mother board issues.

[CherryBomb24]

Hey guys,
My video card went out, i took it up and they told me that the mother board was going out as well, that it had anywhere from 1 week to a year to live, basically.
They said one of the things on it was starting to peak, and will soon start leaking <sorry i'm not a computer person so cant give technical words, i barely understood them from him.
But my question here is what did he mean? I seen what he ment when he said it was starting to peak, but i didnt really understand what all he ment, he used lots of technical terms. A few minutes later he's having me look at this spiffy 900 dollar computer, asking if i wanted to put a down payment on it, or get the video card i was there to buy.

I couldnt tell if he was just tryin to get more money outta me, or if he was being sincere about my pc going to hell.

Sorry for all the nubbish terms, i'm very computer illiterate.


CB

 

[carlseas]

Hey guys,
My video card went out, i took it up and they told me that the mother board was going out as well, that it had anywhere from 1 week to a year to live, basically.
They said one of the things on it was starting to peak, and will soon start leaking <sorry i'm not a computer person so cant give technical words, i barely understood them from him.
But my question here is what did he mean? I seen what he ment when he said it was starting to peak, but i didnt really understand what all he ment, he used lots of technical terms. A few minutes later he's having me look at this spiffy 900 dollar computer, asking if i wanted to put a down payment on it, or get the video card i was there to buy.

I couldnt tell if he was just tryin to get more money outta me, or if he was being sincere about my pc going to hell.

Sorry for all the nubbish terms, i'm very computer illiterate.


CB

I've been working w/PCs since the mid 80's and have never heard of something "peaking". Unless there is a fan that is intermittently spinning or not, when something dies, it dies. I'd buy the video card and if the motherboard dies THEN have that replaced, don't buy a whole new system.

 

[sunandshadow]

Unless you want a high performance gaming machine or a Mac, or maybe a laptop, there's absolutely no reason to be paying $900 for a new computer. I just bought a new nice-but-not-top-of-the-line gaming machine for $700, and a normal desktop PC should be around $500 (assuming you keep your current monitor).

If something is going to leak, he might have been talking about a capacitor, those do bulge up and leak when they go bad.

 

[demon_driven]

just egt a video card, seems like the person may be running youa round

I've been working on PC's for years, build all of my own, and lever had anything "peak" or "leak"

motherboards just quit, you can't really tell when or predict it

 

[jtf71961]

Hey guys,
My video card went out, i took it up and they told me that the mother board was going out as well, that it had anywhere from 1 week to a year to live, basically.
They said one of the things on it was starting to peak, and will soon start leaking <sorry i'm not a computer person so cant give technical words, i barely understood them from him.
But my question here is what did he mean? I seen what he ment when he said it was starting to peak, but i didnt really understand what all he ment, he used lots of technical terms. A few minutes later he's having me look at this spiffy 900 dollar computer, asking if i wanted to put a down payment on it, or get the video card i was there to buy.

I couldnt tell if he was just tryin to get more money outta me, or if he was being sincere about my pc going to hell.

Sorry for all the nubbish terms, i'm very computer illiterate.


CB

The Mother board will run around $100 and about another $150 to install it(unless you know someone who could put it in), so that it makeas it hardly worth putting in $250 in a computer that isnt worth alot, but it also depends on how old the computer is. You should also be able to get a decent used computer that is good enough for you and I, but not the big gamer for about $300.

 

[emap]

He was pulling your chain, or well rather he was trying to get you to buy an overpriced computer from him.

Buy the video card, well Ok so you probably already did since you're here asking about it. Just for future reference, whenever possible never go and talk to the geek patrol you find in stores, they are there to get you to buy as expensive an item as possible. Some of the bigger stores are better about that because the workers are paid by the hour, Best Buy or Fry's Electronics are both a rather good one, they have a huge selection and the staff at least knows a little about what your buying.

