

There are some easy troubleshooting steps you can take to determine if your motherboard is going bad. That being said, here are some things you can try first to ensure the problem is with your motherboard instead of another hardware component. There aren’t usually any real signs of failure, other than your computer suddenly turning into an expensive doorstop.Ī hard drive might give you signs of failure, such as blue screens or lost files, but a motherboard will just suddenly stop working. Motherboards are historically the most difficult pieces of hardware to diagnose because, in most cases, you have to rule out every other piece of hardware that is connected to it. Burning smell or burn marks anywhere on the motherboard itself.Motherboard doesn’t POST ( Power On Self Test).Computer won’t recognize flash drives, or monitor sometimes shows strange lines (particularly relevant if you have onboard video on your motherboard).Slow boot-ups could indicate that your motherboard is going bad, though it could be other components as well (more on this below).Peripherals will stop working for a few seconds or more.Motherboard doesn’t recognize/show peripherals.Here are some things to look out for with your motherboard: If your computer starts to develop issues there are some early warning signs that a part is going bad (most of the time). Conceptually as well as physically, computers have three basic kinds of components: the processor, the storage (memory and permanent storage as well), and the input/output (I/O) system. What Is a Motherboard?įor 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. In this article, I’ll show you how to diagnose motherboard problems and some alternatives to replacing a broken board.

However, before you dig out the credit cards, there are some things to check because that seemingly dead board may, in fact, be okay. 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. Unfortunately, they’re also one of the most problematic computer components to repair or replace. If your computer suddenly (or not so suddenly) stops working, it’s possible the issue is the motherboard.
