Remember that troubleshooting your computer it’s just like playing the game “Clue” you need to eliminate the suspects in order to find the culprit. Keep in mind that it’s very rare for a motherboard to fail especially if it’s a good motherboard, so try every troubleshooting available.
Reasons a motherboard fails
A Motherboard can fail for a number of reasons:
- Electricity and voltage spikes
- Dust
- smoke
- Age
- Fan failure or heating issues
- Force or pressure
If you live in a place with a lot of voltage spikes, I suggest you get a voltage regulator outlet or a backup (this usually comes with this feature) and will prolong your motherboard life over time. Clean your fans at least once a year even if you live in a clean place, dust can play a significant part in hardware failures, from fans not working to hardware connectors not working well because of dust.
Motherboard failures can be similar to the ones the power supply has
- Everything powers on but you can’t see a live screen
- Computer turns on for just a few seconds then turns off
- Some peripherals work others don’t
- System shuts off randomly
What is the sign of the failing hard drive?
- Slowing Down Computer, Frequent Freezes, Blue Screen Of Death
- Corrupted Data
- Accumulation Of Bad Sectors
- Strange Sounds
- S.M.A.R.T. Data
Symptoms of a Failing Power Supply
Power Supplies more often than not, just don’t give any warnings that they are going to quit on you, however sometimes before they kick the bucket they may do one or more of the following:
- Noises: Strange noises may emit from the back of the computer case where the computer power cord is located.
- When the computer is turned on, nothing happens. Sometimes this may co-inside with a flashing light on the front of the computer, or an indicator on the back of the PSU (if equipped.)
- Computer turns on for a couple of seconds and then turns right back off. While this can be a power supply issue, often it can be easily confused with motherboard failures.
- Computer is on for a while, but maybe while playing a game or other application, the computer will just randomly turn off without warning, or possibly a blue screen of death.
Symptoms of a Failing graphic card
A graphics card, also known as a graphics adapter, video card or graphics accelerator, handles the processing of images for your computer. Of all the components inside a computer, the graphics card is one of the most likely to fail. Graphics cards have to work very hard, particularly if you play a lot of high-end computer games. When they begin to fail, they can cause a range of symptoms that are sometimes difficult to figure out.
- Animation Slowing Down
- Incorrect Pixels
- Wavy Lines
- Fuzzy Picture
- Black Screen
- Other Artifacts
Symptoms of a Failure Processor
- Computer turns on, no beeps, no screen. Does not POST (Power-On Self Test)
- Computer turns on, fans run at highest speeds, still no POST, and not operating system loading.
- Computer powers on, but turns off immediately.
- In Windows (or any other o.s.) screen freezes after being on for a few minutes, in some cases the screen may freeze during the load screen of the o.s. , a.k.a. the Windows logo screen.
- System halt errors (famously known as blue screen of death) that calls out the processor as an issue.