Motherboard Repair

[tonyg101]

Hello out there to everyone. I'm presently on a quest to understand the basics of how motherboards work and intereact, with most, if not all of there various components. With the ultimate aim of being able to diagnose problems and repair them if possible.

I am also interested in Computer Monintor, TV and VCR repairs as well as CD-Rom drives & DVD ROM etc. I am not adverse to buying good informative tutorial books for the beginner if anyone has any recommendations of book titles, however websites that offer some tutorials on the basics of any of the topics I've mentioned above would be greatly appreciated.

Anxiously awaiting your replies.

[ixl]

Originally posted by tonyg101:
Hello out there to everyone. I'm presently on a quest to understand the basics of how motherboards work and intereact, with most, if not all of there various components. With the ultimate aim of being able to diagnose problems and repair them if possible.

Hello Tony, welcome to the forums!

I am also interested in Computer Monintor, TV and VCR repairs as well as CD-Rom drives & DVD ROM etc. I am not adverse to buying good informative tutorial books for the beginner if anyone has any recommendations of book titles, however websites that offer some tutorials on the basics of any of the topics I've mentioned above would be greatly appreciated.

The actual fact of the matter is that today, few components are repaired. Hardware continues to get cheaper and cheaper, and labor keeps getting more expensive. A motherboard costs about $100 and is extremely integrated with complex parts. Therefore, it rarely makes any sense to try to repair one.

Though a bit out of date now (working on it) my Reference section discusses motherboards in fair detail. Also check out http://www.motherboards.org ... for books, I think Bigelow's troubleshooting book is pretty good.

------------------
Charles M. Kozierok ( ixlubb@PCGuide.com )
Webslave, The PC Guide
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...

[Rossgr]

Charles, I am with you on this. Generally it will be one of the ICs that fails on the Mobo. Surface mount devices are dificult to remove the on a onez, twoz basis the component cost will rival the cost of a new mobo. If there is a significant trouble, troubleshooting time will have to be several hours, again you are looking at labor costs near the new cost of the board.

I am an experianced electronics tech, recently I got a "good deal" on a CPU off of ebay, when I plugged it into my mobo one of the onboard voltage regulator chips began smoking , I tried to remove it but was not sucessfull. Why? The way they make mobos is to screen on solder paste, then use "pick and place" robots to place the surface mount components. This 3 pin device had its heat sink soldered down(3/8 in sq surface) my soldering iron, designed for surface mount work, was not able to heat up the part enough to break it loose. If I would have had a big enough iron I would have toasted the board getting the chip off. These guys are not built to be repaired.

[ixl]

Yeah, I believe they call the process "wave soldering". I saw the machines that made boards one time, I think at a DEC plant about 10 years ago. Pretty much impossible to work on those things...

------------------
Charles M. Kozierok ( ixlubb@PCGuide.com )
Webslave, The PC Guide
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...

[tonyg101]

Thanks you guys I hear where you are coming from. It was a thought at least. I would still like to look into it more to get a better understanding at the very least and maybe to learn and do abit of fault finding myself. Thanks for your feedback and I will definetly check out the links you suggested and continue my quest alittle bit wiser.

Thanks again.

[Paul Reid]

...on a quest to understand the basics of how motherboards work ultimate aim of being able to diagnose problems and repair them if possible.

As others say: diagnosis takes more time than the board is worth, parts are often custom, and repair is too darn hard. The factories in China turn out mobos at fantasticly low prices, because they build one, order a truck-load of parts, and then show low-paid workers how to do it over and over.

And despite the low prices, mobos very rarely fail unless you are clumsy. That too is an amazing achievement.

I note that you seem to be in New Zeeland, which may make a difference. In the US and in Europe, it is clearly cheapest to give a board a 10-second look for an easy fix, then throw it away. And if the board is more than a few months old, a new mobo may have better features. But NZ is a bit far out on the trading routes, and I've heard comments from NZ about how much PC parts cost.

I've been soldering for 40 years and I don't think I ever found anything on a mobo that I could "fix" except the fuse near the keyboard. Even those have become too small for my eyes to see lately. If I find a cracked socket, I figure I'd have to buy special soldering fixtures and spend all day at it. Even at my low pay, I can buy a new mobo instead of breathing solder fumes until my eyes sting.

The key to PC repair is to know which major assembly is bad (mobo, cable, drive power supply, even the case can be bad) and get a replacement in there that won't give trouble down the road.

Oh-- I did do a hardware hack last week. I was (barely!) able to pull the regulator off a mobo and mount it on a bigger heatsink. That let me run a K6-2/350 in a mobo made to support 166MHz. However, I can't be sure my solder joints in the multi-layer board are going to hold up; and even with a bigger sink I'm running the regulator far too close to its rating. It may all go up in smoke when I need it most.

-PRR

[cognitive]

Originally posted by ixl:

Hello Tony, welcome to the forums!

The actual fact of the matter is that today, few components are repaired. Hardware continues to get cheaper and cheaper, and labor keeps getting more expensive. A motherboard costs about $100 and is extremely integrated with complex parts. Therefore, it rarely makes any sense to try to repair one.

Though a bit out of date now (working on it) my Reference section discusses motherboards in fair detail. Also check out http://www.motherboards.org ... for books, I think Bigelow's troubleshooting book is pretty good.

Check out this book: "Upgrading and Repairing PCs "(with CD-ROM)
by Scott Mueller. Goes over almost all components of pc. It is a great learning tool.