Troubleshooting methods for common hardware and software failures of motherboards

Motherboard is one of the basic parts of the computer, especially a bridge, shouldering the CPU, memory, hard disk, graphics and other equipment connection, its performance is directly related to the stable operation of the whole PC computer. In the daily life, we encountered the failure of the motherboard is not uncommon, common motherboard failures are generally the following: first, after the power of the battery can not be self-test, the computer can not start normally; the second is the interface damage on the motherboard, resulting in the detection of hard disk, optical drive and so on error; Many times, due to poor heat and other factors, it is also likely to lead to the north-south bridge chip burned, causing the motherboard completely scrapped. But in most cases the failure is not scary, mainly due to user carelessness. In this respect, the author deliberately analyzed the motherboard more common motherboard failure cases, I hope that we can learn to solve the motherboard failure ideas and methods.





first, let's take a look at the main reasons for the failure of the motherboard and how to judge it:





motherboard causes the failure, generally has three aspects: first, the component quality caused by the fault. This kind of fault in some inferior board is more common, the main point is the motherboard of a component due to its own quality problems and damage, leading to a part of the motherboard function can not be used normally, the system can not start normally, self-test process errors and so on.





II is the environment-induced failure. Due to the external environment caused by the fault, generally refers to people in the unknown situation or unpredictable, irresistible circumstances caused. such as lightning, mains power supply instability, it may directly damage the motherboard, in this case, people generally have no way to prevent, the external environment caused by another situation, is due to temperature, humidity and dust caused by the fault. The symptoms of this situation are: Frequent crashes, reboots or sometimes can not boot, and so on, resulting in unstable performance of the machine.





Three is a man-made fault. Some friends, computer operation Knowledge knows less, in the operation does not pay attention to the operation of norms and safety, so some parts of the computer will cause damage. such as live Plug and pull equipment and board, installation equipment and board when the excessive force, resulting in equipment interface, chip and board, such as damage or deformation, which caused the failure.





when a computer fails, we first have to judge the source of the fault, especially such as the motherboard of the larger equipment, the external performance can not be very clear to judge the source of the fault, here will need to use replacement to examine the source of the breakdown in detail. You can take the suspected parts to a good computer to try, but also can put the good parts to the faulty computer to try. Such as: There is a self-test times wrong or capacity is not correct, you can use this method to determine the real culprit causing the failure.





when the motherboard is identified as a failure, we can further troubleshooting the motherboard and processing. In general, we can deal with the motherboard through cleaning method, observation method and software diagnosis method.





first is the cleaning method. When we find that there is too much dust on the motherboard, we need to clean the motherboard first. Due to the motherboard dust too much, coupled with dust adsorption in the air moisture, it is very easy to cause the motherboard does not work correctly, the use of brush to clear the dust on the motherboard. In addition, the motherboard is generally connected with a lot of external board cards, these cards of the gold fingers may be oxidized, resulting in contact with the motherboard is not good, this problem can be wiped off the surface of the oxide layer.





Two is the observation method. The main use of "look, touch" skills. In the case of power off, to see whether the components are plugged in correctly, capacitance, resistance pins are in good contact with the surface of each component is burnt, cracking phenomenon, each circuit board of copper foil is burned traces. At the same time, you can use your hands to touch some of the surface of the chip to see if there is a very hot phenomenon.





Four is the restoration method. For motherboards that have changed the motherboard BIOS settings or CPU overclocking, we can troubleshoot some common failures by restoring the motherboard's default settings. In particular, the crash, restart the fault, usually due to the CPU after overclocking caused by the CPU to the default frequency after the general failure will disappear.





boot without display of troubleshooting. It is generally believed that the boot without display fault is the hardware caused, this view has a certain one-sidedness. In the maintenance of this type of failure, we generally should start from the point of view of the soft fault to solve the problem. When the power-on, if the power LED is not lit, you should generally suspect that the external power supply is not good or power problems. If the power-on power indicator light is on but not shown, this situation should generally be in the following order to troubleshoot:





one is through the motherboard of the jumper (generally in the CMOS battery next to the specific location can refer to the motherboard instructions) to clear the motherboard on the original CMOS settings and then boot.





the second is to reinstall the CPU and then boot.





the computer hardware into the smallest system and then boot.





After the above three steps, if the boot is still not displayed, you can unplug the memory in the smallest system. If the power-on alarm, then the motherboard should not be too big problem. The suspect focus of the failure should be placed on other devices. If you unplug the memory after the boot does not alarm, in general, the failure may be on the motherboard, at this time only to send the motherboard to professional repair point to repair.





The boot has a display but the self-test cannot pass the fault handling. When the boot is displayed but the self-test fails, such failures usually have error messages. When we troubleshoot this type of failure, we find out the fault point mainly according to the information. However, this type of failure is generally due to a part of the motherboard damage caused, most should belong to a hard fault, but also do not rule out the possibility of soft failure. For troubleshooting soft faults, we can follow the following sequence:





First, check the BIOS settings. This is primarily to check for failures caused by incorrect BIOS settings. First you can try to clear the CMOS to see if the failure disappears. The motherboard usually has the elimination of CMOS jumper, the specific location can refer to the motherboard instructions. You should also check that the settings in the BIOS do not match the actual configuration (such as disk parameters, memory type, CPU parameters, display type, temperature settings, boot order, and so on). Finally, the BIOS can be updated as needed to check if the failure disappears.





second is the inspection of the parts. This is primarily for inspection of all boards, connectors, and other connected devices connected to the motherboard. Check whether there is a short-circuit, the insertion method is correct, contact is good, you can plug to solve some of the problems. You should also check that the rear bezel of the part is appropriate, which can be checked by removing the rear bezel. There are also some parts that can be used for swapping slots and connecting heads.