They come with Pentium III or Celeron Socket 370 desktop processors, running one core at 667, 733, 800, 866, 933, 1000 or 1100 MHz frequency. Intel’s 815E chipset connects the processor to the rest of the computer through a 133MHz SDRAM memory bus, 66MHz AGP 2.0 and 33MHz PCI interfaces. The two memory sockets support up to 2 x 256MB non-ECC modules, but the 64bit data bus suggests that some 512MB modules also work in the Dell Dimension 4100 desktop computers. Sound card, network adapter and many I/O ports are on-board.

A Video Card For A Dell Dimension 4100

We are more interested in the AGP slot, which has a very big influence on system speed, as most demanding applications and games need a good graphics card. Unfortunately the AGP 2.0 standard only supports 4X and 2X bus widths, so the latest video card models released today for AGP 8X won’t work. On the nVidia side Geforce 6200 is as high as you can go with the 200Watt power supply and 4X AGP slot. They are still available in most computer shops from eVGA for example.

The advantages of this kind of cards is the three different ports, allowing you to connect the computer to a television, digital LCD monitor or analog CRT/LCD trough the S-Video, DVI and analog VGA ports respectively. DirectX 9.0 is also supported by Geforce 6200 cards, so games with basic 3D graphics like World of Warcraft (at least the first edition) and GTA 3 run well in lower resolutions.

A Video Card For A Dell Dimension 4100

From the ATI side, users report the successful installation of All in Wonder 8500 cards, Radeon 9200 and Radeon X1400 cards. This means that only low-end cards are supported, mostly because of the limited 200Watt power supply.

A radical solution for a better graphics card would be to replace the motherboard, microprocessor and memory with a $39 nVidia motherboard + $39 AMD Sempron 2.7GHz processor + $17 1GB DDR2 memory. These components have a total power consumption under 75Watts, so the rest of the power supply’s energy (125Watts) can go to a much better PCI-Express 16X card, up to AMD Radeon 67xx. The motherboard also has an on-board Geforce 7050 graphics processor, which may satisfy basic 3D computing needs. In terms of performance, Geforce 7050 is somewhere near the Geforce 6200 card.

The minimal heatsink attached to the fan indicates that not a lot of heat can be handled by this specific design. Efficiency is also reduced by the adhesive tape applied to the bottom of the heatsink. On the other hand this design – with no mounting holes – makes it possible to attach the small cooling system to almost any chip that needs cooling.

Ap4505mx-g90 Video Card Fan

Originally it was designed for ATI Radeon 8500 All-in-wonder video cards, even though a few things don’t make sense. For example the fan uses 5V current and spins at up to 5800RPM. In today’s computers 5V fans are only used in laptops and maybe in (very) small form factor desktop computers. USB-powered devices also use 5V fans (because only 5V comes out of the USB port), but there aren’t many in this category. The laptop cooling pad may be the only USB accessory with fans in it.

Ap4505mx-g90 Video Card Fan

The AP4505MX-G90 video card fan is very quiet, despite it’s very high rotational speed. At 5800RPM it consumes 0.45Watts of power and makes about 25dB of noise. Today’s video card coolers usually exceed all the specs, because they have to get rid of much more heat. Expensive video card cooling solutions make just under 20dB of noise, while the cheapest ones can go as high as 40 or 45dB.

At this moment the AP4505MX-G90 video card fan is available for ~11EURO, but it will most likely disappear, as much more efficient solutions cost even less. The number of ATI 8500 AIW cards in use will also eventually drop to zero, so there won’t be any hardware component around which would require this exact type on cooling fan.

Acer Video Card Ase380-ed401a

As you can see the Acer Aspire ASE380-ED401A desktop computer isn’t anything special, except for the fact that on every accessory (keyboard, mouse, speakers) we see the ACER logo.

By default is comes with 2GB of DDR2 memory, 250GB of hard drive space and a standard 16X DVD burner. The two main components that have much to do with the video card are the mainboard and power supply. This desktop is equipped with one of the first successful PCI-Express 16X video cards, ATI Radeon X1650SE.

Acer Video Card Ase380-ed401a

The 250Watt power supply can easily handle this video card, which is powered only from the PCI-Express slot, no additional power cables are required. This was possible thanks to the advancement made in manufacturing technology. The Radeon X1650 chip is an improved version of the Radeon X1600 design, manufactured on smaller silicons.

