Computer Mainboards Suckitude

You may or may not have noticed that the life-span of computer hardware seems to be getting shorter. I'm not talking about usefulness and obsolescence. I'm talking about how long the thing will turn on, and boot up. How long the hardware's functionality lasts before it no longer runs.
It seems that computers from 10 years ago are indestructible by comparison to today's much faster, more capable, and vastly more fragile machines. I, personally have never owned a mainboard made in the last 6 years that has lasted more than 2 and a half years before coming to an abrupt, and unexplainable demise. Now, I know that during the nineties, upgrading your computer was something done on a pretty regular basis, but things have changed. The fastest processor on the market is just 0.4 Ghz faster than it was almost 2 years ago. The rate of technological advancement has slowed down in the computer hardware industry. So why then, are they making computer hardware that doesn't last as long? Personally, I think I know the answer to this, but I'm going to save that for my other blog. Now, it's not like I'm taking chances and experimenting with my hardware. I know how to install and troubleshoot hardware, and other than that, I have no other reason to open up my machine. Neither do any of my friends who represent many different types of computer usage and many different levels of computer literacy. Many of them have had a piece of major hardware unexpectedly fail on them in the last 14 months alone.
I will list their hardware and the month it died and the brand that made it. You can derive your own judgements about the brands from this, in fact, I encourage it.

May 2001
+Mainboard (Socket 370 FCPGA) -from an E-Machines purchased in 1999
+ Power Supply (300-watts) -generic store-brand from CompUSA in 2000
May 2002
+Mainboard (Socket 370 FCPGA) -ABIT purchased in 2001
August 2004
+Mainboard (Socket 370 FCPGA) -from an E-Machines purchased in 2001
November 2004
+Power Supply (180-watts) -from an HP Pavilion purchased in 2002
+Mainboard (Socket A) -from an HP Pavilion purchased in 2002
March 2005
+ Mainboard (Socket 370 FCPGA-2) -DFI purchased in 2002
April 2005
+Mainboard (Socket 478) -[information not availiable yet]
+Laptop (P4) -Gateway purchased in 2004


This list will be expanded in the future.

Here is some more information as well:

• Of the 3 E-Machines-brand computers purchased by people I know in the last 6 years, two of the three have had mainboard failures.
• The total cost to purchase these computers (all three prices added up): $2100
• The total cost of both computers that had mainboard failures (both prices added together): $1400
• The cost of replacing a proprietary mainboard with generic hardware: ~$200 (~$120 regular mainboard + ~$80 regular case and power supply* )
• The total cost to replace or repair failed systems (both prices added together): ~$1200

*Power supplies are a common culprit in mainboard failures.


Mainboard Failure Explained.
A common cause of spontaneous mainboard flake-out is the power supply.
In many circumstances where mainboards flake out, it is actually the power supply that fails first, then as a result of the power supply's failure: the mainboard fails. It is a cascading effect that, thankfully, usually ends at the mainboard. Usually your processor, drives, peripherals, videocard, memory modules and anything else plugs into the board can be salvaged and reused again. Mainboards tend to take most of the impact. I'm not sure what happens but I can give you an idea, based on an experience I've had with older AT-form factor power supplies.
Because these older power supplies had the power switch for the whole system build into them, they could be turned on, wether or not they were plugged into any computer hardware or not. This allowed me to be able to test the output voltages of each power connection and compare them to the voltages that they are supposed to be.

The voltages power supplies are supposed to put out are the following:

5 volts and 12 volts


The voltages put out by a healthy power supply are usually:

4.80-5.20 volts and 11.80-12.20 volts
(a margin of error of up to+/-0.20 volts is normal)


The voltages put out by a damaged, or de-funct supply can be erratic or just far enough off to cause problems.

4.75 (or less) volts, 5.25 (or more) volts and 11.75 (or less) volts, 12.25 (or more) volts
(a deviation of +/-0.25 volts is considered right on the line of what is acceptable. Anything more than +/-0.25 volts can potentially cause mainboard failure.)



How to avoid this mess:
Now that you know what happens, this is what you can do to avoid it:

1. Use only brand-new power-supplies with expensive equipment.
2. Buy a power-supply that you know will be big enough to support your hardware to avoif overloading it (which causes mainboard failure)
3. When considering a power supply to purchase, keep in mind that you want a power supply that can support the power drawn by all of your computer's hardware plus a "safety margin" of at least 50 watts.
4. Never buy a power supply that is rated for less than 250 watts, ever. It is not practical and does not provide enough of a "safety margin" for any realistic system configuration. Most computers use at least that much with just 1 harddrive and 1 CD ROM drive alone.
5. Please consider that some components, most notably WIFI cards pull tremendous amounts of power. Try to avoid using WIFI cards on desktop systems, they have been known to blow out even high-cpacity power-supplies. WIFI is a technology that was perfected for laptops primarily, and the PCI desktop versions are still unsafe. Use old-fashioned wired ethernet for desktops instead. It'll save you money.
6. Get generic equipment from reputable brands. It's very difficult to figure out who is reputable in the computer hardware industry right now, because lately, computer hardware branding has been some of the worst in the entire history of market capitalism.
   There are a million brands out there, and 99.99% of them you've never heard of, nor will you remember (because they usually have absolutely terrible branding). The thing to keep in mind here is this: Even the very few well-known brands may totally suck. I recommend consulting a website like Tom's Hardware for more specifics on what hardware you should buy, and what brands you should trust.
7. Make sure you keep vents unobstructed. Your computer (and it's power supply) need air.
8. Make sure your power-supply can support the power drain of new upgrades. Adding hardware to your system always increases the load on your power supply. Do the math and make sure your power supply can handle the increased load safely (while observing that there is still a "safety margin" of at least 50 watts.
9. Make sure there are no connectors or anything shorting out. That is very bad and will kill your computer fast.
10. It's also good to keep in mind the other rules of handling electronics while working with this stuff. Like making sure the computer is unplugged from any power source first and grounding yourself to prevent static discharge. Common sense things like that.
11. Also, the act of turning a computer on and off puts wear and tear on the components, try to avoid shutting your computer down on a regular basis, just log out when you are not using it instead of shutting it down every time. It will add years onto the life of all of your components. Especially the harddrives.
12. Do not let a newer system sit turned off for too long. I know that sounds weird, but newer systems do not handle sitting unused for large amounts of time too well. Try to keep your computer on, even if you're not there. For example, after leaving a system turned off for 3 months, a friend of mine tried to turn the system on and discovered that it was unable to stay turned on for more than 5 minutes. Then it stopped working all together. Newer systems do not handle inactivity very well at all.
    

When Things Go Boom

I think there must be some kind of lack of quality control that has become epidemic across the computer hardware industry. Never before have I heard of so many catastrophic hardware failures so close together. The purpose of this blog is not just to inform people of the quality trends in computer hardware, but also the quality of many different things, and ways to potentially alleviate or prevent trouble people may have with these products.
Many things can be discussed here. Pretty much anything I find that warrants an explanation or analysis. And that is a lot of things.