How to kill a motherboard?

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wadj

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May 30, 2007
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Hello,

A friend of mine bought a computer at futureshop 6 months ago, it was a demo but he didnt know it, 4 months later, it is slow and buggy than ever, he paid for the extented warranty including changing the whole thing if its not possible to repair.

2 months ago he gave the pc to their tech support, they kept it for 6 weeks, and the problems are still there. He gave it back and they said that all computers are buggy, and its like a feature, not a bug..

Can you help me to make that motherboard dead once and for all please, I know it could be hacking-phreaking whatever but the tech support in this Futureshop is really annoying, they wont change the computer.

there is not voltage option in the bios, however we do have a soldering iron.

Thanks in advance! :)
 
I don't even know if this is appropriate for this forum, but you definately do not want to solder anything on the board - that's like shooting it with a gun or using it as a cutting board, all things which will probably void the warranty.

So I'm pretty sure any markers of damage will void the warranty.
 
Have you tried reinstalling the OS, updating all drivers, defrag the HD...?
A lot of things can happen in 4 months that will degrade performance.
Do you have the system specs?
 
Have you tried reinstalling the OS, updating all drivers, defrag the HD...?
A lot of things can happen in 4 months that will degrade performance.
Do you have the system specs?
Click to expand...

I agree, trying to break the system may not be the best course of action. Especially if you are caught out. Then you will have a busted system and that store will probably never honour any warranty from you at all.
 
Fraud's not cool. Forget the idea of destruction. Try to find out the info of each piece of hardware in the pc.
cpuid pcwizard07 is free and can do it. you can update the motherboards bios and other hardware's drivers in the pc. After you use pcwizard07 you could post the info here and someone could help you alot better.
 
Everybody else has given the right answer, you probably shouldnt do it, but this is what I would do if I want to kill a mobo.

1) Rub your feet on a carpet to build up a static charge, touch the mobo. Repeat.

2) Like rammedstein said, flash a crap BIOS. I wouldnt poor water on it, since the board could still be moist or something when you return it. And, that's not guarantee to do it. I've seen people wash mobos before.

3) Buy crappy, $10 psu, plug it into the board, overload the piss out of it until it fails.

4) Take apart a camera with a flash, charge the capacitor (usually in the 350-500 volt range.), touch the anode and cathe to different parts of the mobo.

5) Alligator clamp + 9v battery + mobo capacitor = new mobo.
 
thank you for your answers.

I forgot to mantion that the chipset fan makes annoying noise from time to time, they didnt change it, and yes i know its around 5$ to replace it, the psu makes horrible noise, and yes i know it could be replaced and it cost around 40$.

But there is the fact that my friend wanted the latest computer at that time and they gave him an old A64 with DDR1, at the same price.

What they did was to change the hard drive and the system is still bugging, the motherboard is a no name, cannot find the bios, all drivers are of course updated, with nod32 anti virus, so I dont think its the user problem here..

- I don't beleive putting water on a motherboard would kill it, since it will automaticaly shutdown

- the OS has been reinstalled by them on a new hard drive, we did update the drivers, but the noise is still there, and bugs happens when you come back 1 hour later, even with screensavers off.

- cannot detect motherboard name

1) static just shutdown the motherboard, so it doesnt work

2) cannot flash with crap bios since cannot detect the good one, except if you tell me there is a way to override something? 😀 that would be the best solutions!

3) crappy psu would take a long time to kill it, and we want to change it now

4) we dont have a camera flash..

5) I think I love that idea with battery, do you mean a small battery such a s this one would do the work?
duracell_9v.jpg


Thanks again!
 
Yeah, I'd say 9v of power randomly surging through various circuits would do it.

A sure fire way of destroying the mobo would be to remove one of the capacitors and solder a 12v AC/DC transformer (a crappy power brick from a thrift store will work) to the empty spots, plug the transformer in (that alone might even to do), and power up the computer. After the board is dead, resolder the cap in place and return. Not exactly the smartest thing to do, but it would work.

The dunking in water thing will work eventually if the mobo is plugged in. It's the same principle as the 9v, just over a wider area.

Oh, and the flash cap thing was a joke. Those things are strong enough to kill you if handled incorrectly.

If you want my opinion, if you can't get them or the manufacturer to fix it, cut your loses and move on. You should still kill the mobo and the rest of the computer for fun though.
 
beware: i think if you open the box, the warranty will void!
first: try to fix this with the shop, the reasonable way!

if not:
- shortcut the AGP/pci-express slot wit a few wires
- take a (old) rasor knife from gilette (you know; this one: http://www.uh.edu/engines/gillett2.jpg)
and a little cut in one of the electric paths, almost impossible to see!
- do something creative; basic rule: give something a little too much power and it will break!
 
short circuit motherboard by allowing it to be in contact with the metal case. put a piece of metal betwwen mobo and the case and turn it on. OOOOPPSSS!!! :lol:

actually i unintentionally killed one mobo i had short circuiting it :x
 
nice replies! I'm gonna try those ideas this evening

I will try this in order :

apt403 idea : 12v AC/DC transformer on capacitors

duthoy idea : shortcut the pci-express slot wit a few wire

Valdis idea : put a piece of metal betwwen mobo and the case

C_deck idea : wave a magnet over the bios chip
 
The warnings about warranty fraud already seen are very applicable.

Now if I was going to "test the durability limits" of a mobo, I would focus a heat gun or hair dryer on the chipset or CPU while it was running....until it stopped running, then I would see if it would restart when it cooled down.

