Motherboard Repair: ATX, MATX, or Mini-ITX? Find Out What Beats the Competition
Anyone interested in building and repairing computers will eventually encounter a situation where they’ll need some understanding of motherboards. For example, a computer has altogether ceased responding. You’ve pinpointed the source of the problem, and it’s the motherboard. But can it be repaired? How much do you know about these things?
The situation can undoubtedly feel overwhelming if you’re inexperienced with motherboard repair. After all, the motherboard is a crucial component that can render an entire build meaningless. However, whether or not you can breathe new life into your old motherboard again depends on the type of motherboard and the extent of the damage.
What Causes a Motherboard to Fail?
When you pinpoint a faulty motherboard, you probably still feel confused unless you’re an expert. How could this happen? The most common sources of failed motherboards are excess electrical shock or heat. Sometimes a motherboard may fail due to physical damage. That said, a motherboard can go bad for various reasons. Some motherboard dangers remain inescapable, while others can vary in likelihood depending on your computer model.
Detecting what’s wrong with your motherboard can be challenging since most computer components in a build are plugged into the motherboard. When you experience trouble with your video output, the motherboard or video card could represent the culprit. The good news is that you can look for specific indicators that your failure is a motherboard failure.
Signs of a Failed Motherboard
Your system may randomly power down, or your computer could start up normally, but you cannot see a live image appearing on your screen. Moreover, specific motherboard components may work normally while others continue to give you problems.
The easiest method to determine a failure in motherboard repair is to conduct a simple bench test. However, you will require a second computer, extra components, or specialized tools. The bench test method will help you determine the potential causes that lead to the symptoms of motherboard failure.
If your system shuts down randomly, this could be a motherboard failure. The problem could also appear due to an issue with your power supply or connecting cables. A smart move is to take a “known good” component and insert it into your build. If the problem persists after you make the change, you know that this component is not the cause of system instability.
Similarly, suppose you face an issue where your desktop computer powers up but will not display an active screen. In that case, you can move your video card to a secondary, working desktop to determine if the video card is the cause of the problem. Then, use a good video card from the working computer in the motherboard of the problem device. Swapping these components will help you to determine if the video card causes your issue or the motherboard itself.
Although the method above is not a foolproof desktop computer motherboard repair, the bench test remains an effective analysis tool to help determine the source issue.
Laptop Motherboards
Laptop motherboard repair leads to some unique challenges, even when the component doesn’t appear significantly damaged. The difficulty is mainly because, unlike desktop computers, laptop CPUs, GPUs, and memory are almost always soldered to the motherboard. When facing an issue with a potentially damaged laptop motherboard, users may need to repair and replace other components to get the device working correctly again.
Although laptop motherboards typically stay cleaner than their desktop counterparts, they also face increased heat exposure since they have a smaller case and less efficient cooling compared to a desktop computer motherboard. Users are also more likely to travel with or regularly move a laptop, potentially exposing them to physical damage and heat issues.
When a laptop doesn’t power on at all, it could need a laptop motherboard repair. Unfortunately, many laptop owners simply assume they need an entirely new laptop before calling a motherboard repair expert like our team from Advance Technology Solutions.
There are numerous circumstances where an expert can replace or repair the motherboard without replacing various other components. Laptop motherboard repair and replacement could save you a significant amount of money in the process.
Do You Have an Issue with Your Laptop Motherboard?
- Your computer boots slowly.
- The monitor flickers, freezes unexpectedly, or displays lines on the screen.
- Flash drives and other USB components fail to initialize
- You saw a blue screen of death error
Desktop Computer Motherboards
The computer’s motherboard serves as the central hub of any computer. Everything the computer does, from working with peripheral devices to sending a video signal to your monitor, depends on the motherboard working with your other components.
Reliably isolating motherboard issues takes a careful process of elimination, time, and expertise from a professional. Desktop computer motherboard repair is also involved because you must remove all connected components and strip a computer before analyzing and replacing the part.
A computer motherboard is a complicated part of virtually every electronic device we use today. Several variables can damage or end the life of a computer’s motherboard.
You Can’t Pick Just Any Motherboard
Motherboard repair and replacement are challenging. Before ordering replacement parts to repair your computer or before you replace the motherboard, you must ensure the new equipment is compatible with your device’s existing hardware. The wrong type of motherboard or incompatible hardware can lead to even more problems when attempting to boot up the device again.
Form factors ATX, Micro ATX (MATX), and Mini ITX vary in size, RAM capacity, PCI express, and price. While users will experience no problems swapping motherboard manufacturers, you must ensure your new motherboard closely matches the old one.
Folding@home
Folding@home is a volunteer, distributed computing project that simulates protein folding, computational drug design, and types of molecular dynamics. The project uses and depends on idle personal computer resources owned by volunteers worldwide. Folding is the medical term for the protein processes interacting with one another.
Users can run folding on virtually any CPU and various graphic hardware. However, those that want to contribute more significantly to medical science often build dedicated folding rigs.
Folding rigs require motherboards that utilize multiple PCI-E slots. GPUs run individual folding clients and require less bandwidth than video editing, streaming, and gaming. Those looking to build folding rigs have a broader range of motherboards than building gaming devices.
For Folding@home, users must choose a suitable motherboard for their needs. Although they may not need the ideal gaming motherboard, Mini ITX motherboards only provide a single PCIe slot. MATX boards don’t allow multi-GPU setups, necessitating a more advanced ATX setup (and price point) for the best return on investment.
Repairing or Replacing Your Bad Motherboard
Hardware diagnostic and repair can be a pain for many desktop and laptop computer owners. Modern electronics often have too much going on inside their cases for moderately experienced users to diagnose and repair efficiently.
Nonetheless, a motherboard repair expert like Advance Technology Solutions has the experience and training to administer an accurate diagnosis and make repairs like replacing capacitors, changing GPUs and power supply units, swapping out faulty RAM and other components, or flashing motherboard BIOS when necessary.
Advance Technology Solutions can replace or repair your laptop motherboard, alleviating any worry about whether or not your device will run again. To learn more about laptop motherboard repair or desktop computer motherboard repair from our expert technicians, contact Advance Technology solutions today for additional information.