The best way to do it is to buy the computer in pieces, course if you have never done that it's daunting though they give you handy manuals with instructions on installation. Second best is to buy a barebones system, if you have a working monitor keyboard and mouse there isn't a reason to buy a whole computer and you can buy better for a third of the cost. Most barebones systems consist of a motherboard CPU and tower, additional items can be bought with and installed/tested by the company.

Now barebones are usually best found by going online and checking out the sites, www.pricewatch.com is a great place to start looking, they show the deals on computer parts you can find online, there are ratings on each company. You can also go to Fry's Electronics if you have one nearby.

Windows doesn't normally come with a barebones though you can get it if you don't have a disk or want a newer version.

 

[nakedphriend]

Who is the manufacturer of your system? Dell? If it's an optiplex gx270, those are notorious for leaky capacitors.

Do you know what video card you had in it?
What are they offering to replace and at what cost? You should be able to get a good enough video card between $30 and $60 and it's literally one screw to put it in and another few minutes to put the disc it comes with into the system and install the drivers. sounds like salesman BS to me.

 

[RuneBlade]

Sounds like he was trying close you on a new computer. I'm with others in saying this though: don't spend too much money on parts. You can get a screaming computer that will handle anything except cutting edge performance games for about $500 if you know where to look. It really depends on how good your current system is and how old it is.

 

[DrHappy]

I'm guessing that he was referring to bulging capacitors that may start leaking. My company has dealt with several motherboards that had bulging leaking capacitors that leaked. Some machines would begin to either lockup, and some would spontaneously reboot. Some machines apparently ran for years on bulging capacitors. Maybe the guy saw capacitors that looked really bad, and suspected that they were about to go. On the other hand, maybe he saw "some" bulging on "a" capacitor.

As someone mentioned earlier, a new motherboard is only about $100. However, it may be hard to find a replacement board if your computer is old or if it's a non-standard board. How old is your computer and what brand is it?

If money is tight and your computer isn't critical, you might be able to ignore the problem for a while and hope that it never gets too bad. On the other hand, if your computer is critical, then it might be work looking into replacing the motherboard.

 

[timy756]

He may very well have been asking you to buy a new computer, I mean, you stated he was, and I believe you. And oddly, that's one thing sales clerks or technicians do. It's part of their job. Being that we know these sorts of things going in, it is of course up to us to decide whether or not, based on a variety of factors, we wish to spend our money this way. On most levels this is akin to walking into a fast food restaurant and being asked immediately if we'd like to, "try our xxxxx value meals for only $6.49?". In either scenario it is always up to the guy with the dough in pocket to decide.

Now, if you are unaware of what the value meal is, whether it be consumable only under the influence of intoxicating green herbs, made of plagued rat meat, radioactive, comprised of equal parts e.coli/salmonella, or the server just rushed out to greet you with his fly undone, toilet paper hanging off 1 shoe, and brown stained hands obviously unwashed, you can always simply state in uncompromising terms, "nah, I'll pass."

But when you are going to be making a purchase of something which directly affects your pocketbook in an alarming fashion, I suggest a bit of research. This would seem a fair and appropriate means of determining which way the wise decision lay. I'd further suggest, almost ironically since I'm to suppose you type this out on a computer, to search for such knowledge at the best place available - the internet. Literotica, whilst a good part of such, has less sections on PC repair than other sites.

That being said, capacitors do go bad on motherboards. Often they will bulge. I am unfamiliar with the use of the word peak to describe them, but if referenced around the word 'leaking', or 'leak', I suppose I could figuratively scratch my head and assume a hundred things but settle on the gist of the capacitor having one foot in the grave. Take one apart some day. The older motherboard capacitors are thin aluminum shells encapsulating a bunch of greasy ultra thin cardboard-type coils overlapping the wiring. Think of them existing there to serve a couple purposes, to balance the current flowing across this nervous system we call a motherboard, and to temporarily store energy - thus further balancing current. Newer capacitors are designed to be more durable, or to corrode less efficiently. Either way, these are just a couple uses.