This way you will have subjected it to 5 years of use/heat in a shorter time span and found out if it would have lasted 5 years. :twisted:
 
bios ROM chips don't use magnetic media to save settings/data, waving a magnet over it will have no effect unless you are using a magnet big enough to knock the bios chip off the mobo.

leaving marks/evidence of your attempts can hinder your attempts to have the warranty serviced, be careful and wear eye protection. :lol:
 
A friend of mine once killed a motherboard (unintentionally) this way:

With the system running, one of the +12v leads normally seated in the molex power connector attached to his CD drive came loose and fell out of the connector, skidded across the motherboard, created a couple nice blue sparks and resulted in instant death to the mobo. 🙁

[DISCLAIMER]: I am in no way suggesting you should cause something similar to happen to your system, as that would make me an accomplice to warranty fraud, which I want no part of. I was just relating an anecdote that applies to the topic.[/DISCLAIMER]

My friend ended up purchasing new MB/CPU/RAM (vastly upgraded). Maybe it wasn't so "unintentional" after all! 😱
 
The quickest and most surefire way I can think of would be...buy a cheap raidmax powersupply, especially one that comes with a case, just hook it up and let nature take it's course.
 
This is too easy, first you can try what one of our genius customer did:

1. pull wires out of free hd power
2. pull wires out of p4 connector
3. stick now loose hd wires into p4 connector
4. Power on

Results = Dead Mobo

Warning = Ofcourse you could hurt yourself so I have to toss in the obligatory warning... HEALTH WARNING: Alcohol in beer, wine & liquor can cause intoxication, addiction, birth defects.

Ok now that we have that out of the way the idea of using a heat gun from your local hardware store to pop the caps is fantastic there should be some big juicy ones in that old mobo just waiting to end its own life. Hold that heat gun over em for a while "heat guns get crazy hot" and once they starting pussing orange stuff that mobo will be ready to serve. Good luck and try not kill anyone. Also I would appreciate it if you didnt buy any warranty products from my store.
 
Hello,

A friend of mine bought a computer at futureshop 6 months ago, it was a demo but he didnt know it, 4 months later, it is slow and buggy than ever, he paid for the extented warranty including changing the whole thing if its not possible to repair.

2 months ago he gave the pc to their tech support, they kept it for 6 weeks, and the problems are still there. He gave it back and they said that all computers are buggy, and its like a feature, not a bug..

Can you help me to make that motherboard dead once and for all please, I know it could be hacking-phreaking whatever but the tech support in this Futureshop is really annoying, they wont change the computer.

there is not voltage option in the bios, however we do have a soldering iron.

Thanks in advance! :)
Click to expand...



Good luck, I just emailed that company with a link to this post.

FRAUD=WRONG.

Tell me, when someone doesnt know about computers, and the salesman tell the customer that this computer is great, the latest, and if he is having any trouble with it, the optionnal warranty will change it without asking question and in reality, the salesman is selling the oldest computer of the store, used by everyone, which has problems, and when they saw it coming they refused to help..

what would you do if it was your friend?

oh maybe you are mr law and you want to play it by the book, well if you really are that person (I hope Im wrong about my statement to you) then good luck to you with your relationships..
 
Hello,

A friend of mine bought a computer at futureshop 6 months ago, it was a demo but he didnt know it, 4 months later, it is slow and buggy than ever, he paid for the extented warranty including changing the whole thing if its not possible to repair.

2 months ago he gave the pc to their tech support, they kept it for 6 weeks, and the problems are still there. He gave it back and they said that all computers are buggy, and its like a feature, not a bug..

Can you help me to make that motherboard dead once and for all please, I know it could be hacking-phreaking whatever but the tech support in this Futureshop is really annoying, they wont change the computer.

there is not voltage option in the bios, however we do have a soldering iron.

Thanks in advance! :)
Click to expand...

wow! these are the kinds of things that really piss me off. coming from a techs point of view, you said you had the computer for four months before it got bad!?!?!?!?!
if there was a problem with the PC you would have noticed it right away!!!

its actually YOUR fault the PC is "BUGGY" and slow. how much crap has he downloaded and installed. lemme guess, youve tried regmechanic to make it "faster". and so since your not happy you want to make it hell for the techs who do honest work, and physically break the machine? if i worked at this shop i would ask you never to come back again. period.

prople like you dont deserve computers. :evil:
 
Hello,

A friend of mine bought a computer at futureshop 6 months ago, it was a demo but he didnt know it, 4 months later, it is slow and buggy than ever, he paid for the extented warranty including changing the whole thing if its not possible to repair.

2 months ago he gave the pc to their tech support, they kept it for 6 weeks, and the problems are still there. He gave it back and they said that all computers are buggy, and its like a feature, not a bug..

Can you help me to make that motherboard dead once and for all please, I know it could be hacking-phreaking whatever but the tech support in this Futureshop is really annoying, they wont change the computer.

there is not voltage option in the bios, however we do have a soldering iron.

Thanks in advance! :)
Click to expand...

wow! these are the kinds of things that really piss me off. coming from a techs point of view, you said you had the computer for four months before it got bad!?!?!?!?!
if there was a problem with the PC you would have noticed it right away!!!

its actually YOUR fault the PC is "BUGGY" and slow. how much crap has he downloaded and installed. lemme guess, youve tried regmechanic to make it "faster". and so since your not happy you want to make it hell for the techs who do honest work, and physically break the machine? if i worked at this shop i would ask you never to come back again. period.

prople like you dont deserve computers. :evil:

My friend is new with computers, so he didnt know what good and bad was for a computer.

So he couldnt notice it right away

its not his fault if the pc is buggy, if you read careful what I said before, there are problems with the motherboards, there are weird sound from chipset fan and the system hang, even after they changed the hard drive and reinstalled it

no regmechanic, no p2p was installed, only genuine games

I dont understand why you generalize what you are thinking, did I say something that made you bring that?

Its system failure, I know what you mean but you are wrong on this point, please read before accusing and bringing negative here tks
 
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