Although the Acer Aspire ASE380-ED401A desktops are no longer sold new, and don’t offer as much performance as any cheap low-end dual core desktop computer sold today, they may be used successfully for home or office work and even gaming. Because of the PCI-Express 16X slot and the 250Watt power supply you may upgrade the video card to any new model with a maximum power consumption under ~120Watts. They will need an additional 4-pin or 6-pin power cable, but gaming experience will be significantly improved.

For example you may install an nVidia Geforce GTX 540 or ATI Radeon 5770, even though the manufacturer specifies 450Watt requirement. In brand name desktops the power supply usually supports the maximum constant load, up to 250Watts in this case, while cheap power supplies allow just half of that.

ATA

Look at the next picture, and see how big is the difference between an IDE/PATA port and a much faster SATA port.

Ata 2

As mini-ITX motherboards are becoming more and more popular, such large connectors and wide cables can no longer be used in computers. Imagine the large IDE/ATA connector and cable on a mini-ITX motherboard.

Motherboard

On the latest AMD mini-ITX board they were able to put SATA3 ports, four generations better than the IDE/ATA interface. Physically a single IDE connector takes up as much space as four or five such high-speed SATA3 ports, so there’s no reason to implement these old connectors anymore.

ATA hard drives are no longer manufactured in large numbers. Some companies decided to make SSD (solid state drive) modules for IDE interfaces too, to address customers who don’t want to abandon their laptops or other kind of digital multimedia devices yet, but want storage devices in them, based on the latest technologies.

ATA

There’s also a lucky coincidence (or very intelligent move?) when we compare IDE and SATA laptop hard drives. The newer SATA hard drives are a bit shorter, so some manufacturers recognized the opportunity to build some IDE to SATA adapters for laptops, which can be used to install the largest SATA hard drives in old laptops with IDE/ATA interface.

ATA

This also allows you to install SATA hard drives in optical drive bays in laptops with only IDE interface, or with SATA for the hard drive and IDE for the optical drive. Imagine and old Pentium M 1.8GHz laptop system stuffed with two 1TB 2.5” SATA hard drives. That’s almost 2TB of usable storage space, while an optical drive can still be connected externally through a USB 2.0 port.

Bottom line, ATA laptop hard disk drives (HDD) will soon disappear, as old laptop systems based on outdated technologies are no longer efficient enough to use. Laptops are moving toward ~10Watt total power consumption.

HP is not the biggest manufacturer, but today I’m going to look at some of its system configurations and prices. Under $500 there are two all-in-one computer configurations, complete with mouse and keyboard.

Computer Parts from gearlive.com

HP Omni 100z prices start from $449.99. The basic configuration includes:
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
- low-power AMD Athlon II 170u processor running at 2GHz with 1MB of L2 cache
- 2GB (one module) of DDR3-1066 SODIMM memory
- 500GB 7200RPM SATA2 hard drive
- ATI Radeon 4270 graphics
- Super multi slim DVD burner with LightScribe
- Wireless Wi-fi B/G/N network card
- 6 in 1 memory card reader
- wired HP USB keyboard and optical mouse
- 20” 1600 x 900 high definition screen

To choose a simple desktop (separate monitor and system cases) first we have to match the 20” 1600 x 900 monitor.

Computer Monitor from kurich.com

The HP S2031 LCD monitor costs $139.99, so $360 are left for the system.

Computer Case from hpshopping.speedera.net

The second cheapest computer system costs $349, the HP P6710T to be more specific. It includes:
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
- Intel Celeron 450 2.2GHz single core processor
- 3GB of DDR3-800 memory
- 500GB 7200RPM SATA2 hard drive
- Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics with shared memory
- 16X Super Multi DVD burner
- Integrated Ethernet
- HP USB keyboard and optical mouse

These two computers are very similar in performance, although the all-in-one AMD computer is much more efficient and takes up less desk space. Now let’s put together a $500 custom computer from computer parts sold separately at newegg.com.

Computer Parts from highspeedbackbone.ne

The 20” Acer G205HBbd monitor costs $109.9, so $390 are left for the computer system, mouse and keyboard.

Computer Case from newegg.com

Dynapower USA made a nice looking ATX computer case, which costs $22.99 with a 430Watt power supply inside. It supports both ATX and mATX motherboard formats. $357 are left.

A combo deal at newegg.com includes a USB wired keyboard and Wireless laser mouse for $26.98. $330 remain.

