CPU or MB?

Hi!

I really want to know how to differentiate between CPU malfunction and MB malfunction. Is there a way to decide without having to switch the CPU or MB?
Are there any guide lines that can quickly address the problem?

:confused

 

It can be tricky. Several years of experience has told me that CPU's fail much less often than motherboards. For every 15 motherboards that fail, MAYBE 1 CPU goes south on you (if that). Chances are it's the MB (or RAM or HD or video card or modem or NIC or IDE controller or northbridge/southbride chip or BIOS or power supply or bad cables or dust build-up or.... or.... et al) I'm not trying to be a smart a** here, but without more info, it's almost impossible to help you diagnose the problem.

 

Thank you, I wasn't trying to diagnose a specific situation. It was a general scientific question, and for this sort of questions, it is your experience that I seek for.

To tell you the truth, I have two PCs thrown in my room waiting to work again, but I'm fed up with them because I tried swapping all the parts you talked about, and it didn't work. The only left option is the CPU/MB

When you said "IDE controller or northbridge/southbride chip or BIOS", isn't this considered an MB malfunction? Can we isolate it? Or can we fix it?

What about an MB that isn't detecting RAM absence? It's one of the two PCs I told you about.

Thank you again.

:wave