Changing motherboard

[TiXer]

If I wanted to change the motherboard in my computer, what do I need to look at to get a new one that will acctually work?

Hardware isn't really my strongest side so any tips will be appreaciated.

[Railman5]

Kinda depends on why you want to change Mobo.

Upgrade processor chip?

faster bus speed?

if you just want a new one, simplest is to determine your Processor - eg. socket 7, amd intel etc

then decide how much you want to pay.

if its a simple swap. ....

just work through removing everything. make sure to ground yourself first though!!!!

put the processor back on your new mobo

dab a bit of thermal grease to the heatsink. - to stop it frying!

put everything back as before.

do a delete on start up to get to the bios.

check that it recognises the processor and hard disks and cd roms etc.

let it run through.

you may need to format the hard disk and reinstall everything.

then if possible take am image ogf your new squeekky clean disk.

hope that helps

it is sure satisfying doing this.

I do it all the time when i am bored

Edited November 17, 2005 by Railman5

[TiXer]

Thanks for the reply!

The reason why I'm considering getting a new motherboard is the fact that my pc isn't willing to boot anymore. (I have another which I'm sitting at now)

Incase your wondering what exactly happens when it's booted, it doesn't do much at all. I get to the screen where I normally would have the opportunity to enter BIOS by hitting F1 (yup, not F2). Here it stops. Totall hitting the wall situation.. I can't get into BIOS to see how things are there 'cause it doesn't react to the keyboard.

I've tried almost everything to get it working, but it won't react to anything... Some of the things I've tried:

- I have 2 disks so I've tried to boot from both even only one has a OS. No response from any of them

- I have 2 RAMs so I've tried booting with one and one, none, tried both in different slots etc etc.

- I've got a almost new graphics card (never been a problem with) so I've tried booting with the integreated card instead. (Taken the new one out off course)

- Tried changing the battery just too see if that did any thing. Nope, nothing.

- Booting from a boot cd (The ultimate bootdisk versjon II) but the pc hangs before it reads the cdrom..

- Booting form an USB device.

- Chekced that all fans function

- Nothing wrong with the CPU

And some other things I can't remember right now. My boss (I work in technical support) suggested that it might be something wrong with the motherboard. And that is the only thing I can think of that is left right now...

So that's why I'm thinking of changing it!

[LiquidSage]

1.Unplug comp. & Take out the battery Wait 30 sec. Plug it back in w/o the battery and it will turn on by itself, see if it works. Change the batt. if it does.

2.Unplug everything except ram, vid card and keyboard. Can you access the BIOS.?

3. Have you tried a different keyboard? Are you using a usb keyboard (a PS/2 keyboard should be able to get in BIOS w/o any trouble)

4. Is the mobo clean? Are any metal pieces rubbing up against it?

Also when odd problems arise, I have taken everything out and used DeOXiT and maybe ProShow Gold if I'm pressed for time (radioshack,fry's carries it) and have had a good success rate so far.

What hardware changes have been made recently before the problem?

[ripken204]

before you buy one, i will need to know alot of intefaces. like you hdd, ide,sata,sataII? video card-pci,pci-e,or agp? cpu-amd(s939), intel? ram-ddr,ddr2?

[TiXer]

1.Unplug comp. & Take out the battery Wait 30 sec. Plug it back in w/o the battery and it will turn on by itself, see if it works. Change the batt. if it does.

2.Unplug everything except ram, vid card and keyboard. Can you access the BIOS.?

3. Have you tried a different keyboard? Are you using a usb keyboard (a PS/2 keyboard should be able to get in BIOS w/o any trouble)

4. Is the mobo clean? Are any metal pieces rubbing up against it?

Also when odd problems arise, I have taken everything out and used DeOXiT and maybe ProShow Gold if I'm pressed for time (radioshack,fry's carries it) and have had a good success rate so far.

What hardware changes have been made recently before the problem?

I have done/tried all those things.. No hardware changes has been done resently.. It happend basicly without a reason..

And no, I can't access the BIOS. It hangs before I can enter. And it doens't get far enough to boot from a CD or anything like that.

before you buy one, i will need to know alot of intefaces. like you hdd, ide,sata,sataII? video card-pci,pci-e,or agp? cpu-amd(s939), intel? ram-ddr,ddr2?

I have to hdds.. Both Seagate IDE. One 40GB (came with the pc) and one 200GB. None is put in resently.

My videocard is a Gainward GeForce FX5200.

CPU is Intel Celeron 2.53GHz

RAM is SDRAM PC133 (I seriously don't remember more than that) I think it has 768MB at the moment. (One 512MB and one 256MB)

Without having the opportunity to check it this is all I remember at the moment...