ADVANCED Motherboard/Hard Drive/Power Supply/Video Card/Processor Troubleshooting & Maintenance Tips
MOTHERBOARD:1. As much as possible AVOID electrostatic discharge into the boards circuitry. Careless handling can cause irreversible damage to boards chips due to
the discharge..
- to avoid ESD (electrostatic discharge), ground yourself first before touching the board. Easiest way is to touch the motherboards chassis
while installing the motherboard
2. DO NOT update your BIOS if you're not technically competent to do so.
3. DO NOT clear CMOS while your system is turned on. Its recommended to unplug your system before doing so.
4. DO NOT power on unless cards have been properly seated in their slots. This includes your RAM modules.
5. DO NOT Remove / ADD IDE (harddrives, cd-drives) while system is powered on, this will likely cause irreversible damage to your motherboard.
6. DO NOT detach any devices from your motherboard while system is ON. Whether its a cable or not.
Exception: USB Devices, they are designed specifically for that. But its still recommended you STOP the device before unplugging it from the port.
7. As much as POSSIBLE do not OverClock your system, unless you are ready to spend some more for OC troubles.
-OverClocking in simplest description, is pushing a unit in your system BEYOND its LIMIT. Additional information below
8. When placing a motherboard inside your Chassis make sure you only provide "seats" for those screw holes on your motherboard, especially if your screw seats are metals... Ignorance of this may cause your system not to BOOT or burn something on your motherboard because of that seat shorting any pins on your mobo.
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Some things that shows you have something wrong with your motherboard:1. Bulging capacitors. (This is familiar with the old model capacitors)
2. CMOS checksum error that doesn't go off after replacing CMOS battery.
3. Random RESTARTING.
4. Power On Self Test (POST) hang-ups.
5. No display, no beep.
HARD DRIVE:Some simple things to lengthen your HD's lifespan:
1. always shut down PC through Shutdown command in Windows, using RESET button or POWER-OFF button increases the probability of a HEAD CRASH.
the HEAD assembly has to be relocated to a safe parking position on the platter surface where no user data resides before turning off power to the HDD, and this is nicely executed through the SHUTDOWN command.
- for those instances that you are in BIOS or DOS which has no shutdown procedure just be sure that your HDD led is not lighted before your turn off. That HDD led is the best indicator if any of your Drives are in operation.
2. Regularly check the power connector to the HDD for looseness, as a loose power connector keeps the HDD trying to constantly RESET/INITIALIZE for lack of power to the motor.
3. Never settle for a cheap/poorly-regulated GENERIC POWER SUPPLY for your PC, because a sagging +5V or +12V rail can lead to hard disk drive damage.
4. Your HDD is more sensitive to shock/vibration while in operation, so do not move the CPU if possible while your PC is ON.
5. Avoid excessive shock when handling your HDD, esp. do not let it fall from more than 2-3 inches high. otherwise the read/write HEAD would touch the platter surface (HEAD CRASH), and this causes the familiar KNOCKING SOUND that renders your HDD beyond repair.
6. For laptop HDDs, turn your laptop OFF when not in use.
Laptop HDDs are more susceptible to HEAD DAMAGE out of overheating, owing to the very poor air circulation inside any laptop case.
7. NEVER EVER attempt to open the case of your HDD for curiosity reasons as to what's inside & how it looks like...
this renders your HDD beyond repair, since even a fine cigarrete dust sandwiched between the platter surface and the read/write head causes a major surface scratch when the platter starts to rotate at very high RPM.
8. Tighten your hard drive screws when you attach it in its bay.
9. Make sure the IDE / SATA cables you are using are not defective. Some people conclude their hard drive is dead, but in reality it's the IDE cable that's faulty.
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Common things that show problems with your HD1. Time for detecting your Hard Drive is too long... a 20sec detecting time for a HD in POST Screen is abnormal already.
-theres a problem with the HDD's Logic Board
-there's corruption in HDD firmware
-problems in drive's mechanisms
-there may also be a problem with your IDE system in your board.
2. You can hear CLICKING noises from your hard drives.
3. READ problems. (BAD Sectors)
-it takes a lots of time to launch applications.. HDD led is just lighted.
-Computer Crashes when opening / launching programs.
-During FORMAT. Takes a long time in some part of the format process. example.. it pauses at 56% for 10mins. in DOS environment... during format it shows "Recovering allocation unit f***" where in # is any number. It shows up when getting a hard time writing and reading a specific point in the drive. This is a clear thing that will identify your Harddrive in some trouble.
