So, I think my motherboards dying.

[SpaceMouse]

And I think it's been on it's way out for quite a while honestly. I've had constant issues with USB's disconnecting and recently started getting system lockups when playing games, and it seems to be getting worse. I just had to reset again when windoze refused to accept anything from the keyboard or mouse. I thought the lockup issue might have been the graphics card, but 1080's are supposed to be quite reliable and newer or older drivers don't seem to make any difference.

Originally I wanted to upgrade from my AM3 to a i7 but that means I need to sink $500+ into another motherboard, CPU and ram. and I'm a bit lacking in 'funds' currently, since this is pushing 5 years old now.

Thank you for listening to this random rant.

Edited May 5, 2018 by SpaceMouse

[Geonovast]

Boot into a live Linux environment and play around for a few hours, see if you have any USB related problems.  That should tell you if it's hardware, or Windows being stupid with USB drivers, which is likes to be.

Also, install some temp monitoring programs and see if you're simply overheating.  Do you blow the thing out regularly?  How's the thermal paste?

[Gargamel]

Of all the weekends for your MB to die....

How you got it flowers before it goes....

[Nuke]

on an old computer i usually blame the psu. though im sure motherboard degradation does happen. just look at a modern mobo you see banks of switch mode power supplies ringing the cpu. they are just everywhere. one of those caps goes bad and that throws the output voltage out of whack. and all the lead free solder they use makes them hard to replace. it really sucks. my rig is about 4 now and it really needs to be replaced. but since the socket was discontinued and theres a new ram standard again, nothing is upgradeable. and for the longest time i couldnt afford to replace it with something better (for the last couple years its been hard to improve on a 4790k for under a thousand bucks). 

Edited May 5, 2018 by Nuke

[Harry Rhodan]

2 hours ago, Nuke said:

on an old computer i usually blame the psu.

This. Especially since people try to usually take a cheap one to spend more on the shinier bits of hardware.

[StrandedonEarth]

10 hours ago, Nuke said:

on an old computer i usually blame the psu

Hmm, yes. A long time ago (on a pentium 100MHz) a bad PSU was frying the cd-rom drive in a week or less. I went through three cd-roms before I realized it was the PSU.

Also look on the MB for leaking capacitors (those little cylinder-shaped things). If there's crud on the top, then that would be your problem. It's tricky, but someone good with electronics can replace bad caps.

Edited May 5, 2018 by StrandedonEarth

[Geonovast]

Agree it could be the caps. 

A few years ago I picked up a cheap 48 port gigabit switch on eBay.  Listed as working, because it powered on.

Got it, plugged it in to test it, and I had transfer speeds of about 1-3 KBps.

You might notice that that is not gigabit.

Cracked it open to find 23? (IIRC) bad capacitors.  They were a pain to replace because of the type of solder, but I got'r'did, and the switch has been working flawlessly for 3 years now.

Note they don't have to leaking to be bad.  They can just be bulging.  And it is possible for them to be bad with no visible signs.

Seller was pretty cool, too.  I told them it cost me $15 for the new caps, and they refunded me $15.

Edited May 5, 2018 by Geonovast

[Nuke]

^ thats what i meant about all the smps on a mobo these days. an smps will have a diode, a transistor, a cap (or a cluster of them in this case) and an inductor (those toroidal things) in very close proximity. it uses the same parts to step up or down (or both) just arranging them differently. i presume these are all voltages for the processor but i could be mistaken.  these are just as bad as a bad psu because technically it is. these are also the caps under the most stress and will be the likely failure candidates.

replacing caps used to be easy peasy, but on modern mobos they use some really evil leadless solder that just doesnt respond to all my desoldering tricks. and ive tried everything, using solder wick, alloying the solder,  cranking the iron. if they were surface mount they would be easier (i have smd tools), but theres something about through hole parts and modern solders that make me swear a lot. anything that lets you remove a part likely will kill the mobo and or surrounding components in the process. thus means of removal tend to be very destructive. i do this operation a lot on monitors and as a result have a stack of lcd monitors recovered from dumpsters that work now. 

Edited May 5, 2018 by Nuke

[Geonovast]

42 minutes ago, Nuke said:

but on modern mobos they use some really evil leadless solder that just doesnt respond to all my desoldering tricks

I actually had to drill out almost all the holes for the cap leads.  Needless to say, I was shocked when it not only still worked, but worked well.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Geonovast

[Nuke]

5 hours ago, Geonovast said:

I actually had to drill out almost all the holes for the cap leads.  Needless to say, I was shocked when it not only still worked, but worked well.

now i need to get more drill bits. 

[Geonovast]

8 hours ago, Nuke said:

now i need to get more drill bits. 

You wont get one small enough in a standard set.  I got a set of super tiny ones at Harbor Freight for like $4.  So small you can barely see the flutes.

[Nuke]

4 hours ago, Geonovast said:

You wont get one small enough in a standard set.  I got a set of super tiny ones at Harbor Freight for like $4.  So small you can barely see the flutes.

i do got some hss bits for drilling pcbs but thats probibly too soft for drilling out leads.

[p1t1o]

Dont rule out malware or other software based bloat, can cause all of the symptoms you describe. In my experience, if a mobo has a hardware fault, it wont boot at all.

[Gargamel]

On 5/5/2018 at 3:13 AM, Gargamel said:

Of all the weekends for your MB to die....

How you got it flowers before it goes....

Well, that joke would have been funnier if I had the right weekend.

My Mom was sure surprised when I called to wish her a happy mother's day on Sunday....