Computer Hard Drive from newegg.com

The cheapest 500GB hard drive costs $44.99, $285 are left.

DVD Burner from newegg.com

A 24x Lite-on DVD burner costs $15.99 at newegg.com.

2GB of DDR3 cost $19.99, so the rest ($249) will be spent on the processor and motherboard, and after that we’ll see which computer system is the best option.

Newegg.com has an incredible offer, an EVGA LGA1156 motherboard and a true quad-core Core i5-760 processor running at 2.8GHz. This exceeds our budget by $20, but represents one of the most cost-effective solutions available at this moment.

To stay within the $500 budget, you may choose an ECS LGA1156 motherboard and Core i3-550 (dual core with HyperThreading) processor combo deal for $169 (after rebate). This is still better than both HP computers and there are also $70 left in your pocket for additional 500GB hard drive, 2GB DDR3 memory or whatever.

The conclusion is simple, a custom built computer from parts (under $500) is better than what HP has to offer. If you do this exercise with other computer brands, you should get very similar results.

On the other hand their internal computer parts are pretty much the same and offer the same performance. The only huge difference is in the number of installable optical and internal hard drives.

The big tower looks like a standard ATX computer case.

As you can see there’s a lot of unused space inside, and probably that’s why Compaq redesigned it to fin in smaller cases. The mainboard is based on the Intel 845G chipset, which has an integrated Intel Extreme graphics processor, DDR1 memory controller and support for AGP and PCI buses. IDE, Floppy, audio and other devices are handled by separate chips on the mainbord. The big tower supports two 5.25” drives and three 3.5” drives (1 external + 2 internal for hard drives), for which it has two double IDE cables and one floppy cable. The power supply is limited to 220Watts of output.

The smaller desktop, designed to fit under a monitor, has a similar mainboard with two PCI slots and one AGP. IDE and floppy connectors are in a different position, but the chipset is the same as the one in the big tower.

What you have to know is that the AGP slot supports only half-height cards and there’s room for only one optical drive, one 3.5” hard drive, and one floppy drive. The power supply can provide 175Watts to the components, so there shouldn’t be any problems if you install the fastest processor, biggest hard drive and the most powerful graphics card.

Compaq managed to reduce the D510 design even more, and came up with a strange looking “e-pc”, which no longer has space for a standard 5.25” optical drive, but only for a notebook drive. For internal storage the 3.5” drive bay has been kept. On the other hand all expansion card slots have been removed from the design and the power supply is also weaker than the ones in bigger towers.

The truly great achievement of Compaq was the ultra-slim desktop, measuring only 7 x 32 x 33 cm, which was very impressive at the time. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it, but the power supply in this small desktop computer can output 75Watts max (50Watts average). This means that this Compaq D510 doesn’t support the fastest processors, maybe some low-voltage models. A notebook optical drive and a 3.5” hard drive can be found in this model too, but no possibility to install any add-in cards.

All in all they were very good computers when they were released, but today they may be used only for standard home or office work if system memory is upgraded to 1 or 2GB. Another problem users have to face is that the integrated graphics card doesn’t support many of the most popular monitor resolutions such as 1366 x 768, 1440 x 900, 1600 x 900, 1920 x 1080 …etc. For those models that support dedicated graphics cards this problem may be solvable by installing a second hand, very old graphics card, but with flexible drivers. Recently manufactured AGP graphics cards don’t work in none of these Compaq D510 machines, because they need 8X slots and voltage also differs.

DDR1 memory modules are still available worldwide, at very high prices of course, but if you happen to like these Compaq machines, then it may be worth investing in a decent memory upgrade (to 1GB or 2GB).

IDE hard drives can also be purchased today, so by installing a 160GB – 500GB hard drive too, the final result may be a decent little computer which can handle many tasks. Theoretically the optical drives can be upgraded to DVD-burners, but there may be some power consumption issues, as DVD burners in general require much more power.

8088 XT computers had one external port for the keyboard and that’s it. The rest of the internal and external devices had to be connected through additional controllers inserted into ISA expansion slots.

Since then more and more controllers were built onto the mainbord, in fact nowadays everything is handled by a 1-3 chips on the mainboard, including external PS2, USB, COM, LPT, VGA, audio, Ethernet, eSATA, FireWire and internal IDE, floppy, SATA, USB (for frontal ports) …etc.

