So, my motherboard is dead

[colleyvillesooner]

Took the computer to best Buy to get a quick diagnosis, as it died on Friday right before I left town. I needed it looked at quick because we are making a video for our rehersal dinner in two weeks.

He told me what was wrong, but I can't remember exactly what he said. There were 3 small round things he pointed at and said they were toast. They had a rust color on top of them that isn't normally there.

This computer was put together by a guy who runs a small computer shop. It's about 3-4 years old.

What is my next step to get this fixed? I assume it's harder than getting a new one at fry's and pluggin everything back into it. I trust the guy who made it. How long is the turn around on something like that? I have to get this thing fixed ASAP.

All the info is still on my hard drive, correct?

I ask because our wedding guest list and other wedding things are on there and I need to get to them. Is there a way to take the hard drive out and make another computer recognize it to pull the data off?

Any help would be appreciated.

[OCUDad]

Your data isn't lost - or shouldn't be. Other machines with the same OS will recognize your disk, either internally (if you want to use it as the system disk in a new machine) or externally (if you want to buy a cheap enclosure and power supply and use it as an external disk).

There's about eight zillion ways to address the motherboard problem and I'll let the rest of the geeks walk you through each and every one. But you should know your data is safe.

[mdklatt]

I ask because our wedding guest list and other wedding things are on there and I need to get to them. Is there a way to take the hard drive out and make another computer recognize it to pull the data off?


Absolutely. You should be able to plug your hard drive into any other computer running the same OS* and access the files.

*It doesn't even necessarily have to be the same OS--Linux will recognize drives with Windows formatting, for example.

[Turd_Ferguson]

What is my next step to get this fixed? I assume it's harder than getting a new one at fry's and pluggin everything back into it. I trust the guy who made it. How long is the turn around on something like that? I have to get this thing fixed ASAP.

Had the same thing happen to our PC. Took it back to the same nerd that built it and he had a new mother board put in within a day. Works like a charm now, for the exception of when I boot up, the screen says "SATA DEVICE NOT FOUND". Whatever the hell that means:mad:

[colleyvillesooner]

Thanks all.

The IT guy here at work hooked my Drive up to his computer and pulled off all our wedding information. Phew!

I already backup all my pictures last week when it started being funny, so I've got those.

I'm taking it to the guy tomorrow to fix it.

Thanks again.

[StuIsTheMan]

They are all messing with you...YOUR DOOMED!

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/7725/jan31gal37nx6.jpg (http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/)

[85Sooner]

Glad its just the mother board I glanced real quick and missed the board part and it scared me

[sanantoniosooner]

At least you can still count on the Mother Ship.

[BajaOklahoma]

Colley, you have reached the point at which I bought an external hard drive to back up my files. It is well worth the moeny.

And, FWIW, you can take your CPU or laptop to CompUSA for them to back it up for you. Since I had my own hard drive to copy everything onto, they would have charged me only 50.00 - well worth it at the time.

[Czar Soonerov]

Just don't take a shower while they're working on your computer.

[OUDoc]

Rub some dirt on it.

[GottaHavePride]

Had the same thing happen to our PC. Took it back to the same nerd that built it and he had a new mother board put in within a day. Works like a charm now, for the exception of when I boot up, the screen says "SATA DEVICE NOT FOUND". Whatever the hell that means:mad:

That device not found message just means the computer is not finding an SATA device (hard drive or CD drive usually) connected somewhere that it expects there to be one attached.

[mdklatt]

Works like a charm now, for the exception of when I boot up, the screen says "SATA DEVICE NOT FOUND". Whatever the hell that means:mad:

Check your CMOS settings.

[soonerboomer93]

rust on the capacitors wouldn't kill the board, he was full of **** about the actual cause. Wether the board is dead or not is another story, but atleast he shouldn't have blown smoke up your *** about it.

[mdklatt]

rust on the capacitors wouldn't kill the board, he was full of **** about the actual cause.

Conditions that lead to rust don't seem real good for electronics. :D

[OCUDad]

rust on the capacitors wouldn't kill the board, he was full of **** about the actual cause. Wether the board is dead or not is another story, but atleast he shouldn't have blown smoke up your *** about it.Having a "rust color on top" and being rusted aren't the same thing. Could be burned-out components, too. Just saying.

[soonerboomer93]

I've seen many bad capacitors inside computers. The rust and the condidtions that lead to rust well, frankly they occur and capacitors will get some signs on it. That's not unusually, especially in high humid environment.

Frankly, every capacitor I've seen fail on a mainboard will basically pop, meaning there will be some damage to the external of it...

[SoonerTerry]

rust on the capacitors wouldn't kill the board, he was full of **** about the actual cause. Wether the board is dead or not is another story, but atleast he shouldn't have blown smoke up your *** about it.

It obviously had a few of the 80 kerjillion bad capacitors that came out a while back. Dell got a load of them. Been thru 2 or 3 MOBO's here at my work station.

Just one more reason building your own is better...

[soonerboomer93]

not necessairily. I worked for a company that had to replace capacitors on a ****load of systems at lewisville school district in texas. They were all custom built machines. But again, all the capacitors showed signs of failure other then "rust like coloring"

[OUinFLA]

did you have sex on it?

[colleyvillesooner]

well, yeah.

[OUDoc]

Then that's not rust.




I'm really not sure exactly what that's supposed to mean.

[StuIsTheMan]

I got it...Did you REBOOT?

[sooner_born_1960]

I replaced the motherboard, power supply, memory, and cpu about 18 months ago. When I hooked everything up, with the old hard drive, it booted fine. Everything was intact. I was surprised.

[OCUDad]

I'm really not sure exactly what that's supposed to mean.A real doctor would never say such a thing. He'd bluff his way through the diagnosis.

[OUDoc]

A real doctor would never say such a thing. He'd bluff his way through the diagnosis.
If you're paying me, I'll tell you whatever you need to hear.;)