What's The Best Way to Test a Motherboard?

[pcrepairtech]

I would like to know the best way to test a motherboard for faults and how you use those tests to repair them.

I have a couple laptop motherboards that show now signs of life i would really like to find out what the source of the problem's are.

The DC jack's seem fine and are intact, there are no signs of liquid spill either.

Its all one big mystery to me???

All comments and help would be much appriciated.

Thanks Conner.

 

[phaZed]

There is not much to test unfortunately, get a multimeter and test various IC's and components to see if power is being applied. The problem with Laptop MOBO's is that everything is so small and nondescript for the most part. many different devices can come in the same "package" too. Many times the power mosfets near the power jack get screwed in which case you can test with a multimeter with diode testing capability.

The other way to check is to apply power from a power supply that DOES NOT turn off when a fault is present. This usually will cause the failed component to get really hot so that you can identify it with the "ouch my finger" method, but could damage the board even further (But hey, it's not working anyways right?).

 

[pcrepairtech]

Great advice thou ive never used a multi meter before. Do you know anywhere i can get instructions and advice on how to use one?

Cheers.

Conner

 

[Encrypted Existence]

Great advice thou ive never used a multi meter before. Do you know anywhere i can get instructions and advice on how to use one?

Cheers.

Conner

PC Guide

You can most definitely find instructions on how to use a multi meter on Google or Youtube. Good luck.

 

[Larry Sabo]

See the "In too deep" blog for some very helpful info on MB repair. See "All about circuits" for an introduction to electronics theory and testing. "Hardware Forums" might also be of interest, particularly the sub-forum on CPUs, Motherboards and Memory. Good luck!

 

[NETWizz]

You can't test a motherboard at the component level effectively. I am not saying a diode test wouldn't work or anything like that. I am just saying that you won't be able to fix it even if you know what is wrong with it.

That said, I know some people have replaced capacitors with success, but they knew what was wrong and had the ability to solder multi-layer boards and the proper components and techniques.

 

[pcrepairtech]

thanks again for your help this forum is so handy man

 

[PC-Man]

You can easily certified that a motherboard is dead by simply following the correct diagnostics and the nature of the problem. I would not need any hardware aided instrument or tester to know that the board is dead. Even if you use a special hardware tester and the test result shows that one or more capacitors have failed. I bet it will be easier and cheaper to replace the whole board.

 

[atlanticjim]

You can easily certified that a motherboard is dead by simply following the correct diagnostics and the nature of the problem.

I decided a long time ago that I am not a component level repair guy.
If a hardware diagnoses does not reveal a failure in powersupply, memory, CPU, separate video card anything attached to the motherboard (eg: USB ports) then the problem must, by exclusion, be the mobo and it gets replaced.

Just another reason that I do charge a diagnostic fee. Many times a mobo replacement is prohibitively expensive and I never want to return the broken computer and get nothing for my time and expertise.

 

[MobileTechie]

Even the big electronics shops that do mobo repair are limited in what they really do (as opposed to what they say they can do). If it's not a GPU fault, short or a handful or other causes, they often cannot find or repair mobo faults either. I know this because I've spend far too much money on couriers sending them boards they cannot fix or even tell me what is wrong. I think they get to know just a few common faults and how to diagnose them, everything else takes too much time and they don't bother.

They have a lot of kit and experienced electronics engineers. The rest of us have little or no chance of diagnosing or fixing anything other than visibly evident or obvious faults.

I've looked into getting training for this and, for me at least, it's not worth it. You're certainly not going to get anywhere poking at it with a multimeter.

BTW soldering multi-layer boards is not actually that hard. It makes little difference for most component swaps since they are just soldered to the surface you can see. If you can see a faulty diode or a burned IC, and you can handle some SMD soldering then you can do it. I've removed and replaced tiny components with hot air and it's surprisingly easy if you use enough flux, have a steady hand and some tweezers. Having said that, the last time I tried it the part got squeezed out of the tweezers, shot across the room and I lost it!

 

[BCS Head Tech]

I would like to know the best way to test a motherboard for faults and how you use those tests to repair them.

I have a couple laptop motherboards that show now signs of life i would really like to find out what the source of the problem's are.

The DC jack's seem fine and are intact, there are no signs of liquid spill either.

Its all one big mystery to me???

All comments and help would be much appriciated.

Thanks Conner.

Hello, a lot of what PhaZed said are true. But some things he said, I disagree with and we work on these types of faults every day. The two pieces of equipment he stated to use are correct, there are couple of others. However, you can find and trace faults with experience and learn to know what to look for. One of the guys who does part of our training for "Component Level repair" formerly worked for NASA(doing component Level Repair), and learning laptops takes item no matter what industry you came from. the component in a laptop like cell phones are cutting edge technology. With the proper equipment you can fix issues most of the time unless something is burned between one of the several layers of the board. But even some of those can be fixed as well depending where they are at.

Hope this helps.