TECHNICIAN SOLUTION

If your computer suddenly (or not so suddenly) stops working, it’s possible the issue is the motherboard. Unfortunately, they’re also one of the most problematic computer components to repair or replace. Not only is the motherboard usually one of the pricier components on the machine, if you have to replace it you often have to replace the CPU and the memory as well – an expense that can mean a whole new computer would actually be a cheaper alternative. However, before you dig out the credit cards, there are some things to check because that seemingly dead board may, in fact, be okay. In this article, I’ll show you how to diagnose motherboard problems and some alternatives to replacing a broken board. What Is a Motherboard? For people who didn’t grow up building computers and who haven’t learned the architecture of these ubiquitous machines, let’s have a brief tutorial about the components of a personal computer and where the motherboard fits into the scheme. Conceptually...

  1) How to diagnose the exact component failure on the faulty motherboard? Obviously, a burn mark is a dead give away sign, but what to do if there are no visual signs? Do you poke around with a multimeter? With what voltage settings and how do you know what to look for ? For the same you need to know the power sequence of the motherboard, it will help you to find out the missing voltage on the motherboard. 2) Is it usually a bad capacitor or its a circuit shorting ? Bad capacitor seems to think so when it usually beeps with ground . Typically each and every capacitor in laptop motherboard is for filtering or coupling purpose, but if it seems to be giving beep sound with the ground we need to check the sequence of that particular section to find out the root cause as most of the times its because of bad connection/ circuit shorting. 3) How to perform the component level repair? So you’ve found the bad capacitor or component on the motherboard, so now you need to sol...