How do you test a motherboard be it a laptop or desktop with a DMM?

[Nocturnal]

Is this even possible to use a DMM to figure out which capaciter or transistor or whatever is at fault for the board not working?

Would it be a time consuming effort to try and find out what exactly is wrong with a motherboard?

Have you ever done it and what is your success rate?

 

[henryay]

Oh man, a motherboard has so many components. You will probably need a schematic to figure anything out.

 

[Seekermeister]

It could be done, but you would need a couple of years in a tech school or be an excellent self learner.

 

[Nocturnal]

Originally posted by: Seekermeister
It could be done, but you would need a couple of years in a tech school or be an excellent self learner.

That is what I figured. Definitely something I'm not up for and definitely not something that Geek Squad or Circuit City would be able to do either.

 

[phisrow]

It depends on the form of the failure. Ferreting out bad electrolytic caps isn't so bad. The physical damage is often evident, there aren't that many of them, and you can test them, at least for gross failure, pretty easily.

Burned regulators are doable as well, just on visual examination, though any components they might have taken with them will be a very, very tricky matter.

The punchline is, if you can see any dead caps or burned regulators, it's worth a shot to replace them and see what happens; but pretty much any other sort of damage is uneconomic/impossible to repair.

 

[Seekermeister]

I have never replaced any caps, but I read some prices and info on an online motherboard repair service, that offers sets of caps for different MBs, and considering the cost, hassle, etc. I would buy a new MB, unless I had a very expensive one.