Motherboard Problems

Without the use of diagnostic equipment, if you are certain - and can verify - that all other components attached to the motherboard are good and compatible with each other, and the computer still malfunctions (or doesn't work at all), then you could safely assume that the motherboard is the faulty component.

Maxwell

There are many possibilities here. There are diagnostic hardware and software solutions depending on what problem you're facing. The critical thing you need to do is see if your system will post. If not, the thing to do is remove extraneous devices (unhook everything you don't need to just get to the CMOS screen). If after getting rid of everything, you still can't post, then you need to troubleshoot each of the fewe remaining devices (video, ram, etc). You may want to consider removing the MB from the case and setting it on a non-conductive surface (the box it came in will do)so you don't face any weird grounding issues. Then it's time to troubleshoot.

A good place to start is your motherboard manufacturers web site and the board manual if you have it.

Here are a couple of web sites that may assist also (delete any spaces in the URLs):

http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/mbsys/

http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/tutorials/91/1/

http://venus.spaceports.com/~canada/webhq/testing.html

Hope this helps. If you give us some more details about what is or *isn't* happening maybe we can tell more.

Most motherboards make a single beep at the end of the post process.

If this is an ATX motherboard, if the power supply turns on, most of the motherboard functions.

Typical causes of a board appearing dead include:
Incompatable memory

Poorly seated plug-in cards

Clear CMOS jumper set to clear

CMOS not cleared after flashing the BIOS

Drive cables backwards

Bad CMOS backup battery causing BIOS settings to be corrupt.

A bad plug-in card

Chas