Can motherboard be repaired? - Page 2

hjlavery · 14th Oct 2008, 07:57 AM

Keiichi, If you have only blown some Capacitors (basicly power regulators) it would probably be fixable, look at the little black cylinders with a white stripe down one side, if there are any that are leaking or have a sooty deposit on them they could be the problem.

On the other hand if you have a dead Northbridge or southbridge chip (the large black squares with a lot of pins comming out of them) it is going to be almost impossible to source a replacement part.

There are also a bunch of other surface mount parts that can fail, but I wouldnt think that they would cause a total system failer.

If you do have a dead capacitor or surface mount part any good TV or electronics repair person should be able to replace it, if it is one of the chips you MIGHT be able to find a specialist PC repairer who can fix it, but I don't think it would be likely.

Hope that helps

Stargazer2112 · 21st Oct 2008, 09:42 AM

Fifty to sixty percent motherboard defects involve power regulation circuits, specially the processor ones, which, fortunatelly, are made of generic components, available for purchase and easy to remove and replace, like eletrolitic capacitors and transistors.
When I started with computers, back in the Cretaceous period, we use to fix everithing, but nowadays most of the control logic is on the chipset, the north and south bridges. This litlle monsters you can't buy and even if you could, it would take a very expensive equipment to remove this SMD beasts, not to mention the skills.
Good luck.

trueg50 · 24th Oct 2008, 02:51 AM

I would have to say that unless you have obvious blown Capacitors, then you really can't do much.

Though if your board is that old, it could be a bunch of blown Caps.

Look around for the black or orange striped Caps, and see if any are bulging up, or if any have popped and have oozed some rust color stuff.

starboykb · 24th Oct 2008, 09:10 AM

i repaired mine couple time (on blown up capacitors) for five years but i have to say its not worth because it will eventually causes other components damage too and stablility issue which is not repairable. Like other said, best to get a new motherboard, ram and CPU.

NArkshaRK · 25th Nov 2008, 05:52 AM

There's not much we can say other than "maybe it could be fixed, maybe not".

I've ordered replacement capacitors before (ebay) on a hunch that they were the only item stopping a motherboard from working properly. After a couple hours of careful soldering and a lot of swearing, everything worked fine. There might have been other problems but I suppose I got lucky. Could you do this same procedure? "Maybe". Did you LAN card have some kind of perpetual electrical problem. It's possible.

14th Oct 2008, 07:57 AM	#11 (permalink)
hjlavery Just Started Join Date: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Sydney, AU Posts: 40 Reputation: 62 Rep Power: 0	Keiichi, If you have only blown some Capacitors (basicly power regulators) it would probably be fixable, look at the little black cylinders with a white stripe down one side, if there are any that are leaking or have a sooty deposit on them they could be the problem. On the other hand if you have a dead Northbridge or southbridge chip (the large black squares with a lot of pins comming out of them) it is going to be almost impossible to source a replacement part. There are also a bunch of other surface mount parts that can fail, but I wouldnt think that they would cause a total system failer. If you do have a dead capacitor or surface mount part any good TV or electronics repair person should be able to replace it, if it is one of the chips you MIGHT be able to find a specialist PC repairer who can fix it, but I don't think it would be likely. Hope that helps __________________ Laptop: Asus A6KM \| Gaming PC: Athlon X2 4400+, 2GB DDR2 800, 1TB hard disks, 22" Widescreen LCD, Logictec MX700 \| File Server: 12TB hard disks, Q6600, 2Gb CORSAIR DOMINATOR DDR2 XMS2-8500 RAM, GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS4, Geforce 8500, Lian-Li v2100+, 19" Widescreen LCD

21st Oct 2008, 09:42 AM	#12 (permalink)
Stargazer2112 Newbie Join Date: 21 Oct 2008 Posts: 3 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	For sure! Fifty to sixty percent motherboard defects involve power regulation circuits, specially the processor ones, which, fortunatelly, are made of generic components, available for purchase and easy to remove and replace, like eletrolitic capacitors and transistors. When I started with computers, back in the Cretaceous period, we use to fix everithing, but nowadays most of the control logic is on the chipset, the north and south bridges. This litlle monsters you can't buy and even if you could, it would take a very expensive equipment to remove this SMD beasts, not to mention the skills. Good luck.

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24th Oct 2008, 02:51 AM	#13 (permalink)
trueg50 Newbie Join Date: 24 Oct 2008 Posts: 8 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	I would have to say that unless you have obvious blown Capacitors, then you really can't do much. Though if your board is that old, it could be a bunch of blown Caps. Look around for the black or orange striped Caps, and see if any are bulging up, or if any have popped and have oozed some rust color stuff.

24th Oct 2008, 09:10 AM	#14 (permalink)
starboykb Getting there Join Date: 6 Oct 2008 Location: Brunei earth Posts: 158 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 2	i repaired mine couple time (on blown up capacitors) for five years but i have to say its not worth because it will eventually causes other components damage too and stablility issue which is not repairable. Like other said, best to get a new motherboard, ram and CPU.

25th Nov 2008, 05:52 AM	#15 (permalink)
NArkshaRK Newbie Join Date: 20 Nov 2008 Posts: 11 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	There's not much we can say other than "maybe it could be fixed, maybe not". I've ordered replacement capacitors before (ebay) on a hunch that they were the only item stopping a motherboard from working properly. After a couple hours of careful soldering and a lot of swearing, everything worked fine. There might have been other problems but I suppose I got lucky. Could you do this same procedure? "Maybe". Did you LAN card have some kind of perpetual electrical problem. It's possible.