These ports are on the back panel of a 1st generation iCore, LGA1156 motherboard, but even on much older and cheaper motherboard you’ll find most of these ports.

After manufacturers successfully integrated everything on the motherboard, now their new goal is to squeeze every controller into the processor. The motherboard shown above already uses processors with the memory controller and graphics chip inside, but in the future we can expect to find everything inside the processor and the motherboard will only have wires leading from the processor to the ports. Unfortunately the total size of the personal computer will not be reduced by much even if all the slots and ports will be eliminated, because the power stabilizer and power supply still take up a lot of space and there’s no way around that problem. Small form factor computers come with external power supplies, but these are much more unreliable and less powerful, so a high-end desktop computer cannot be powered by a small external power supply.

Now let’s look at a few of the characteristics of currently used computer ports.

The USB (universal serial bus) port is the most flexible of all. Almost all internal and external computer devices come in a USB version too. The only problem with these ports is the limited power it can carry to the device and the transfer rate limit.

USB 2.0 ports are limited theoretically to 480Mbps data transfer rate, but in practice this figure is much smaller. Power is limited to 5V 500mA per port, which is barely enough for a low-power 2.5″ external hard drive.

The USB 3.0 standard brought a significant speed increase (4.8GBPS) to the port, but unfortunately this works only through the 5 additional wires, so USB 2.0 devices won’t be able to work at higher speeds in a USB 3.0 port.

Power has been raised to 900 mA for each USB 3.0 port, and even USB 2.0 devices can benefit from this. For example if you connect a USB 2.0 passive HUB (without an additional power supply) to a USB 3.0 port it will be able to supply power to more devices simultaneously.

SATA ports are mainly used inside the computer, but because of their very high speed, manufacturers have made an external version too. It wasn’t very complicated, as most internal SATA ports already supported the “hot plug” function.

The first version of SATA supported speeds up to 1.5Gbit/s (~187MB/s), while the second revision up twice as much, 3Gbit/s.

SATA3 support is still not added to all motherboard released this year. This may be because most computers won’t need such high speeds, 6Gbit/s. The SATA2 maximum speed is only exceeded by a few very expensive SSD (solid state drive) models and RAID configurations. Everyday desktops and laptops don’t need such high speeds right now or in the foreseeable future. Servers on the other hand can never get fast enough storage devices, but they have their own SAS (serial attached SCSI) interface, incompatible with personal computers.

The VGA port has only a few years left, in 2014 manufacturers will no longer equip their products (motherboards, graphics cards …etc) with analog VGA ports.

DVI will also soon become obsolete, because they are very large and don’t carry audio, just video.

HDMI and DisplayPort are much more appropriate for today’s computers, as they are very small and support both audio and video signals (digital).

PS2 ports are also slowly being replaced by USB, so basically future computers will have a couple of very similarly shaped flat connectors for everything from keyboards and mice, to webcams and monitors.

Some developers are working on wireless transmission of digital and audio signals, but I advise against these solutions, as they tend to add a huge amount of radio waves to the already polluted multimedia homes. It’s much safer to keep signals on well-shielded wires, where they can travel fast and uninterrupted.

Dell, Acer, Apple, HP …etc. computer manufacturers usually resolve warranty issues much quicker than average computer part stores (for separately sold parts). Recently manufacturers have cut down the prices of their computers, so now they are similarly priced to custom built computers. Retail prices may be the same, but there’s one more thing to factor in: time after the warranty period. Unfortunately brand name computers have one or two main components which cannot be replaced by any component sold in computer part shops, you’ll have to buy an original. This is what will cost you at least twice as much as replacing a part in a custom built PC. Basically you’ll pay a double price for a (morally) very old part, while in a custom PC you may choose to replace a defective part with a much faster or otherwise better new&cheap part.

Now let’s see a high-end custom built PC with parts purchased from Newegg.com.

Without thinking too much, any cheap Full ATX computer case will be fine, without a power supply of course. This one from Linkworld costs $17, and we’ll add a power supply later on after we calculate the maximum power consumption of the system.

Right now the hottest processor is the Core i7 2600K, which can be freely overclocked to achieve performances beyond the six-core Core i7 980X. For only $329 it’s quite a bargain, and the motherboard will cost a lot less than an LGA1366 we would be buying for the Core i7-980X.

This cheap motherboard from AsRock will do just fine, with a $89 price tag. The processor comes with its own heatpipe cooler, so we won’t be spending any extra cash for moderate overclocking.

