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Questions tagged [motherboard]

The motherboard or mainboard is the central printed circuit board (PCB) in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system.

The motherboard or mainboard is also referred to as mainboard, system board, the mobo or, in Apple devices, the logic board.

The motherboard provides connectors for all peripherals, holds amongst other things the RAM, CPU and the BIOS.

A typical motherboard schematic from Wikipedia:

A typical motherboard schematic

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Is it possible to run a motherboard in distilled water?

I have read that distilled water doesn't conduct electricity. This, in other words, means that we can submerge electronic devices like PCs/laptops in it and run them without any problem. I haven't seen much information about this on the internet,…
Suici Doga
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How can I find out what motherboard is in my computer?

I want to find out the exact model of my computer's motherboard so that I can see what sort of memory chip, graphics cards and other components it supports. I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.
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Tiny copper waffle squares inside computer

I've been hearing a sound from inside my MSI GE60 laptop for a while now, so I opened it up to find that these two tiny copper waffle squares came loose. They were originally stuck to the board with some black adhesive, so I stuck them on again, but…
eyqs
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How do modern motherboards differ from each other?

On the surface, a motherboard appears to me like it's not a "performance" part like a CPU or a graphics card. The purpose, at least from my understanding, is to connect the various hardware parts together, as well as offer a handful of USB and other…
MechMK1
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Installed RAM 20 GB (16 GB usable)

I have Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) OS installed. My motherboard is able to handle up to 32 GB of RAM. I recently upgraded my computer to 20 GB of RAM, but the computer says installed RAM is 20 GB (16 GB usable). I have four slots on the MB, and…
Chairman Meow
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What happens when more RAM is installed than the motherboard supports?

I have a free RAM slot and some spare memory that will fit my computer. However the problem is my motherboard only supports 2GB and I have 2GB installed. What would happen if I plugged the spare memory in the RAM slot? The following things spring…
DanDan
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Is it safe to power on a motherboard outside of its case?

I have a new motherboard which needs a BIOS update to support a new CPU. Thankfully I have an old (compatible) CPU handy. My plan is to install the old CPU, update the BIOS, then install the new CPU. I'd prefer not to have to mount the motherboard…
misha256
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Must a CPU have a GPU if the motherboard provides a display port (when there isn't any separate video card)?

There is such a configuration: MSI A320M PRO-M2 V2 + AMD Ryzen 5 1400 BOX and there isn't any separate video card. When the PC is switched on, the monitor shows nothing. The MSI tech support said: There is no GPU in the CPU Ryzen 5 1400, and the…
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What limits a motherboard from supporting more memory?

My specific question is with the ASUS M3N78-VM motherboard that my home server uses. I currently have 4x2GB installed for a total of 8GB but I was hoping to upgrade to say 16GB (4x4GB). The official specifications of that motherboard says it only…
Omen
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What is the use for built-in graphic card on a "gaming" motherboard?

Many motherboards marketed as "gaming" has an integrated Intel graphic cards. Examples are the ASUS B150I PRO GAMING/WIFI/AURA and the Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 but these are just a couple of many. Note the "Gaming" word in their respective…
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What is the brown slot near the CPU socket on a Pentium 1 motherboard, and what is it used for?

What is this slot called and what is it for on a Pentium 1 motherboard? Here I give you the Asus P/I-P55T2P4 rev 2.1 board:
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Is it possible to recover a computer from a failed BIOS update?

While attempting the update the BIOS on an Asus motherboard, i learned the Asus Update Utility for Windows doesn't fully support Windows 64-bit. It was able to erase the BIOS without problems, but failed to write the new BIOS. i knew that when i…
Ian Boyd
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Any way to tell apart a CPU defect from a mainboard defect?

I have a fairly modern desktop computer, an AMD Athlon II X2 based silent PC, that does not work. When turned on, it will start physically (all fans are rotating, disks start up...) but not give a signal on any of the graphics ports (DVI, VGA, and…
Pekka
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Motherboard says PCIe 3.0, but chipset only supports PCIe 2.0. Who's right?

As part of integration testing for our product, we received a client machine with a Supermicro X10DRi motherboard in it, with 2 Xeon E5-2620 v4 CPUs and a Quadro P5000. That motherboard is using the Intel C612 chipset. While doing basic research for…
William Handrigan
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Can 'AMD-only' RAM really be restricted to AMD chipsets, and if so, why?

I was browsing for a RAM upgrade earlier for my system, and came across 'AMD-only' RAM (aka, RAM that only works on AMD chipsets). This RAM can easily be found on sites such as eBay, and seems to be slightly cheaper than 'normal' RAM. The RAM…
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