I had that a couple of times so I think I share it.

When a motherboard is broken there is a good chance that one or more capacitors are broken. That are some of the bigger cylindrical shaped parts with usually a flat top.

When the flat top is bend outwards or even liquid came out than it is dead.

Solution: go to one of the larger computer places like Panthip. Look for the small ugly dirty places, there are the real technicians.

Swapping one costs something like 20-100 Baht.

The effects of broken capacitors can be very different: Read errors from the HD, simply no booting, system crashes, bad picture if integrated graphicard.

Yes. But if you can afford it, upgrade to a new modern "tough" motherboard w/ solid caps, hopefully made in Japan. Last forever.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/

Yes. But if you can afford it, upgrade to a new modern "tough" motherboard w/ solid caps, hopefully made in Japan. Last forever.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1102467-bad-capacitors-how-to-spot-them/

yes these caps last forever but also 1 of these ultra durable motherboard died here....

I have a special problem. We use a software which works only on WinXP and older and not on all computers. Even virtual machines under Win7 can blue screen the complete machine.

Meanwhile we are able to run it in a virtual machine but it is still more comfortable to keep the older motherboards alive as they are more than sufficient.

(as well all the computers are the system so swapping them, reinstallation, etc is very simple).

But surely there are some less wealthy people who prefer to give their computer another year of life for 100 Baht instead of buying a new one.