We’ll need two 4GB modules, for 2 x $40.
If the system will be used for video encoding and basic 3D, than we can skip the dedicated graphics card, because the integrated Intel HD 3000 is even faster than high end cards from nVidia or AMD, when it comes to video encoding.

A 2TB hard drive is no longer the largest, so buying at least one isn’t overkill for large video files. It costs $99.

A good cheap Blu-ray burner from LG costs $80.

For all these components any 350Watt real power supply is enough.

This 350Watt power supply with 12cm fan from Diablotek costs $20.

So let’s crunch the numbers: 17 + 329 + 89 + 40 + 40 + 99 + 80 + 20 = $714.

As you can see for only $714 you can get a high-end desktop computer with a lot of RAM (8GB), speed (4GHz+), storage (2TB) and optical disc (blu-ray) compatibility. Check out my article about the Core i7 2600K processor’s speed. If you’re not satisfied with the 3D performance of the integrated solution, you may install an nVidia GTX 460 or AMD Radeon 6850 without changing the power supply. For GTX 580 or Radeon 6950 you’ll need at least a 500Watt power supply.

There were a couple of different models released mostly with socket 478 Pentium 4 processors and compatible computer parts.

Even so, it seems that all of its parts are still available at skyline-eng.com. From these parts we can reconstruct the original configurations that were sold with the Gateway Hornet computer case.

The empty computer case seen in the picture above is available for $49 in refurbished condition. There isn’t much to say bout it. A 3.5″ floppy drive and a 5.25″ optical drive bays have frontal openings, and inside a standard mATX motherboard can be installed.

The original Gateway part costs $99, but any new mATX motherboard should fit inside, as it respects the size standards: 9.6″ x 9.6″. The original board supports any Pentium 4 (or Celeron) processor for socket 478 with 400, 533 and 800MHz FSB. The four memory slots support up to 4GB of DDR1 memory in dual channel mode, although a single channel is more than enough for such an old configuration.

Frontal audio ports may break easily, so a replacement for $15 may be the only way to quickly repair the problem. An authorized electrician however can replace the damaged ports with high-quality replacement parts purchased from any A/V parts shop.

The battery’s price seems a bit high, as a standard PC battery today costs around $1.

Buttons on the control panel may also break, theoretically. This depends on the way you use your computer, because if you leave it on all the time then you barely have to press the power or reset button once or twice a month, so it’s unlikely to break. Passionate gamers or programmers on the other hand may lose their nerve when their favorite game or program freezes and deliver a powerful punch to the control panel, in which case it most likely won’t survive for long.

A special CPU cooler is also available for the Gateway Hornet computer case for a $49 price. As you can see it suck cool air from one direction and spits hot air all over the place. Primitive as it may seem, it’s a much more evolved design than the Intel stock CPU cooler, which just mixes the air inside if there’s no appropriate ventilation in the computer case.

Clumsy technicians or inexperienced users at home may damage the CPU cooler holding bracket. They can order a new one for “only” $19, a price which normally includes a heatpipe cooler and mounting bracket if you’re not looking for a specific brand like in this case (Gateway only).

A replacement fan costs as much as a complete cooler, $49, but there might be (or might have been) a user group who would buy only the fan, because the heatsink doesn’t have fragile parts.

A new AVC cooler for many different motherboard brands with socket 478 processors can be bought for $39 on this specific website.

Pentium 4 replacement processors are available between $19 and $59, depending on frequency and features. The cheapest has only 512KB cache and 2.4GHz frequency while the most expensive model has 1MB cache, 3.2GHz core and also supports HyperThreading (a technology invented by Intel to speed up applications before multi-core processor design was put in practice).

During shipping or after inappropriate handling the front panel may need replacing. It costs $29 for the Gateway Hornet computer case.

IDE hard drives are available in sizes between 20GB and 250GB in the $20 – $70 price range. SATA is not supported on the original motherboard.

256MB (1 x 256MB) of DDR1 system memory costs $9, while 4GB (4 x 1GB) costs 4 x $59 = $236.

An original Gateway CD-ROM drive costs $29, even more than a SATA DVD burner.

I can’t see why someone would still use a floppy drive, but for those who can’t live without it it’s available for $9.

An original Gateway slim ATX power supply costs $59. Please note that its maximum power output is 180Watts, limiting the number and performance of internal components as the fastest Pentium 4 processor alone eats around 90Watts max.

