Difference between revisions of "Motherboard Testing"

Revision as of 16:18, 20 May 2009

Blown capacitors Check for curved or leaking top.

If only one capacitor is bad, send the motherboard to recycle except if it is one that supports Pentium P4.
look for burn marks or discolerment.

After checking the packaging and the socket type that matches the motherboard,

Identify the motherboard by manufacturer, model, version
Go to the manufacturer website or just search via google and determine with which range of processor the motherboard is compatible.
Put a compatible heatsink with a fan on top of it.

Check the battery for the CMOS, if less than 3 volts replace it.
Add some memory: DIMM modules, SDRAM, DDR SDRAM or Rambus RDRAM (remember to install Rambus in pairs and use CRIMMs).
Attempt to post

Boot to Memtest, Let it run for a minute, it will run for ever if you let it (The memtest program is a boot option on the hard drive)
Boot up to Operating System

Check that the mouse and keyboard work
If you have on board video check that it works.
Test all the USB ports with a mouse
If you have on board sound play a audio cd, if not then take a look at a data cd
run stress-test

processor type and or speed
type of memory it takes
special featuers

Information on different motherboards with summary description, it's quiet commercial but it provides quickely the basic information you're looking for : http://www.motherboards.org/ For complete and accurate information on motherboard just go to manufacturer website like Abit [1], Asus [2], MSI [3] and the others. Sometimes you are able to download the motherboard manual.

The two main processors manufacturers can be visited on : http://www.intel.com/ and http://www.amd.com/us-en/

If you just want an answer to any question around the computer or to understand something, go to http://computer.howstuffworks.com/

Here's a chart flow that can help you to visualize the process

This is a graph with borders and nodes. Maybe there is an Imagemap used so the nodes may be linking to some Pages.

@@ Line 76: / Line 76: @@
     memory        [label="Move and\nchange memory modules\nDoes it post?"]
     video         [label="Are you using\nONBOARD VIDEO?\nTry an AGP card\nand/or a PCI card\nDoes it post?"]
-    oldcpu        [label="Does it still have\nthe CPU\nUit came with?"]
+    oldcpu        [label="Does it still have\nthe CPU\nit came with?"]
     knowncpu      [label="Swap the CPU\nDoes it post?"]
     jumpers       [label="Check the JUMPERS\nand BIOS DIP SWITCHES\n(See manufacturer manual)\nDoes it post?"]