POWER SUPPLY UNIT:1. Wattage Recommendation for Single-Core Processors
250W PSU for processor speed up to 866mhz
300W PSU from 866mhz proc speed up to 2ghz
400W PSU from 2ghz to 3ghz+ (assuming that you have included high-end components in your pc), if not, 350W PSU will do.
NOTE: Good power supplies will have a +12V rail of at least 15A or higher, or even dual +12V rails. The +5V rail should also be rated at 30A at least. Overloading any of the PSU's rail will just blow up something inside it and wont turn on anymore.
PSU Calculator:http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/for you to have an idea to what PSU is just right for your system.
BETTER GET BRANDED Power Supply Units, Like HEC, Antec, PowerSuite,Silverstone, OCZ2. Choose PSU's that having short-circuit protection system for safety. In case short circuit will occur in any part of your computer, your PSU will automatically cut off power and reduce possible damages.
- Provide lower resistance fuse.
3. Check for loose wires in your Floppy Molex Cable, AUX, P4 pins and main 5v+ & 12V+ Molex to lessen troubles in powering up your drives and etc.
4. Clean your PSU once in two months to improve heat dissipation from its heat sinks inside.
5. Never attempt to connect any drive, lights and etc. when your system is currently turned on it may cause sparks / short circuits thus puting your system inoperable until you turned off and restart.
6. To check whether your PSU can still be powered on, look at your ATX cable and short the GREEN wire to any black(negative) wire. "do this at your own risk" -
VIDEO CARD:1. Never OVERCLOCK your video card, unless you know what you are doing.
2. Just like any processor, your video card's GPU (graphics processing unit) must be kept COOL which is a MUST for today's graphics processors.
Note that there are OLD GFX processors that could stand up with high temperatures just like Geforce2 mx chips, and not necessarily cooled.
3. In cleaning you're your video card's slot connector. I recommend you to use pencil erasers just like Mongol Pencil's eraser.
4. Before plugging in the monitor's male connector to your VGA connector, check if any pin(s) are pushed down towards it hence will give you display trouble(s).
5. Never UPDATE your Vcard's BIOS unless your are competent to do so, just like with any motherboard.
PROCESSOR:1. NEVER POWER ON without processor cooler or properly installed cooler. This may cause irreversible damage to your CPU.
2. Never OVERCLOCK your processor if possible, unless your are ready to spend more money for extra stuff like keeping it cool.
Overclocking does come with some risks, however, such as over-heating, so you should be familiar with all the pros and cons before you attempt it. Which will be discussed later on
3. Renew thermal paste/compound once in two months.
Thermal grease (also called "Thermal compound" or "Thermal paste") is a substance used to help the conduction of heat between two (usually metal) surfaces. It is often used to aid the thermal dissipation of central processing units via a heatsink.
- this is not applicable for older processors (slot type)
4. Always provide the most RELEVANT cooler for your processor with bigger Heat sinks and fans.
5. Avoid excessive force towards the processor's core or chip when installing your cooling component. You might break these cores and will never like its consequence.
OVERCLOCKING:Running a certain microprocessor faster than the speed for which it has been tested and approved. Overclocking is a popular technique for making out a little more performance from a system. You can force your CPU to run faster than it was intended simply by setting a jumper on the motherboard or by just adjusting some settings right on your BIOS, most epox motherboards incorporates this functionality.
Things that can be adjusted to achieve overclocking:
a. CPU Multiplier for internal combustion of processing inside your core
b. FSB (Front Side Bus) speed across your proc vcard ram hd pci devices and etc. in short, all interfaces within your motherboard.
c. VCORE (core voltage of processor) more electricity injected into the core.
d. Memory host speed (bandwidth) transfer speed between your RAM(s) to the motherboard
e. Memory Latency Timings sets how fast data / informations can move within your RAM(s).
PROS:a. Faster Performance
CONS:a. Heat
b. Extra bucks for cooling
c. Random computer errors (crashes/freezing) for those who had too much juice squeezed and or incompatible settings. Some users tend to overclock too much using their middle range Motherboard and components in which it can't support.
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Subject: ADVANCED Mobo/Harddrive/PSU/Vcard/Processor TIPS and Maintenance 
June 17th 2008, 11:33 am
