How to troubleshoot motherboard - repair guide and tips

The motherboard is the main circuit board inside your computer. Every components talks to each other through motherboard, either by directly plugging into it or by communicating through one of the motherboards ports. Its purpose is to provide a platform for all the other components and peripherals to communicate with each other.

The type of motherboards depends on the CPU it was designed for. You can therefore categories motherboards by which socket type they have. e.g. Socket A, Socket 478 etc. The Type of motherboard you buy is very important, as it will need to house your CPU, and they are not interchangeable. When buying a motherboard, it will always tell you what socket type it has.

Motherboards are one of the components to measure the speed of. Performance can only be measured by benchmarking using the same components in several motherboards of the same type. You often find that motherboards with the same chipset have roughly the same performance in real world tests. The minor differences that do occur are the quality of the materials used and the manufacturing.

The motherboards speeds that are quoted on the box are maximum supported speeds for other components. For example motherboards will quote the maximum FSB (Front Side Bus) speed. However without a CPU that also supports this speed, it will never be reached. Likewise when it quotes the maximum memory speed. The memory of this speed has to be present.

A motherboard chipset controls all the data that flows through the data channels (buses) of the motherboard. The primary function of the motherboard chipset is to direct this data to the correct area's of the motherboard, and therefore the correct components.

The motherboard contains many connections for all type of components. Motherboards contain expansion slots such as the ISA, PCI, AGP, and DIMM sockets. It also contains external connections for your onboard sound card, USB ports, Serial and Parallel ports, PS/2 ports for your keyboard and mouse as well as network and firewire connections.

So the motherboard plays an important role in the workings of your PC because components that you buy all rely on the motherboard. It is wise to buy a good motherboard if you plan to add more components in the future.

You should also know that AGP and PCIe are connected to the motherboard's northbridge (with a fast bus) and all the others are connected to pc's southbridge (with a slow bus).

Troubleshooting computer motherboard

1. Make sure the power supply is set to the correct voltage for your country. You can toggle the switch between 110 volts and 220 volts.

2. Check if the computer fan is working by feeling if the air coming out of the pc. If not, troubleshoot the power supply and replace it if necessary.

3. Make sure you do not have a motherboard standout in the wrong position and shorting out the bottom of the motherboard.

4. Check the loose metallic objects (loose screws) on top of or under the motherboard and in expansion board slots.

5. Check ISA, PCI slots and other components to make sure they are not got bent, broken, burnt and also make sure they are seated firmly.

6. Make sure the speaker is plugged into the motherboard so that you can hear beeps. Check our other section for error beep code troubleshooting.

7. Make sure the voltage CPU is set correctly.

8. Check the CMOS battery with a multi-meter. Should be around 3 volts (2.8 is ok). Make sure the CMOS battery jumper is in the correct position. You can also clear the CMOS by putting it into the clear position for a few minutes, put it back in the normal position, and plug in the power cord and push the power-on button. Warning: If you apply power to the motherboard with the jumper in the clear position you may damage the motherboard.

9. Pull all boards except video and disconnect all the cables going to drives, pull all the cables except power, power on, and speaker. If everything is ok at this moment, that is, no error beeping, you can add one deveice after another.

10. Check the monitor plug for bent or pushed-in pins and also the power cable and connect only the monitor.

11. Reseat the memory.

12. Check the CPU for bent pins.

13. Finally, you can pull the motherboard out of the case and install video, memory, CPU, power, and power on to see if it boots.