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Thread: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

  1. #31
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    Stiil dofgy, and still the RAM is running faster than specified. Not as badly, but thats seriously uncool.

    You could try running memtest again to see if its still giving errors.

    If your memtest still comes back faulty, you could also try updating the BIOS. which can be extra fun now that upgrading from, you guessed it, windows, is the most common way these days.

    I have no idea if updating BIOS will work, hopefully it does, but I have this feeling that your motherboard has some serious fault.

    You can try RMAing it (Returned materials authorisation) but that can take weeks in my experience,a dn sometimes its not worth it (I've heard of 'known dodgy' boards being claimed to be fine, and being sent back with a technicians bill) If thats too long, you might have to get a new motherboard.

    If it makes you feel any better, think of it as a minor upgrade, if your running the onboard video on your current board, a 8200 (or even 8100 if you want the cheapest you can get) would be an upgrade on your current GPU.

    Maybe somebody else will have an idea.....but I'm fresh out, sorry.

    I hate dodgy hardware, I find it oddly depressing myself. Weird, considering how much time I end up playing with bad hardware, but hey, its $$$ for me (I fix peoples computers for cash).

  2. #32
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    When you say 8200, do you mean a Biostar TF8200, as opposed to my current TF7025? Google shows a Biostar TF8200 but it's not showing up when I search Amazon, Newegg or Tigerdirect.

    And I know what you mean about hardware failure resulting in feelings of unhappiness far beyond what one dead computer should rationally mean. I have to keep reminding myself to look at the big picture - I'm healthy, I'm otherwise happy, my car runs, and if mythtv had to be offline for a while, Christmastime is about as good a time as any, since TV is in reruns except for constant Crotchbomber coverage, and as cool as mythtv is, it isn't going to help me get tickets to see The Addams Family Musical or Avatar. I think the uncertainty that's the worst - if my computer popped up a screen saying "BUY A NEW MOTHERBOARD", I'd be briefly irate but overall a lot happier than this endless "Is this the problem? How'bout this?" that I'm going through.

  3. #33
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    I meant any microATX 8200 chipset board, like this one posted way before-

    Quote Originally Posted by Raistlin355 View Post
    Well as far as a new mobo your gonna get all kinds of suggestions, mine would be be (based on what you have typed above): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131318
    or a Gigabyte equivalent. However before you just start replacing stuff make sure to run the thorough tests that have been described here, all are good advise.
    You wont need to install a biostar board. Your current board has standard micro-atx mounting holes, etc, so any standard microATX will fit.

    BTW, the geforce 7025 that you have doesnt support VDPAU

    http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU#Supported_Cards

    The 8200 does.

    It should reduce your CPU use when watching stuff.

  4. #34
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    Biostar? In my limited experience, I haven't run across many good things said about Biostar's boards except they tend to be inexpensive. When I was building my computer a few months back I was looking at one and was warned away by many more experienced people since I was building my machine for longevity. I'm sure they work fine for many people, but...

    As with all hardware its sort of a crapshoot. I don't know anything about your budget, etc, but since it really seems like your RAM isn't the problem, you can get a high quality board for $70-90.

    I work in car parts, so I understand the frustration of "what if that doesn't fix it" but there's always a balance of "how much effort do I put into making 100% certain this is the problem" and "I'm fairly certain this is it, can I afford to eat $90 if it doesn't fix my problem?"

    Unless you can get it RMA'd under a warranty of some sort, I'd really suggest a different manufacturer like Gigabyte or Asus if replacement is the route you decide to go.
    Gigabyte GA-MA785G-UD3H motherboard, AMD Athalon II X2 2.8 dual core processor, 2gig Kingston DDR2800 RAM, 1 WD 640gig Caviar Green SATA drive

  5. #35
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by cascade9 View Post
    BTW, the geforce 7025 that you have doesnt support VDPAU

    http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU#Supported_Cards

    The 8200 does.
    beware the lower end of the 8000 series with ubuntu. I've had serious problems with TVOut on 83-8500 cards, so make sure if you want the more fancy features of the driver (like overscan control) that your card is fully supported. an 8800 seems to be well supported, largely due to how many of them are out there.

    Op, it's time for some new Kit. I would recomend abit(if you can find one), asus, or gigabyte for mobos. had quite a few biostar's die within 3 years.
    Things are rarely just crazy enough to work, but they're frequently just crazy enough to fail hilariously.

