Category: General

How to problem solve a motherboard post issue

Paul

Motherboard

Motherboards are all different

Anyone who has been working with motherboards for years, probably will say this also.   Motherboard manufacturers all create their own unique motherboards to try to be different from the other.  That is the first thing for those who have issues with your motherboard and having difficulty trying to figure out what is causing your motherboard not to post or even show any signs of booting.   It can be a multitude of things that might be the cause of the issue and we’ll talk about each and every one that might be the reason for the problem.   Each issue might be a little bit different and that can bring on some more issues or concerns.  Don’t get discouraged because you can’t figure it out or know where to start.

Loose wires

This is the first place I look when I have this issue of nothing showing up or even looking like it is even going to boot.   Even a loose wire might prevent the system from starting up or even getting into the bios.   I’ve seen this at least once or twice that there was a SATA cable that was partially not plugged in and the system was just stuck and not trying to boot.   It’s usually the first place I’d look if the user says they just moved their system and now the system won’t boot because some wire somewhere came loose.   It’s usually the easiest fix for some problems.  It however isn’t the only reasons that the system might not boot.

Memory Modules

The memory modules which can be anything from DDR1 to DDR4 depending on the motherboard.  Memory sticks can go bad over time and this is usually what causes a lot of issues.  I usually just pull out all modules and start booting with just one until you find the culprit.   If it boots replace that module with the next module and see if the system still boots.  If it doesn’t then you have the issue the module is bad but if all of them boot or the problem persists than the modules aren’t the problem.  Then you will need to check other areas.

Check GPU

If the system has a GPU than this might also be the issue.  You can try to remove it and see if you can get the system to post by using the systems graphics processors if it has one.  If not you might try a cheap gpu to see if the system will post after you swap the GPU.  It’s usually not the GPU but you never know and that is where I find the problem can be sometimes.   Also if the GPU is getting to hot the motherboard might not post to protect itself and that might be the issue.   You can always redo the GPU and put new thermal paste down to help it keep cool.  I’ve found the thermal paste sometimes goes bad.

Check Hard drives

This is where I usually go next.  It can be as simple as a hard drive issue that is causing the system not post or boot into bios.   Strange as this might seem the issue can actual cause this to happen and the system will just not boot.  unplug all SATA cables and pull any NVME drives and try booting.  If it was the issues the system will at least boot to bios after that.  If it is the problem just slowly start with operating system boot drive (NVME or SATA) and see what happens until you get back to a no post issue.  When you do this you might find it is time to replace the SATA or NVME if it is that.

Reset Bios

This is usually where I go next when the problem persists and nothing seems to work.  It can be a problem in the bios and you’ll need to reset it or clear the bios memory,  to see if the problem persists.  Sometimes the bios has issues of its own and you will need to clear the bios and see if you can get the system to post.   Also if it does post, it might be time to update the bios to see if that will also help resolve the issue later on.  Sometimes even updating the bios seems to resolve the issue even better than just resetting the bios.

CPU or Motherboard

If you have done all that and the system still doesn’t boot, you know it is either the CPU or motherboard that is bad and that is where it gets interesting.  If you have another CPU that you know works, and you can put it in there to see if the system boots.  Also check the thermal paste on the cpu, if it is getting too hot on the cpu that might cause the system not to boot.  That would be my first thing to try to see if this will resolve the issue.   If not it might be time to buy another CPU or Motherboard.   It can happen that the mother just goes bad for whatever reason.   I’ve not seen it but I’ve heard about it that the motherboard can go bad.   If you can’t get the system post that is the final thing you can do to get your system running again.  Replace the Motherboard and RMA the motherboard.

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3 topics I enjoy to talk about and why?

Paul

Topics

Science Fiction

To boldly go where no man has gone before!  You’ve probably heard that saying before but I grew up with Star Wars, and And Star Trek.   I even Grew up with Buck Rogers or even The Million dollar man.  I love the fact that there were new technology and new ways to deal with problems.   I would go to cons in my area whenever there was one and I still might when they start doing it again.   I can remember the days that I would watch every single episodes of the original Star Trek and want to meet some of these people myself.  I can’t imagine I am no the only one.  This is why I listen to all these audio books because I just keep imagining meeting different aliens and knowing what the world will be like or how different it will become.