A quick sighted technician will always take a once over view of MB capacitors upon hardware inspection. Capacitors can go bad even if they don't bulge, and they can keep working even if they do, or even if leaking (looks similar to car battery leakage - colored from off white to brown - may just peep out the top of it or have dripped and dried down the whole side of it right onto the MB itself). If this is what he spotted, and he pointed it out to you and you would concur this capacitor looked different than the 'healthy' capacitors, eureka, you have just spotted a failing (or failed) capacitor. And he would be correct in stating that it could signal the demise of your presently working MB in 1 hour, or 1 year. This is the nature of electronics. Now wait til you buy a 455$ motherboard and plug it in and smell metal burning. You RMA newegg and wait a few days for another, impatiently cuz you are embarking on building the fastest g'damn system in the neighborhood and tired of fucking waiting!!! But that's another story.

What you could do in such a case is download a program like CPU-Z and find out what motherboard you have. Buy a replacement for anywhere from 30-150 bucks, and install it yourself. Most budget system use MB's costing around 50 bucks. 5,6,7 screws and you can have it in place. 5,6,7,8,9 plugs, and you've got it supplying power to all your hardware. As for video cards, they are almost as easy to install as RAM. After you unscrew it from the case I'd guess around 10 seconds to yank an old one and install a new one. With a budget build you probably don't even need power outside of what your PCI provides. Drivers for GPU's are incredibly easy. Nowadays about 98% of the market is going to use NVIDIA or ATI (AMD), grab the drivers from their sites, install, and (sorry for the WOW acronym) game on FTW.

Today is the best time to start learning to build your own computer, in this economic environment. For roughly 600 dollars you can have an AMD quad core, NVIDIA 200 series video card, 500 GB hard drive, 6 GB RAM, DVD/CD burner, 650 watt power supply, and a motherboard. Add in a pirated copy of an operating system and you're good to go. Or pay the man an extra 80-120 bucks for the software to run it all, or simply go linux if you're not a headline gamer.

p.s. you can always desolder and solder back into place a good capacitor if you're feeling lucky.

 

[Ran4]

Well, you should never trust technicians that you don't know personally.
Saying "the mother board is fried!" is common among technicians. Yes, they might be right, but they might also just be lying to get you to spend money.
(yes, this is how a technicians life work... saying that something is fried is way easier than finding out the problem).


I'd say that you should continue using your computer: if it breaks down, just buy a completely new one and sell off the parts from the old one. You can of course keep your old screen/keyboard/mouse/loudspeakers, so unless you are into gaming you shouldn't need to pay more than $400-$500.

And don't forget to make backups! Lots of people have a tendency to forget doing backups, so when their hard drive or computer dies, they're in deep trouble.
Not backuping your data is irresponsible


timy756 - Something tells me that the thread starter isn't going to solder anywhere

 

[CherryBomb24]

Who is the manufacturer of your system? Dell? If it's an optiplex gx270, those are notorious for leaky capacitors.

Do you know what video card you had in it?
What are they offering to replace and at what cost? You should be able to get a good enough video card between $30 and $60 and it's literally one screw to put it in and another few minutes to put the disc it comes with into the system and install the drivers. sounds like salesman BS to me.

i had an nvidia 6200.
i spent 160, 120 was on the video card...10 bucks for the diagnostic and 20 bucks for the service fee and the rest was taxes. which isnt bad at all.
the guy owned the place, so ya know he was gettin paid by product - but surprizingly he suggested the cheaper video card then suggested a better more expensive pc. thats one reason i wasnt sure if he was bsing me.

 

[SweetErika]

i had an nvidia 6200.
i spent 160, 120 was on the video card...10 bucks for the diagnostic and 20 bucks for the service fee and the rest was taxes. which isnt bad at all.
the guy owned the place, so ya know he was gettin paid by product - but surprizingly he suggested the cheaper video card then suggested a better more expensive pc. thats one reason i wasnt sure if he was bsing me.

