Intel I3-540 Compatible Motherboard

[Whatsjorick]

So a friend of mine gave me his pc, with the message: 'The motherboard is broken, good luck with it.'

So after a lot of checking, yes it was broken.

- Everytime windows booted, he showed the windows message, then gave blue screen and rebooted. And i searched the internet for what could help me fixing this motherboard-reboot-crash-problem. I used the recovery jumper, but it didn't work. I restored the motherboard settings ( in the BIOS) but it didn't work either.

It doesn't matter what HDD i connect to the pc, i grabbed a new HDD with windows XP on it, and it still gave blue screen and then rebooted. On the old HDD was Windows 7 installed, and exactly the same issue.

So now i was thinking, could i get an other motherboard that is compatible with my processor and other items? I have an I3-540 ( 3,06 ghz). I also have 6 GB memory running on 1033 MHZ, i'm not sure if it's NON-ECC buffered. I have an Geforce 9600GT.

PS: my english isn't very good, i'm sorry for that.

Does anybody have suggestions for an good motherboard for not to much money? I really appreciate every answer!

 

[Chicano]

In my experience motherboard damage shows as a black screen (no video), with no BIOS post, no beeps, no LEDs, sometimes no fans, etc. So, if Windows starts to load, the problem may not be the motherboard precisely but possibly SATA drivers, bloken SATA port, damaged SATA cable, bad PSU, wrong BIOS Hard Drive settings... depending on the present setting, try AHCI, or IDE mode which is more likely to allow boot... BTW, have you tried connecting a hard drive in another SATA port?.

As for a new motherboard, these are your options, just make sure you have DDR3 RAM (to go with any of these motherboards, as DDR2 also came in 1066Mhz):
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#s=15
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002YH8BO4/?tag=pcpapi-20
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-LGA1156-Motherboard-Retail-BOXDP55WB/dp/B002N2Z0KS/ref=pd_cp_e_0
The least expensive socket 1156 mobo I found
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOXDP67DEB3-Desktop-Board/dp/B004Q7IABO/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

 

[Calvin7]

Intel DP55WB LGA1156
http://www.compuvest.com/Desc.jsp?iid=1856616

 

[Whatsjorick]

Chicano, thank you so much. So here is what i did to solve the problem:

I changed my BIOS settings to AHCI, resetted all the jumpers before i did that. And voila, he booted. So now i connected my old HDD to it, with a new SATA cable in the same SATA slot as before. And he booted Windows 7!

So after all it just was a wrong BIOS setting. So now i have a other question.

My motherboard has a DVI-D and VGA output on the motherboard.
My videocard is a Nvidia Geforce 230 GT.

Can i plug my second monitor into the output on my motherboard, or do i first have to change something in the BIOS before i can and it will work?

I really appreciate your fast answers, thank you for your help!

 

[Chicano]

Yeah looks like your friend played around with the BIOS settings and messed it up... lucky you!.. Nah!!.. It's possible the BIOS battery is draining down... check it's got 3 volts or close to.. and replace it if it's not.. or just replace it to be safe.. they're cheap enough.

Yes, the second monitor will work... you may have to set the default monitor and do some tweaking in the Control Panel > Display > and Multiple Displays.... The only necessary BIOS setting may be to check/set the type of video card and memory, and possibly to set the default/primary video device.

Here's some detailed information on settings multiple displays in Windows 7.
http://www.dual-monitor.biz/2011/08/25/dual-monitor-windows-7-2/