# Motherboard kaput? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2009, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherboard-kaput/484903 "2009-02-08T05:54:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherboard-kaput/484903/1 "2009-02-08T05:54:12Z")
So I get up this morning, go to my computer, and the thing is bluescreened. I hard reset, and get whirly noises but nothing on the monitor. The 5 year old Gigabyte GA-7N400 motherboard emits a non stop series of long beeps which my manual indicates as being DRAM error. I removed each of my 3 DIMMs and put them back in one by one - same thing. I took a DIMM from the computer at work(which was working fine) and put it in this one - same thing. All these DIMMs were working fine until last night. Am I correct to conclude that my motherboard is toast? Is there another diagnostic step that I am missing? I really don’t want to replace it, because it’s so old that I will likely have to replace the graphics card (currently AGP), ram and processor too, which means that I have to educate myself again on the state of the art in motherboards, chipsets, CPUs, RAM, graphics cards…uuuggh. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherboard-kaput/484903/2 "2009-02-08T10:28:43Z")
5 years old? Might be as simple as a battery failure. They tend to last 5 years. You can confirm that the memory is okay by putting it in a known working system. Alternatively, is it possible you had a power spike last night? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherboard-kaput/484903/3 "2009-02-08T11:03:34Z")
Computers are a fussy lot and you just never know. A few days ago one of my computer started shutting down before even booting. I suspected the power supply so I took it out and tested it but it seemed to be OK. Then I put it in and thing started getting worse. With another PSU nothing worked. I started suspecting a short on the motherboard. I ended up pulling every board and memory module and re-seating everything. After a couple of hours and much frustration the source of the problem became apparent: the start/power button was malfunctioning. Once replaced everything was fine. But I have no idea why with the button disconnected for a while nothing was working, no video, nothing. Sometimes it just seems the computer just wants to get your attention for a while. You disassemble everything, then put it back together the same way it was and everything works fine. ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherboard-kaput/484903/4 "2009-02-08T16:19:12Z")
You might want to give [Memtest86](http://www.memtest86.com/) a try. Boot from a floppy or CD. ---
**Author:** ![Erasmus\_Darwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@Erasmus\_Darwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erasmus_Darwin)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherboard-kaput/484903/5 "2009-02-08T16:47:41Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > 5 years old? Might be as simple as a battery failure. They tend to last 5 years. I suppose it’s possible, but I would consider it too likely. When the battery goes, the computer should still be able to boot. You’ll just lose your CMOS settings every time you shut down. > [@Turble](#): > > You might want to give [Memtest86](http://www.memtest86.com/) a try. Boot from a floppy or CD. That’s not going to help since the system isn’t booting up at all. Anyway, getting back to the original post, I’d say it’s a pretty good bet that something hardware-related is kaput, and the motherboard’s a likely culprit. Unless you’ve got more spare parts you can try swapping in (on the unlikely chance that it’s the video card or the semi-likely chance that it’s the CPU), it’s probably worth it to just call it dead and look for a replacement. On a five year old machine, I would think any comparable replacement should be fairly cheap by now. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherboard-kaput/484903/6 "2009-02-08T20:12:59Z")
There has been a rash of MB/PSU problems posted here lately. Maybe the board is overloading our poor little 'puters and sending them to an early grave.😉 (And I’ve lost a memory stick and a graphics card lately.)