Determine if Your Motherboard Is Dead

Edited by Michael J., Anonymous, Lynn, Eng and 21 others

When it comes to issues regarding computer hardware, motherboard defects are among the
most dreaded of all. The motherboard is one of the most expensive components of a computer
such that having a dead motherboard would basically mean burning a fairly large hole in your
pocket. Sometimes, computer owners and even technicians prematurely declare some
motherboards as "dead on arrival" or "dead on the spot" without performing comprehensive
diagnostic tests. This article will guide you toward carrying out relevant tests in order to
ascertain that a motherboard is dead.

Note
Before you perform any actions with your motherboard or any other components
attached to it, be sure to discharge yourself of static electricity. If possible, buy yourself
a static wrist band and use it before interacting with your motherboard. If you dont
have access to a static wristband, a simple way of discharging your bodys static
electricity is by tapping a smooth metal surface using your fingers. Most technicians
use the computers power supply for this trick. Why is it essential to discharge
yourself? The circuitry in your computer motherboard are sensitive to any form of
electrical charge; even minute ones like the static electricity of your body.
Administering an unwanted charge towards the motherboard could cause alteration
enough to destroy the motherboard or cause it to malfunction.

1. Power up your computer and wait for a short beep.

If nothing gets displayed on your monitor and you did not hear a short beep, those
could be signs suggestive of a motherboard failure. The short beep signifies the
success of the computers power-on self-test. This beep is also technically known as
the POST beep. The POST is the computers way of checking the necessary
system requirements and hardware connections in order for the system to power up
properly. Almost 50 percent of the time, if no beep and no display are observed, this
is indicative of a dead motherboard. In times like this, you should not leave any stone
unturned. You should perform every reasonable test humanly possible to rule out any

other hardware defect and ascertain that your motherboard is indeed dead. The last
thing you would want to do is dispose a still working motherboard due to a wrong
diagnosis.
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2.2
Remove the RAM and the third-party video card (if there is any) and power up
your computer.
In this step, we will try to rule out a memory or video card defect. Most motherboards
will produce a beep code similar to the POST beep if it detects that no RAM is
installed. But unlike the POST beep, RAM error beep code is characterized by long
and repetitive beeps. So if you hear this kind of beep after powering up your
motherboard, we could deduce that the motherboard is not dead and it is actually the
RAM that is causing the problem. If no such beep is produced, then you should
continue with the remaining diagnostic tests.

3.3
Reset the RAM in other slots if there are any.
Most boards do not produce a beep if no RAM is installed. Another way to rule out a
RAM-related defect is to try and reset the RAM stick in other memory slots if
possible. This further rules out the possibility of RAM stick or RAM slot defect.

4.4
Try another working RAM if possible.
If an extra, compatible RAM stick is at hand, you might as well try and use it on your
motherboard to ultimately rule out memory-related issues.

5.5

Check if the motherboard speaker is properly attached to its designated slot.

The motherboard beeps are made possible by a tiny speaker attached to the
motherboard. Consult your motherboard manual to find where this speaker is located
and check if it is still securely attached to where it should be.

6.6
Try a different power supply.
There are instances wherein your computers power supply may look functional and
normal, but the opposite actually holds true. Just because the power supply fan or
the CPU fan is spinning and the power LED lights are on doesnt necessarily mean
your power supply is delivering the necessary voltage to your motherboard. If you
have a spare power supply or if you know someone who has, work your way to get a
hand on it and try it on your motherboard.

7.7
Remove the motherboard out from the case and place it on an insulated
surface.
In tech speak, this is commonly called as breadboarding. This step is essential to
check for shorting or grounding issues. While on the breadboard, connect the
motherboard back to the power supply and power it up once again.

8.8
Reset the CMOS.
By this time, we are running out of cards to play. Desperate times call for desperate
measures. This is one desperate measure. The CMOS or complementary metaloxide-semiconductor is a part of the motherboard that is commonly known for
housing the BIOS settings for older motherboards. Modern computers often have
their own non-volatile memory to store BIOS settings so they do not use CMOS for

that function anymore. Nevertheless, CMOS is still considered a viable option for
troubleshooting motherboard boot-up problems, regardless if it is a modern or old
board.
There are two ways to reset your motherboards CMOS. The first one is to remove
the CMOS battery, a silver disc resembling that of a watch battery, from the
motherboard. You may need to consult your motherboards documentation to locate
the battery. You need to attach the CMOS battery back to its slot after at least 5
minutes and power up the motherboard thereafter. Again, you should cross your
fingers

and

wait

for

short

beep.

