Mother Board Dead, Choices?

Hey everyone, kinda desperate since no one I know (besides retailers) seems to know much about my problem, which is this:

My Hp Pavilion ( this guy here) failed to finish booting one day, over and over, so I brought it in to bestbuy. Bestbuy said that I've overheated the motherboard, and that I should contact HP to get a new one or buy a new computer. So I called HP, I discovered that a replacement motherboard would cost me 250$ from them, which seems abit much for a computer I just bought two years ago.

The Hp guy advised buying a new one all together, I'm kinda confused as to what to do. I already bought a new (empty) case for building the pc back up with more airflow, but that was before I heard that it was going to be so much to replace the m-board, should I just buy a new computer? can I just buy a new (different) motherboard? Bestbuy said that probably wouldn't work well, but I confess I don't know anything about it. Any conversation from someone with experience would be very very appreciated.

 

Also My comp use is pretty much school work, internet browsing, steam, and the occasional movie editing. Not sure if that makes a difference, I put more ram and a new video card in the old one before it died since the old one didn't seem to meet the caliber I was looking for.

 

I would strongly suggest that you wait for one or two of our real hardware experts to give you a hand here. You got the case and some other working parts (optical drive PSU) it may be a good ideas to just build your own new computer using what parts are usable and repl;acing those that are not. You will be able to get a lot of help for that here.

 

Before buying anything, listen to my cautionary tale:

I personally had this problem: I would press the "power" switch, the computer would appear to begin loading BIOS and then suddenly shut down. Or on the off chance it loaded into Windows, I had random shut downs ranging from after several minutes to several hours. I initially thought that my problem was the power supply, so I replaced it with a higher voltage model but that didn't work. I tried removing the RAM and booting into BIOS but had the same problem so I discard that as the problem. I then thought about replacing the motherboard, because that seemed to be the only other possible source of the problem, but it wasn't cost effective to replace with an identical version and by that time the mobo was obsolete, so I decided to buy new parts instead. They came, I assembled them in my old case, everything looked perfect - but I had the same problem. A friend came over and figured out that the case switch itself had shorted out or something and had caused my computer problems. Essentially, I had purchased a new computer for no reason. (Now, don't get me wrong, I needed an upgrade anyway, but the cost in nerves and wasted money was not worth it).

Please keep in mind that the problem may not be the motherboard at all, especially if just a cursory inspection was done. The problem may be, for example, that you recently added some new parts like a new video card, your power supply may have gone kaput. If it is the mobo, you might be better off building a new computer, and this time, I would recommend getting a larger, airer case with several 120mm and/or 80mm fans to keep the computer cool. Also, the motherboard can have one or several fans on it, one over the processor and another small one - I have had the small one fail on me and cause my motherboard to have heat issues very quickly causing shut downs. Remember, if you replace the motherboard and/or the CPU, and if you have windows installed, it may not function at all (happened to me and was my initial reason for not wanting to build a new computer). All that is left to say is good luck!

 

Thanks for the advise, i've never "built" a computer before, just bought one and added a video card or some ram, the biggest deal I've ever done was put in a power supply (to the now unloading comp) Who would you suggest I go to for a better picture, the vibe I got from bestbuy was a "uh....it wasn't booting...motherboard problems. All done here, that'll be 70$" So I'm still cautious about that. And if they were right, that motherboard would be the only malfunctioning piece of hardware, I have no idea how to put a new motherboard in, or what that entails, but if my replacement mboard is 250, then I shudder to think of what a new one would be.... Thanks for the quick response though, I really appreciate it.

 

Well, I have to mention that I am a complete amateur so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. I am sure the experts here could help you as they did me when I was having a hard drive issue. The first time I built a computer I was fortunate enough to have a tech-savvy friend who I would ask what the hell I was doing and show me what I was doing right and wrong. To be honest, the task of assembling a computer seems extremely daunting but is pretty easy once you understand that it's basically put slot "A" into slot "B". Keep also in mind that I have had my share of mistakes ranging from broken cpu's to burned out psu's (don't ask) so above all don't rush and check everything twice.