  6. #36
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    I've been in email contact with a techy friend of mine this morning and he had some good advice...

    Remove all the HDs and the TV tuner cards and try to boot from a LiveCD. Which worked, I'm looking at Slax right now. And then I imagine steps #2-#?? will be, try putting things back one at a time and see when the failure begins. So maybe this was a TV tuner card issue? Here's part of what I emailed to him:

    "When I was trying to reinstall a test system, I did find something weird. When setting up mythtv, not once but twice it crashed at the same spot - when I was first scanning for TV channels. Then I told it to forget about the first card and only use the second card, and it worked for a couple days like that, before flaking out again. So, maybe it's one of my TV tuner cards?"

    They're a pair of pcHDTV 5500's, btw.

  7. #37
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by cascade9 View Post
    I hate dodgy hardware, I find it oddly depressing myself. Weird, considering how much time I end up playing with bad hardware, but hey, its $$$ for me (I fix peoples computers for cash).
    Yeah, hardware is a fickle beast. I can't tell you how many times I've messed with testing faulty hardware. Even motherboards that I've been 100% sure had a short in them would work just fine for days then completely crap out with the slightest change.
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  8. #38
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    To me it sounds like bad ram. If I were you I'd change it out and make sure it has decent cooling. Every time I've experienced frequent crashes ( at least ones that didn't completely kill the machine) they have been caused by my ram overheating.

  9. #39
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    I also replaced the power supply a month or so ago, it's got 650 watts now so it ought to be good.
    I've replaced power supplies, brand new power supplies, because the voltages were not within spec, right from the factory. A new power supply is no guarantee that it is a good power supply.
    XFCE, From Now On!

  10. #40
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    Re: How to diagnose a bad motherboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by kcox5342 View Post
    I think the uncertainty that's the worst - if my computer popped up a screen saying "BUY A NEW MOTHERBOARD", I'd be briefly irate but overall a lot happier than this endless "Is this the problem? How'bout this?" that I'm going through.
    If only it was that simple, my life (and yours, and 1000's of others) would be a lot easier....

    Quote Originally Posted by doas777 View Post
    beware the lower end of the 8000 series with ubuntu. I've had serious problems with TVOut on 83-8500 cards, so make sure if you want the more fancy features of the driver (like overscan control) that your card is fully supported. an 8800 seems to be well supported, largely due to how many of them are out there.

    Op, it's time for some new Kit. I would recomend abit(if you can find one), asus, or gigabyte for mobos. had quite a few biostar's die within 3 years.
    If the OP had no problems with a 7025, a 8100 or 8200 would be nothing but pure upgrade.

    Abits dead, and the glory days of the nForce 2 (NF7-S) are long gone. After they got bought by universal they were never as good IMO. I was a huge fan of the older stuff back in the day though.

    Quote Originally Posted by ezsit View Post
    I've replaced power supplies, brand new power supplies, because the voltages were not within spec, right from the factory. A new power supply is no guarantee that it is a good power supply.
    yep, same. One of the reasons why I only buy decent power supplies now (current favourites are corsair, seasonic and coolermaster for the whole case/power supply combo 'dont want to spend that much' area)

    Quote Originally Posted by kcox5342 View Post
    I've been in email contact with a techy friend of mine this morning and he had some good advice...

    Remove all the HDs and the TV tuner cards and try to boot from a LiveCD. Which worked, I'm looking at Slax right now. And then I imagine steps #2-#?? will be, try putting things back one at a time and see when the failure begins. So maybe this was a TV tuner card issue? Here's part of what I emailed to him:

    "When I was trying to reinstall a test system, I did find something weird. When setting up mythtv, not once but twice it crashed at the same spot - when I was first scanning for TV channels. Then I told it to forget about the first card and only use the second card, and it worked for a couple days like that, before flaking out again. So, maybe it's one of my TV tuner cards?"

    They're a pair of pcHDTV 5500's, btw.
    Oh, snap.

    I should have said that ages ago, its normally the 1st thing I try.

    I'm still _very_ suspect on your motherboard being at least slightly dodgy, but how much of that is hardware, and how much of that is biostars settings, no idea.

    Hopefully it being caused by a turner card. I've never had exactly that happen, but I've had bad cards cause massive problems before *stares at creative*. If its not, at least its not a total writeoff, and a nice cheap motherboard should fix your problems *crosses fingers*
    Last edited by cascade9; December 30th, 2009 at 03:14 PM. Reason: typos

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