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How to generally determine motherboard VRM is dead?
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:43 pm
by Martin27
Hi guys I have a question completely different to the main purpose of this forum, but I believe there are some great motherboard users here, who maybe are able to answer my question. I have several dead motherboards, lots of them for Socket A and some for Socket370. These boards are checked for leaking capacitors and bad flashed ROMs, everything is OK, but these mobos are though dead. My question is "how can I generally determine if there is voltage regulator module working in the mobo"?
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:21 pm
by cp
put in a known good cpu and measure the cpu voltage with a multimeter. you can even use an oscilloscope to measure the ripple if you're not sure about the capacitors.
if you don't have a cpu just put in some resistors that apply some load to the voltage regulation (not nice..but works for some first shot testing).
Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:44 pm
by KachiWachi
If you are unsure, I would use test loads...because if there is a problem, you could destroy a perfectly good CPU.
Thanks.
Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:16 pm
by cp
right, but since VRM rarely die..they are not the weakest part in the chain. other parts might blow up much earlier.