How to Check If Motherboard Is Failing & How To Fix It

Timely check in anything keeps from further damage. As we know prevention is a cure, it also goes well for devices and gadgets. For instance if you know how to check if the motherboard is failing you can readily take necessary measures to keep things in sync!

Whenever you anticipate the best PC performance, its physical check and thorough examination should also be a must factor. Besides, if you are one of those users who hardly open up the case of a PC to look at what’s happening inside, the mobo failure turns out to be one of the pretty obvious parameters.

Another important thing that is probably a common misconception is that when you say a motherboard is faulty or having some malfunction, it does not always mean that the motherboard itself has some issue.

There are many components on the mobo and you will see the complete range of small and big components, chipset and others attached to the motherboard. So sometimes when either of them works out of sync it is thought that the motherboard isn’t working or sometimes mobo is at fault but you think it might be the components.

However, whatever the matter may be, if you know what causes that in the first place the solution becomes ultimate ease.

Motherboard Failure Check

Luckily there are multiple indications that tell the motherboard health and its performance. So if you want to check or know if the motherboard is lacking its performance here are some of the common signals and hints that tell you about its remaining life-time and working efficiency.

1. Check damage of the physical parts

Since the motherboard itself is a physical part of the PC, it’s obvious to know if there is any physical damage to its parts. Besides, if you want to check whether or not the motherboard is failing you need to open up the CPU case for physical examination.

For physical damage look for the puffy or bloated capacitors, if any. Generally, the leaky capacitors can cause the motherboard failure as well. It can be due to a number of issues such as overheating, over-aging, and poor quality or simply a sudden damage. Certainly, the damaged capacitor or deformed one tells you the story by itself.

2. Smell the Smell

Another pretty much easy and rather quick way to check the motherboard failure is to check for the burning like pungent smell. If you can smell that burning odor it’s certainly a bad motherboard indication. The burning smell is also due to the massive overheating that has melted the cables within the mobo.

You might wonder why overheating happens. Well, if the PC is consuming more power that what it supposed to or you are using any poor quality incompetent component that can lead to such problems. Moreover, the installation of RAM or video card can also be a cause of bad motherboard health.

3. BSOD Issue

Blue screen of death sounds pretty scary from the first sight as well. Actually this is one of the factors that you should check for while assessing the motherboard failure. While it doesn’t have the direct link to the poor motherboard or its failure, still if you have bad drivers the motherboard gets its ultimate effect.

Usually when you see the BSOD error you will see the error code as 0x000000(0x000000, 0x000000, 0x000000, 0x000000. However, this does not necessarily indicate the motherboard failure in every case. You should still ask for professional advice whether it’s for bad drivers or something else. Some common indications are:

• If the motherboard isn’t doing POST (Power On Self-Test).
• The external devices might not work after some time.
• Your computer starts to take time (more than usual) to boot up.

4. Freezing Problems

Almost everybody has faced sluggishness on the PC while working or browsing. This problem gets solved by the assisting software, antivirus and the troubleshooter when you are lucky enough.

Otherwise the persisting problem of random lock up of the system and freezing can be due to faulty motherboard. If you have made sure the software isn’t the real cause of the problem the motherboard can be. Moreover, if you have any other component of the mobo that is out of sync it can affect the PC performance as well.

8 Common signs of failing motherboard

It is always better to know what causes the problem, only then you can prevent it from further damage. For PCs, you knowingly or knowingly ignore the indications that later prove to be pretty much fatal for motherboard and overall computer working. Make sure you pay heed to the following aspects to keep the next purchased system in its best form.

1. Hiked up Temperature

From the sight of the internal CPU fan you can infer how important it is to keep the system cool. It would be best if you can go for a cooling pad or something that keeps the system cool. Also direct sunlight if it’s falling from the window etc.

Read More : Fix Motherboard Temperature High

1. Poor working fan

It doesn’t matter how many fans you have installed in the system if they aren’t even working. For motherboard failures, always make sure the fans are operational in full swing.

1. Sudden electric shock

Another reason why the motherboard stops working is the poor voltage or power surge. It is so obvious that when any electrical appliance doesn’t get the recommended voltage and gets the inappropriate power (i.e. low or high) it starts to malfunction.

1. Smoke or fire

Smoke and its substance is more like a killer to the motherboard. Besides, if you smell the bad burning odor coming out of the system make sure there isn’t any smoke or sparks that can cause dead mobo.

1. Spills and sticky substance

Certainly, liquid and electricity aren’t friends.  Do you place your computer at a damp pace? If yes then the PC will get its effect especially the motherboard. Therefore, make sure to keep the place dry and rather cool.

1. Dirty and dusty components

Motherboard is a backbone of the system and that is something that you have been hearing ever since you know about it, right? So its proper cleanliness is obvious. Components full of dirt and junk promote shorter life and hence you ultimately start to receive indications for poor mobo performance.

7. Manhandling or falling of PC badly

 Rough and poor PC handling that involves a lot of jerks is another reason that is the motherboard killer. Can not only affect the motherboard but it can also ruin its quality for working longer times.

8. Older Components

If everything is alright, and still the motherboard isn’t working the reason might be it is pretty much older now. Everything has a life and if that exceeds you are likely to get bad working performance to work.  If that is the case with your motherboard, you need to look for a new and high-quality motherboard if it has been purchased ages ago.

Dead Mobo

If none of the above solutions is helping your motherboard most likely can be ‘declared as dead’ it’s failure should be pretty much known by now. Besides, another indication is that your PC will not turn on if the mobo has failed.

Motherboard Failure and Its Fixing

Depending on the type of failure you can say how to fix it. Certainly, motherboard isn’t the name of any component, rather it is a whole circuit board full of numerous chips, slots,  and so many others that you might even don’t know if they exist! 

For instance the first thing you should be doing is to replace the faulty component if you have checked it properly. If that isn’t turning out to be worthy enough, the last thing is to replace the mobo with the new one.

However, if you still have the warranty it is easier to talk to the manufacturer or get it repaired. But the same method to fix the ‘Confirmed dead motherboard’ is to replace it by a new one. Besides, its repair is something that is costly, time-consuming and not possible to be done at home, it can be highly risky. Therefore, it is better to go for an easier solution than to risk your efforts!