Lesson 6 Chapter 5 - Troubleshooting Motherboards

Question 1

What are the 3 symptoms of motherboard failure?

Answer 1

1. Catastrophic Failure
2. Component Failure
3. Ethereal

Question 2

What is burn-in failure? How common is it? (2)

Answer 2

Brand new PC system won’t boot due to manufacturing defects (uncommon, happens within first 30 days of use)

Question 3

How do you troubleshoot a possible catastrophic failure? (motherboard failure)

2 steps

Answer 3

1. Power and hard drive lights on the front of PC worked before but are off now points to PSU failure or motherboard failure
2. Swap out motherboard

Question 4

What led to capacitor swelling? (on A+ exam)

Answer 4

In the mid-2000s, suppliers of capacitors released incorrectly formulated ones which in turn caused a lot of dead PCs due to capacitor swelling

Question 5

What are capacitors?

Answer 5

Devices that store and release energy

Question 6

How does component failure appear as? How common is it? (3)

Answer 6

1. There is an inconsistent/flaky connection between a device and the motherboard
2. Or shows up as intermittent problems
3. Happens rarely

Question 7

What’s an example of component failure?

Answer 7

A hard drive can show up in BIOS/UEFI but if it’s plugged into a faulty controller on the motherboard it won’t be accessible in Windows

Question 8

What is ethereal in terms of types of motherboard failure symptoms?

Answer 8

Issues that are harder to diagnose, stuff just doesn’t work all the time

Question 9

What’s a 3-part troubleshooting technique that’s useful for both simple and complicated motherboard problems? Use it in a hard drive issue example.

c, re, v

Answer 9

1. Check the settings on the hard drive
2. Replace the drive with another one
3. Verify that same drive is good by replacing the motherboard

Question 10

When dealing with ethereal issues, what’s an extra step you should add to the 3-part troubleshooting technique for motherboard issues?

Answer 10

Document! Document what solved it, what you tried, on what hardware

You don’t want to repeat the same things and waste time and documenting can help you notice any patterns that lead to the root of the problem

Question 11

How can we use POST in motherboard troubleshooting?

Answer 11

We can use POST in 2 forms:
1. Connect a POST card to the PCI/PCIe and check the diagnostic screen
2. Connect a POST card to a USB that enables us to use quick diagnostic tests (like laptops)

Question 12

What do you do if a motherboard is even remotely buggy or problematic?

Answer 12

Get rid of it

Question 13

You lose components due to a power surge or ESD, should you replace the motherboard too?

Answer 13

YES! Hidden damage can create system instability

Question 14

What can you do if you have a component failure that’s more technology-related, and an ethereal problem that’s determined to be motherboard-related? (Same answer)

Answer 14

Update the BIOS/UEFI (via installer package) or in other words, Flash the BIOS (reprogram by electrically erasing)