If that didnt work, you might try another way. You may need to use jumpers to
perform a Hard Reset on your CMOS. The location of these jumpers and the process
to reset the CMOS by using them vary from one motherboard brand to another, so
the best way to get a hold of comprehensive information about this process is
through your motherboards manual. After successfully carrying out the necessary
steps, power up your motherboard, cross your fingers and wait for a short beep.

9.9
Try inserting your other system hardware components (RAM, CPU, Power
Supply) to a similar motherboard.
You have exhausted all the possible steps to rule out a dead motherboard problem.
Unfortunately, it appears that a dead motherboard might just be the case here. This
last step could be the final nail on the coffin for your predicament. Migrating all the
essential hardware attached to your motherboard to another working motherboard
and successfully booting up with the new setup is the only surefire way to validate if
your motherboard has finally succumbed to the death harbinger.

Questions and Answers

How can can I check if my Tablet's motherboard is dead?
Well my Tablet won't switch on and it won't pick in the charger also. I have boosted my
battery also but no response
To test if your Tablet's motherboard is dead, you will first need to confirm that a charge
is reaching the Tablet through the battery. To do this, you will need to take the Tablet
apart, and then attach the battery. After this, plug in your USB charger to a low voltage
source, such as a computer USB port, and test whether or not the Tablet is receiving a
charge using your meter. If it is receiving a charge, then you will test the connections
from the charging port to see if they are passing a current to the main board.
If your motherboard is not accepting the current, and you can not see any visible
problems, then it is most likely a bad connection somewhere on the motherboard.
While technically possible to fix, the sheer cost in terms of time and man hours make
this impractical, and you will be best served simply purchasing a new one. Much like
the example of spending 4 hours to repair a $10 game pad, it's usually easier just to
purchase another one. In the case of a motherboard, you could spend hundreds of
hours trying to fix it, and still never succeed if there is an actual component failure, as
opposed to a connection failure.
See more questions like this: How to know if my motherboard is working

Newly assembled PC not booting?

Hi sir, my desktop configuration is: GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2PT rev 4.1 Motherboard
AMD AM3+ FX-4300 4 GHz FX-Series Four-Core Processor 4 GB DDR3 RAM
Corsaire 450 Wa PSU Transcend 1 TB HD after assembled CPU fan working, all lights
start, but monitor led on and blinking and not a single beep heard. The beep is not
heard after RAM is removed as well, please help me I invested a lot in that, thanks. I
have tried: I tried everything you mentioned on your website
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answer.

See more questions like this: CPU is not booting, CPU & SMPS FAN is working, but
CPU power light is not working please help

What if I don't have a motherboard speaker?

I am rejoining my old working PC but it is not starting. I have checked my power
supply (it is working). Can you help me to rejoin it
VisiHow QnA. This section is not written yet. Want to join in? Click EDIT to write this
answer.
See more questions like this: I want to buy ram but I don't know how to select ram. and
plzzz explain me what is latency 11-11-11-28

I want to know if my motherboard is dead?

I have a Nvidia A8N5X motherboard, I had attempted to remove the heat-sink one
night (I wasn't very gentle hindsight is always 20/20) anyway I got another heat-sink
on it, tried to boot it up and did not post, followed everything in the guide (removed
everything except the CPU, didn't post, just plugged it into the power supply no CPU
or RAM etc. no post) so is it safe to assume it is dead?
This is a tricky question. There are other components you could have damaged, such
as flexing the board and causing a hairline fracture in a connection, or damaging either
your RAM or processor when removing the heat sink and applying pressure. Likewise,
if you didn't ground the system and yourself before starting, you could have damaged
components with a static charge.
To troubleshoot, I'd recommend the following:

1.1
Plug the system in, and see if the battery light comes on.

2.2

If it does not come on, then there is no power cycling through the system.
This is your first problem (though there could still be others).

3.3
If it shows a battery light, then you have power to the system, which is a good sign.

4.4
Unplug the system and remove the battery.

5.5
Make sure you're properly grounded to remove any static charge.

6.6
Touch the metal chassis of your unplugged system to ground out everything.

7.7
Switch your RAM (RAM 1 goes in RAM2 slot, etc.).

8.8
Put everything back, and try to restart.

9.9
If it works, you have a bad RAM stick.

10.

10

Repeat this until you've cycled through all of your system RAM (2 or 4 sticks).

You can use a Sharpie or other permanent marker to mark your RAM (I, II, III, IIII). That way
you know which is which, or you can just remove them and cycle them one at a time.

11.

11

12.

12

If this fails, go to Step 4.

Remove your processor, instead of your RAM, and then replace the processor.

13.

13

14.

14

Try to boot back up.

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If it still fails, then you probably have a motherboard problem.

In this case, you can consider taking it to a local computer repair shop to see if they can get it
to work (they might try new RAM, etc.). Just be honest with them, and most of the time they'll
not charge much more than their hourly to get it working (if they can).