Skyline Engineering Inc. also offers a PCI Wi-Fi card for the old Gateway computer, so users who don’t want to throw away their 5-8 year old computers have an option to continue using them on today’s Wi-fi networks.

Data recovery is not a standard service, and it’s offered only by specialized companies. Unfortunately taking your computer in for data recovery will void the warranty given by the manufacturer, so the first thing you have to focus on before thinking about fixing a broken computer is you personal data.

Ideally you make daily backups on an external hard drive or network storage, so when your computer breaks down you’ll lose a days work at most. The truth is that hard drive technologies are significantly improved every year, but they still do break down even without any exterior factors. The average life of a hard drive is around 7 years, meaning that some break down after a few days, moths or year, while others become obsolete in perfectly functioning condition. Personally I still have a couple of 1-4GB hard drives from the ’90s which still don’t have any bad sectors. I use them instead of Flash Drives for installing operating systems (like UBUNTU) on computers, because they are much more reliable. Transfer rate is not so great, only 3-5MB/s, while flash drives have already broken the 100MB/s barrier (on USB 3.0 interface).

Theoretically if you have all your data on an external device you may bring the computer to an authorized service where it will be repaired in a couple of days. Some computer manufacturers also offer on-site repair, meaning that a technician will show up at your place in 24 hours after your call and will not leave until your computer is up and running again. I know that most Dell laptops and desktop have this kind of warranty. Very practical for most users, but let’s also look at an amateur solution, done at home by anyone who can use a screwdriver.

If you don’t have a backup of your data, the first thing you do after you realized that your computer has a hardware defect is taking out the hard drive and trying to copy important data onto another computer.

The perfect tool for this is a USB to IDE/SATA adapter, which can connect any laptop/desktop hard drive to any computer with a USB port. As you can see it has two IDE connectors, one is for small laptop hard drives and the other for desktop IDE devices. The SATA pport can be connected to any SATA1/2/3 device, including optical drives too. There’s usually a power supply in the retail package of the USB to IDE/SATA adapter, and it can provide about 30-40Watts of power, supporting 99% of laptop and desktop IDE and SATA drives. Before connecting a hard drive taken out of a supposedly defective computer, make sure you have a good antivirus software on the other computer, just in case.

After you connect the drive and everything seems normal, the operating system detects it, the first thing you do is find the most important files and quickly copy them onto the healthy computer. If the hard drive seems to be in perfect condition you can continue to copy all the other files you may need too. If for some non-hardware reason there aren’t any visible files on the drive, you can use one of the equally efficient recovery tools like OnTrack EasyRecovery.

These programs can scan the entire surface of the hard drive for any recoverable data including deleted or partly damaged (overwritten) files.

At this point you should have all your files copied to a secure place, and you can begin diagnosing the problem of the defective computer.

The simplest way to do that is to keep cheap replacement parts at home, for example a $10 400Watt power supply, a processor cooler for ~$5, a small hard drive for ~$35 and maybe a 1GB memory module for $20.

If the computer fans don’t start up, the first thing you do is replace the power supply. If this helped and the computer powered up, you should insert an OS installation disk into the optical drive and try to install it, but remember that some components may still be damaged, permanently.

At the end of the OS install process you should also install all necessary drivers, and after that use a diagnostic or benchmarking program to test all system components. Most benchmarks stress the components just enough to break them if they have the smallest problem. Logically if one test fails, you should replace that component with a spare, and you’re out of the woods.

The hardest problem to diagnose is any non-fatal mainboard problem, when the computer boots up, but after a while it starts giving errors. I have seen many such cases. Errors caused by a defective USB port, SATA controller, IDE controller, Floppy controller …etc. that doesn’t show at the POST (power on self test). The damaged chips simply overheat, and stop functioning after a while. If your computer has these symptoms and all other components have passed the tests or benchmarks, than you’ll need to search for a compatible mainboard (or return it under warranty of course). If the computer is less than 5 years old you should have no problem finding a much better and also cheaper mainboard, which will serve you for another 1-5 years.

Perhaps I should have started this article by saying that no computer with a hardware problem is fixed in the traditional sense. Today most authorized professionals simply replace the processor, hard drive, optical drive, mainboard … etc. so no actual repair takes place. If the problem is software related, than you may call it a repair, because no physical component gets replaced.