Technology

It’s all in how you see the world.  Yes it so much more better seeing the world when I know that there are possibilities that we have never imagined.  I see companies that are trying to innovate and then I see companies who just like to keep the things the same.   Without innovation we would not become even better.   I could talk about technology until the day I am out of breath but I wouldn’t stop just for myself.   I even like to know what they will do in the future and I imagine them to be so much better than before.  After everything we’ve seen, can it not get even more better than we could possibly imagine?

Games

The cake is a lie!  Lately I have been playing old games that can easily be played on my newer systems because the games reminds me where I came from and why I did what I did.  It’s all in how you approach the problem and figure out the problem.   I simply love to problem solve and see what I can do with the games.   I guess that’s why I love puzzle games like Portal, Subnautica, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020,  Half Life Series and Terratech or anything that lets me build or problem solve.   I can’t imagine I am the only one who likes these types of games because it is just fun to be able to do things and try new ways to play a game or solve a puzzle in the game.   I hope the game developers get even more creative in the way they will allow the player to solve the game or let the player figure a problem out in several ways.

These are just a few things I can talk about and still do whenever I see Something that I want to talk about on my blog.  These are only a few topics that I enjoy to write about and even might even make more topics as I see more things that I need to write about.   What are some things you like to talk about and why?  Let me know what you like and don’t and we can discuss them in the comments below.

5 portable Apps that will save your time on your computer!

Paul
Picture by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

Give it a chance

So you have a client who has some computer problems, and you don’t know what to do?  I am here to help you with that problem.  It can’t be easy for some to know exactly what you might need for those uncertain times.   There are multitude of problems that you’ll see in your computer technician job that will need to be resolved.   Here is a little bit of a list of apps that I use on a daily or weekly process to repair and upgrade systems.  Some of these will help me fix problems or even problem solve the answer.

Sysinternals Suite

Process Explorer

This bag of applications brought to you by Microsoft is the cream of the crop.   If you haven’t downloaded the who suite of tools from sysinternals.  You really should  do it now.   I really like the process monitor and process monitoring tools to help me see what might be wrong with a system.   It’s got a whole lot of apps to use when you need to either kill an app.   I could go on and on about this pack of apps from Microsoft but it is definitely a grab bag for me.  This is something that I have on my USB for when I might need it.

CloneZilla

Clonzilla Live CD/USB

Another great app that you can load on your USB and use it when you need to copy partitions or even whole drives from one drive to another.   It is a free utility that you can use on any system.  You’ll just need to create a bootable USB.   I use the app call YUMI to create a multiboot usb and put all my favorite and important ISO on the USB for when I need them.

Portable Apps

Portable Apps

This is another one that I put on my USB just to be cautious and know that I don’t have to use anything on a system that I might not trust. They’ve got a slew of apps that you can use for everything that you might need. What I like about portable apps is they even have antivirus and password generators. They have a lot of what I will use from time to time because they just make it easy to scan an infected system from my usb without having to load the antivirus before boot. They have some great tools all around and You should check them out.

RevoUninstaller Portable

This is great utility to remove all the crap that any system that you buy from a store or even from Amazon will be removed without much effort from you.  You can run this off a USB or even install it and remove all the stuff that gets loaded on from the Acer, Dell, or other OEMS.   It helps me out really well because I have seen clients systems speed up by removing all the annoying programs that aren’t even being used.

Windows Offline update (WSUS)

Windows offline Update (WSUS)

Let’s face it, if your client hasn’t updated their system for quite some time or the system in question doesn’t have a way to update because of no internet this is the best solution for you.   Download the updates and put it on a USB.   Most of the time, it will be a good around 20gb or 30gb depending on which windows updates you get from Windows 7 to Windows 10, you will have each one being like 3gb or 4gb a piece.   It actually helps me when it comes to updating a client’s computer without having to wait for it to download the updates.   I can just update and reboot.  This has been a great time saver for me when it comes to being a computer technician.

What’s your favorite portable app or even just an app that you use on a regular basis.  I’d like to hear what yours is and why.  Why not leave a comment and tell others and help others who might not know of a good app to use.

Amazon’s New World Makes your Graphics Processing Units a Brick!

Paul

New World and a NEW GPU!

