How to test Mobo's, CPU's question

Heeter

Overclocked Like A Mother
Joined
8 Jul 2002
Messages
2,732
Hey all,

I have in my personal inventory 6 CPU's and 4 mobo's. Different companies and speeds and such. A couple of them can be mixed and matched.

I would like to know if there is someway that I can test to see if it is the cpu or the mobo that has gone bad. My goal would be to make a decent workstation out of all my parts, and clean out my shelves of non working stuff.

Thanks,

Heeter
 
before I answer are all the cpus the same socket??? or are they from the same company (AMD vs Intel)??
 
two are P4's

The rest are AMD's, one A64, one Sempron,

I got mobo's for each one.

Heeter
 
The only way is to have a known good CPU and MB for each socket type. Then you try them one at a time...

No easy choice. I keep a few known good parts around for testing my stuff and check out for friends.

If you don't have known good parts you need to find one. That drops down to trial and error with the different compatible CPUs and MBs. Try every combo possible until you get a set that is good then try those parts in the other unknown units.
 
You can buy a mobo/cpu tester if you can find one. It plugs into pci slot and have leds to tell you what it finds wrong if anything. Not fool proof mind you but might narrow it down if you can find one, there somewhat "old school".
 
It's very rare for a CPU to be faulty unless damaged in some way, like broken pins or burnt out due to overheating. Once you have a known working motherboard and CPU and PSU, just swap out the parts you want to check.
 
While I agree that a mobo is more likley to be faulty than a cpu, either can be a culprit even with brand new out of the box. The only for sure method, is to test each on a known good. While that is easier said than done with multiple processors and mobo that are not compatible it is the only true way of knowing. You might try taking the parts into a local computer store, (not circuit city type, mom-pop type) and see if they have used mobo/CPU's that they can test your parts on. Might cost a few bucks for their time, but beats buying known good parts just for the sake of testing.
 
Hey guys,

I really appreciate all your input here. I kinda figured as much about playing musical chairs with all this gear. I think that othan my Athlon64 cpu's, I think that I am going to just chuck out everything else, and not bother trying to figure out what's what.

I do have enough set aside for server gear too, not counting this stuff.


Heeter
 

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