Did he ask what you use your computer for, and other questions that would help him make an educated guess on which computer would best suit your needs? Or did he just suggest the $900 one?

At any rate, I agree that you should back your stuff up ASAP (and often!) and research your options for building and buying a new computer while you're seeing how your current one gets along.

I've never read anything from you that makes me think you'd need a $900 computer, though. If you did, you'd probably be far more computer-literate than you say you are. Even my husband, who knows like 1000 times more about computers than I do and IS a gamer, can comfortably work with a $600 budget (for a spiffy new case and everything that goes in it, plus maybe a few extras) for a new desktop and $500 for a new laptop (August/early Sept. is often the best time to buy laptops, with all the back-to-school sales).

Anyway, it sounds like this is a great learning opportunity for you! Assessing your needs and learning the basics can not only help you when you're buying your next parts or computer, it'll save you money in the long run and help you avoid getting ripped off.

 

[sunandshadow]

My new computer's bits just arrived by UPS today. in 4 boxes. After spending the evening putting them together I'm now killing time on my housemate's computer while windows update runs and files get restored from backup. Then I have to figure out how to turn of all the annoying things about Vista... last one had XP.

 

[SweetErika]

My new computer's bits just arrived by UPS today. in 4 boxes. After spending the evening putting them together I'm now killing time on my housemate's computer while windows update runs and files get restored from backup. Then I have to figure out how to turn of all the annoying things about Vista... last one had XP.

I don't think you can turn off the Vista annoyingness.

With our last computer, we kept XP as a backup on one partition and put Linux on the other. That's the best of both worlds, I think.

 

[CherryBomb24]

Did he ask what you use your computer for, and other questions that would help him make an educated guess on which computer would best suit your needs? Or did he just suggest the $900 one?

At any rate, I agree that you should back your stuff up ASAP (and often!) and research your options for building and buying a new computer while you're seeing how your current one gets along.

I've never read anything from you that makes me think you'd need a $900 computer, though. If you did, you'd probably be far more computer-literate than you say you are. Even my husband, who knows like 1000 times more about computers than I do and IS a gamer, can comfortably work with a $600 budget (for a spiffy new case and everything that goes in it, plus maybe a few extras) for a new desktop and $500 for a new laptop (August/early Sept. is often the best time to buy laptops, with all the back-to-school sales).

Anyway, it sounds like this is a great learning opportunity for you! Assessing your needs and learning the basics can not only help you when you're buying your next parts or computer, it'll save you money in the long run and help you avoid getting ripped off.

yeah he asked me what i use my computer for before he suggested it.
and i'm a gamer. World of Warcraft and the occational online D&D. sounds very nerdy but 'eh its fun lol I may be a gamer, and use my computer for almost everything, but as far as hardware i'm like a doorknob.

 

[jtf71961]

my son just builds the computer from parts on the internet, this computer I am on he built for about $300. It isnt the most state of the art, but close to it! It does what I need it for.

 

[sunandshadow]

I don't think you can turn off the Vista annoyingness.

With our last computer, we kept XP as a backup on one partition and put Linux on the other. That's the best of both worlds, I think.

Well, I'm posting from the new machine now and it doesn't seem noticeably different from the XP I used to have, once I got the stupid crap like account control and widgets disabled. And my MMO runs faster and can run with way better graphics settings. ^_^ Still have about 2 hours of copying files from the backup disk to the new disk to go, though.

 

[sunandshadow]

my son just builds the computer from parts on the internet, this computer I am on he built for about $300. It isnt the most state of the art, but close to it! It does what I need it for.

Yep that's what I just did, the UPS guy brought me 4 boxes of parts from NewEgg (it was like getting christmas presents, except that I had paid for them, lol) and I put them together yesterday.