Motherboard Troubleshooting
Motherboard Troubleshooting
It is the physical arrangement in a computer that contains the computer's basic circuitry and components. On the typical motherboard, the circuitry is imprinted or affixed to the surface of a firm planar surface and usually manufactured in a single step. The most common motherboard design in desktop computers today is the AT, based on the IBM AT motherboard. A more recent motherboard specification, ATX, improves on the AT design. In both the AT and ATX designs, the computer components included in the motherboard are:
Additional components can be added to a motherboard through its expansion slot. The electronic interface between the motherboard and the smaller boards or cards in the expansion slots is called the bus.
Motherboard Definition Source:
http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci212594,00.html
The Microprocessor and the ROM BIOS are the two major components that are responsible for the problems that are generated for the system board, large number of the hardware failure symptoms that are associated with the system board,Symptoms associated with system board failure are the following.
This are the System Board Problem...
1. The system locks up during working
2. DMA error message occurs
3 Current time and time disappear or changed
4. The system produces a one long beep and 3 short beeps..
5. Low CMOS battery message appears.
6. A Parity check message appears which also indicates the RAM error.
7. CMOS checksum failure message appears
8. A 201 error message appears which indicates the RAM failure.
9. The On/Off indicator lights of the system are working, hard drive is also spinning up but there is no boot up starts.
10. The On/Off lights are working and there is also a display on the monitor but the hard disk doesn’t starts up and no system boot ups occur.
The Motherboard is the central piece that all the other components connect (or eventually connect) to.
It is the physical arrangement in a computer that contains the computer's basic circuitry and components. On the typical motherboard, the circuitry is imprinted or affixed to the surface of a firm planar surface and usually manufactured in a single step. The most common motherboard design in desktop computers today is the AT, based on the IBM AT motherboard. A more recent motherboard specification, ATX, improves on the AT design. In both the AT and ATX designs, the computer components included in the motherboard are:
- The microprocessor
- (Optionally) coprocessors
- Memory
- basic input/output system (BIOS)
- Expansion slot
- Interconnecting circuitry
Additional components can be added to a motherboard through its expansion slot. The electronic interface between the motherboard and the smaller boards or cards in the expansion slots is called the bus.
Motherboard Definition Source:
http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci212594,00.html
The Microprocessor and the ROM BIOS are the two major components that are responsible for the problems that are generated for the system board, large number of the hardware failure symptoms that are associated with the system board,Symptoms associated with system board failure are the following.
This are the System Board Problem...
1. The system locks up during working
2. DMA error message occurs
3 Current time and time disappear or changed
4. The system produces a one long beep and 3 short beeps..
5. Low CMOS battery message appears.
6. A Parity check message appears which also indicates the RAM error.
7. CMOS checksum failure message appears
8. A 201 error message appears which indicates the RAM failure.
9. The On/Off indicator lights of the system are working, hard drive is also spinning up but there is no boot up starts.
10. The On/Off lights are working and there is also a display on the monitor but the hard disk doesn’t starts up and no system boot ups occur.
Configuration Problems
The configuration problems are most basic problem specially when there is some new installation has been performed on the system. The values and configurations that are stored in the CMOS largely control the configurations. Incorrect CMOS values results in most hardware failure.
RAM Errors
RAM is the most easy to repair in the the system board.RAM failure categorized into the following two categories.
Soft-memory errors: Soft memory errors are the errors that are caused by the infrequent glitches in the operation of the system. These errors can be controlled just by restarting the system.
Hard-memory errors: Hard memory errors are the permanent physical errors and that requires that memory units should be checked properly and replaced.
Soft-memory errors: Soft memory errors are the errors that are caused by the infrequent glitches in the operation of the system. These errors can be controlled just by restarting the system.
Hard-memory errors: Hard memory errors are the permanent physical errors and that requires that memory units should be checked properly and replaced.
Microprocessors Troubleshooting
You can hear a slow beep sound or no display occurs at the monitor screen when a Microprocessor failed. Some internal hardware or configuration errors have stopped the microprocessor’s internal circuitry to work. The best solution for the microprocessor’s problems is to replace it with a new one. If the system locks up for a continuous few minutes, this means that the fan of the microprocessor or the internal cooling mechanism is not working properly. You should replace the fan of the microprocessor to provide it continuous cooling.
ROM BIOS Setup Erros
A damaged ROM can stop the system completely. If the system board is dead, first examine the BIOS chip for any kind of physical damage. If the BIOS chip is heated up, look for a crack. Check also the Boot-up, bootup sequence automatically moves into the CMOS configuration display, replace the faulty BIOS chip with another one, which matches according to your system’s configurations. Another cause of the system’s failure is the CMOS battery malfunction. If the system fails to display the current time and date, the reason for this is the faulty CMOS battery and the only solution for this is to replace the battery with the new one. In case the battery is replaced, the configurations and settings in the CMOS chip are lost, the only method for the configuration is to access the CMOS battery and reconfigure the system.
There are many replacable components on a motherboard or system board such as RAM, ROM, CMOS battery and ROM BIOS. If any of these components functions improperly, you can replace the faulty components with the new components.
This Video Tutorial I pick for you is a Motherboard Diagnostic Flow Chart and a simple Motherboard Troubleshooting.
