have a book on Windows XP Pro at your local library. Or call microsoft tech support. Good luck

i have my usb running at 2.0 with pro. i had to install sp1, then go into device manager and click update drivers for the usb ports, and select find the drivers automatically. I hope this helps

PalmTree

Hi, I'm looking at buying this laptop... and I realize that the video card is its weakest link. In my desktop, I have a GeForce 2 MX 400 (64mb) card. All I need to know is how the video cardin this machine will compare to my video card for gaming. Would this one be better, or no?

I think they would be about the same if not more powerfull.

yah but for the same computer as the emachines (but with a 128mb video) would cost me $1500 more

I am considering M5310. Can you use the LCD screen and the TV out (s-video) at the same time?

Craig, I have used both the LCD screen and TV s-video output at the same time and it works perfectly. I hope this helps.

I bought the M5310. I love it! Has anybody had problems with it freezing and locking up? The first 2 days I had it, it locked upa bit. Then after I decided I was going to return it if a new computer keeps locking up, it stopped... and hasnt locked up since. Maybe it got scared lol. Anyways, just wondering if anyone else had the problem.

Thanks,
~Jesse

Well it could have just been the software. if you install unstable software it can bring down just about any machine.

Hi all,

I'm just wondering if the shared video ram affects performance of the computer when it's used for more graphic or programming oriented tasks? I'm looking to use it for html, some image manipulation (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc) as well as Dreamweaver & Fireworks.

And as far as the programming oriented - Any users doing ASP or sql or database manipulation? Any performance hits?

Thanks

Matt

I do PHP and photoshop based web development on this note book all the time and it works great. Pretty peppy actually. Same as Flash.

Just got e400 widescreen M5305 refurbished at TigerDirect. No owners manual. No place i could find to get one on emachine website. Can you suggest place to get or download. Thanks

the e400 and the M5305 are not the same machine. Either way I would try actually emailing the company directly and asking for a PDF of the manual.

Hey everyone

I'm thinking of getting a laptop, I found the M5310 to to be well equiped for the price, but does anyone know what the ram goes up to?
It comes with 512, but I read somewhere that it's only upgradable to 768MB, is this right? What about the HD, can you put a faster larger drive in?

thanks for any info

You can upgrade the RAM to 1GB (2 x 512 MB modules). This involves taking the laptop apart.
Yes HD is upgradable to 60 and 80 GB.

How much would it cost to upgrade to a 60gb HD and 1gb RAM. And where would i take the laptop to get this stuff put in I wouldn't want to do it myself

I just bough this laptop a few days ago and so far, its been awesome. I have one complain though that I though one of you may be able to help me with. I cant seem to remove the 2 network connection icons in the system tray next to the clock. I went to msconfig and tried to remove them from startup, but it didnt work. I also select to hide them when inactive on the taskbar properties but after I restart, they pop right up again. Maybe this is just an XP issue and I would be able to find my answer elsewhere. If any of you have successfully removed these annoying looking icons, could you please instruct me on how to do so? Thanks in advance!

Regarding upgrading or fixing the laptop - Is this laptop considered a "clone"? The reason is that I'd be taking it overseas where emachines is not - if it needs servicing I'd like to take it into a tech shop and have it repaired, without finding out it uses 'emachine' parts and is going to cost a fortune to fix.

Thanks

It depends on what is wrong. The screen and motherboard is custom to the maker. But the Ram and Hard Drive can be swapped with generic parts. I have used an eMachine desktop for three years and never had anything major go wrong on it.

Desktops and laptops are completely different, how are you so sure that this emachine laptop is just as good quality as the desktop. I mean just because they make an awesome unbelievable desktop does not necesairly mean that they make the best laptop

I'm quite happy with my dell, and I haven't had any problems with it. The wireless ability is quite great. I mean I've been utilizing other people's wireless internet at no cost. I'm a college student who lives in a apartment with my girlfriend, and I've been using my neighbors internet, and they honestly have no idea. I don't need to use passords, nothing. I mean the thing just picks up the signal like a cell phone or a radio or something

Bryan I have been using my M5305 since the week they came out and it has been a joy.

Well Bryan it is a shame that I am not reviewing a dell system.

I have multiple encryption and passwords on my home WiFi node.

THis is going ot be number 143 comment on this post and I declare this subject's comment form officialy closed.

In the future I might close comments on posts that break a hundred comments.