Mobo Diagnostic Utility

[tech_guy]

Hi,

 

We've got a teacher's pc and I need a mobo diagnostic utility as I think the mobo ( a MSI MS-6340M ) is duff - looks like some of the capacitors are bulging a little bit.

 

Can anyone recommend a good diag utility that will confirm the board is dying?

 

The PC reboots all the time and I've tested/replaced everything else.

 

Many thanks.

[mac_shinobi]

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloadindex

 

if you go to the above link there are drop down menus ie what type of cpu , intel , amd, then what type of slot ie slot 1, socket 478 etc etc and you should be able to find something on there site I would of thought.

 

With it having bulging caps though, prolly better off just getting a new machine.

 

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodarchive&maincat_no=1

 

in the socket A section and that takes you to the relevant motherboard ( there is a version 3.0 of the board you mention as well )

 

possibly ( a long shot ) a bios update ?

Edited February 11, 2008 by gecko

[JOrdan01070]

not used any diagnostic software for many years but i was tempted to get one of these

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-PC-Computer-Analyzer-Diagnostic-POST-Test-Card-PCI_W0QQitemZ160204822416QQihZ006QQcategoryZ1244QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

from ebay for 8 pound posted

[tech_guy]

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloadindex

 

if you go to the above link there are drop down menus ie what type of cpu , intel , amd, then what type of slot ie slot 1, socket 478 etc etc and you should be able to find something on there site I would of thought.

 

With it having bulging caps though, prolly better off just getting a new machine.

 

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodarchive&maincat_no=1

 

in the socket A section and that takes you to the relevant motherboard ( there is a version 3.0 of the board you mention as well )

 

possibly ( a long shot ) a bios update ?

 

Thanks gecko. It shows however how old the board is - you can only flash the bios after copying it to the hdd and then you have to boot to a dos prompt and run the executable from the hdd. The drive is ntfs so I can't see it! D'oh!

[tech_guy]

not used any diagnostic software for many years but i was tempted to get one of these

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-PC-Computer-Analyzer-Diagnostic-POST-Test-Card-PCI_W0QQitemZ160204822416QQihZ006QQcategoryZ1244QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

from ebay for 8 pound posted

 

Hi thanks for the tip. I've looked at these before but wondered if they are actually of any use. Has anyone used one of these?

 

I've heard a friend tried a similar one and it fried his board bigtime lol!

[mac_shinobi]

Thanks gecko. It shows however how old the board is - you can only flash the bios after copying it to the hdd and then you have to boot to a dos prompt and run the executable from the hdd. The drive is ntfs so I can't see it! D'oh!

 

in windows go to folder options and make sure all system and hidden files are shown

 

also put all the files into one folder on the root of the C drive that way you can do a cd to that dir and run it from there.

 

That way you know the files exist in that directory.

[PeterW]

Has anyone used one of these?

 

I tend to use them less these days as mainly all they are telling you is at what piont the system is through posting. It won't really help you to tell if you have bad caps or stability issues. If the board is duff it is unlikey to give any post output at all, they are more usefull if you have lots of addon cards or peripherals.

 

The board you have is about 7 years old and I do remember lots of boards from that time having bad caps issues. Ahh the MS-6340 MSI's first Micro ATX socket A mainboard (little brother of the 6330 K7T Pro MSI board with live update that had a knack of wiping the BIOS while halfway through a Windows 98 install, later fixed) LOL

[mac_shinobi]

http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=11

 

I think there are one or two other sites like this that give you tutorials on how to replace them etc etc.

 

Obviously at your own risk

[ricki]

Have a look at http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ Download the iso and create a cd from it. Then boot the machine from the disk. There are loads of test on in.

 

Richard:)