How I go about approaching this is to first identify on the motherboard where everything connects. Don't forget to check everything out with the manuals! When placing the cpu into it's slot, be sure to make sure that it pops in easily, and that you do not force it (I bent some pins once and had to order a new cpu.) Place a little gallop of silicone and attach the heat-sink. Make sure to connect the fan to a nearby fan power slot. I had to rewire the case to motherboard connectors several times when replacing or moving certain pieces and while the newer case connectors come in blocks, that's not always the case and you have to make sure that you connect everything correctly or the power/reset button (computer just sits there doing a rock impression)/case USB slots may not work (anything from freezes to reboots when attaching things like a flash drive). Insert the RAM pieces and make sure that they go in correctly and aren't upside down (line them up before using any force). Don't force them too hard or you can break them and if you're doing it right you should hear/see them snap into place and you can close the locks on the top and bottom. At this point screw in the motherboard and then the psu, attaching the psu and case connectors to the motherboard. If you have a separate video card attach that too and screw it in and make sure it's connected to the psu. Also connect the case fans so that when the computer is turned on you can make sure that the airflow is strong enough and going the right way (again, don't ask). After making sure that you have hooked up the mouse, keyboard, monitor and psu power cable, test out the setup by powering it up and making sure it turns on. If all goes well, you'll load up BIOS and will be able to look at the options there. I have not tried really manipulating BIOS other than making sure that the device load order was correct and some other options here and there. If all this goes well, connect the dvd drives either through the IDE ribbon or SATA cables and make sure it is connected to the psu. Also connect the hard drive(s) with their cable and power connectors. At this point, your computer should be working, although again, I'm not sure how windows will react to the changing of the system specs so I would copy whatever information you may have on the existing hard drive to another one, preferably in an external enclosure and if need be, format and install windows. (This of course assumes you have the install disc). Before letting it load into windows, I would go into BIOS and make sure that load order is correct and that all devices (dvd, hard drives) are detected and load in the correct order - for example, I had added a SATA HD to an already installed IDE HD that had my OS installed on it. Unfortunately, on booting up, only the SATA was being found. Despite much gnashing of teeth and tearing out of hair, I eventually figured the problem out by looking through the manual and googling my problem that explained that my BIOS was setup to look at SATA first and thus preventing the channel that the IDE was on from being detected. Changing it to a mixed option allowed me to finally have my cake and eat it too.

As for the price, depending on what you're looking for (i.e. a web browser/some gaming/video playback) you can probably buy a new mobo and cpu for about the same price that they asked you to replace your original mobo - but don't forget that the new mobo and cpu will be much more powerful than the one you have now. I think that about covers most things so good luck and don't forget to ask for help.

 

Unfortunately the only way to ACTUALLY tell what is causing the issue is to test each part independently, while a MOBO could appear faulty, it could be the BIOS chip, or the North or South bridge overheating.

Did they give any reason as to why they thought the MOBO was dead? unless they took all your components out and added them into another MOBO, or there was physical damage to the board they cannot say that it was definately a MOBO problem.

HP are having a laugh at $250 as you can get a new i7 board for that..

If I were you and you were looking to upgrade anyway, I would just get a replacement board, that can take the components you already have
after literally a 2 second search these are some and they range about £30 which I think is about $50 http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=NVIDIA+nForce+430+&hl=en&aq=f

If you let us know what you want to do going forward we can spec you up with some new components but remember that if you purchase a new MOBO and that component turns out not to be faulty you will be out of pocket

 

I'm kinda mad at bestbuy and HP, I understand it's business but HP just wants money, and bestbuy doesn't know their right from their left. But I'm stuck with them since I don't have many tech friends.

Oh well, I think I'm going to go ahead with building a new one, I think I have things figured out though, but if I were to buy a new cpu and a new motherboard, how do I know which ones are compatible? Is it the socket type?

Also if you don't mind, intel or AMD? I've got zero experience, but thanks alot for all of your help, it's making it alot easier.

 

Please keep in mind that Dalo is not usually here on a weekend and that he is in Britain but he is a great person to advise you on a build.

 

The socket type will tell you what cpu is compatible with what motherboard. As for AMD/Intel - this is my opinion, and I'm sure other people will have a different POV, but I like AMD more. I had a lot of problems with my Intel mobo and ever since getting an AMD I don't have em anymore. The greatest problems I have is with my ATI video card and thats mostly due to some games not working with my particular model which has nothing to do with my mobo. My AMD mobo also deals with heat better, but again, that's my personal case and opinion - it may be different for someone else. My final strike against intel is that they released a purposefully underclocked cpu that you have to pay extra to unlock:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/09/19/0050203/Intel-Wants-To-Charge-50-To-Unlock-Your-CPUs-Full-Capabilities?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashdot%2FeqWf+%28Slashdot%3A+Slashdot%29

But to be fair, I'm sure AMD may do something similar... if it hasn't already. On the other hand, my parents computer has an intel mobo and it works perfectly. In the end it will be a personal choice for you so pick the one that most fits what you're going to be planning on doing with your computer and do a cost/benefit analysis. Good luck.

 

While you're waiting for Dalo, you might want to take a look at the following sites for ideas:

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/

http://www.tomshardware.com/us/

(and more)

and, of course, Amazon and NewEgg have useful Users comments for components.

 

See my decisions vary from what is around at the time of purchase, I have never had any issues with Intel, but lots from AMD

Give us a budget of what you can spend and what parts you plan on reusing from the old system and we can go from there, also what will be the main uses of the PC