According to reports from what I’m seeing,  Amazon’s New World MMO is bricking people Graphics cards.  I haven’t even tried this game on my system nor will I because I have other important things going on.  JayzTwocents on twitter said:

Fixing the MMO

Just cap your Frames Per Second to 60 or 70 at the most. It seems most are saying that is how to prevent the extra power draw from to your Nvidia 3060 or High GPU’s and stopping them from become bricks. Although it’s not just Nvidia but also AMD that seems to be having the problems. There are a few older cards that are also having problems with this but not to that extreme of bricking it. You should however be careful with this game and others and watching your heat and power draw using the MSI AfterBurner utility. Please don’t overclock your GPU while playing this game. Keep it at it’s defaults, that way you will less likely have issues.

Don’t be like other guys:

I think I’ll wait!

It’s time to put that on the burner. I won’t say I haven’t thought about trying this game when I first heard about it but I have been rather busy the last few weeks with school and about to move into my new place. I thought I would wait and maybe try it out later this year.   In any case, I am a little bit worried that if I did, my 1660 super would be fried.   So I am going to wait and see what Amazon does when it finally does fix this bug if it is one or fix this issue.   Happy Gaming all!

Find your inner voice to writing essays and papers

Paul

Writing? Yeah.

 

Staring at a blank page

We’ve all done it, at one time or another.  We’ve stared at a blank piece of paper or even a blank screen and asking ourselves “What am I going to write about?” I even imagine most people who are new this have a cold sweat or even feel anxious about even attempting the essay.   This is a common problem in colleges because more the half the students are new and inexperienced.   I have even done it, it can seem daunting to come up with a topic or even come up with what the professor wants you to do.  If you didn’t at least stop and ask yourself this every time you tried to write a essay, I’d be worried.   When you start the process of writing an essay, how can I find my inner voice to use for writing.   I’m going to talk about some of this and help students create their inner voice and bring it out.   It’s not as easy as it sounds, it can sometimes seem down right hard because you’ve never done it.   This, I suspect, will bring you out of your comfort zone and that might be a little or a lot difficult depending on how you feel about writing.

Close your eyes

If you’re a really good at typing on the keyboard, then this will be almost as easy as walking.   The problem is that most like to look at the screen or even the keyboard to write because they want to make sure they are spelling the words the right way.   I find sometimes I can listen to my inner voice and it helps me to let the words flow as I am writing, it has to be a skill but it is a good way to get the essay started.   It allows the mind to do start the process of writing a good essay.   When we do this we allow words to flow and it can be a very relaxing and enjoyable way to at least start the process.   It however can also be very inconvenient at times when you have to type a essay in class.   I’ve found this still works really well and allows my thoughts to be put onto the screen.

Start a diary

Self talk is necessary for creating that inner voice.   If you haven’t started this it might be helpful when it comes to writing essays.   This allows trains your mind into allowing your thoughts to be put onto paper or screen.   I originally started my blog as a way to be a diary.   However, lately, I have used it for much more than that.  I can share my experiences and my thoughts on a subject with much more vigor.   I love to share my opinions and hear what my audience has to say about the subject.    When I write on my blog I am free and I can express my thoughts and desires in ways I never knew I could when I was young.

Start a blog

We’ve all have our own passions and that can be anything in life.   I dare not even try to imagine what people are passionate about.   I do however find that when you’re passionate about something, people around you also will be encouraged.  There are three good blogging sites out there that are free to use and you can start writing and trying to get out of your comfort zone.   These sites are:

All of these are free for those who might want to try their hand at blogging.   I know there are even more but these are just a few that I’d suggest.   Personally I use WordPress and have loved it since the day I started using it but that is just me.

Our inner voice

It can’t be said that no one has an inner voice.   It’s there we just have to learn to listen for it and bring it out.   Once you find your inner voice, you just might be amazed at how much it has to say.   There are days I am sure that my inner just be quiet.   Then I started blogging or writing and it calms my inner voice right down.   I find that i do way better with writing then I used to because of my inner voice.   It’s a part of me and it drives me.   It helps me to get through those essays that we will always have in our college classes.   Have you heard your inner voice?  Is it a narrative?  is it augmentative?  or maybe it’s analytical?   Once you learn to harness your inner voice, those essays will come even easier than before.