How to detect a fault in the components of your PC

The hardware of our PC , sooner or later, will begin to give apparently inexplicable failures , which will make its use become a very complicated task. However, in today’s tutorial we are going to see how we can diagnose which hardware component is failing us and take the appropriate measures in this regard. And it is that diagnosing a hardware failure is not as simple as it might seem at first glance.

At the time of making this tutorial, we have thought that it is better to divide it into sections. In each of these sections we will discuss possible issues that a specific component may have, how to check if this issue is related to the component, and the best way to fix it. But you also have to keep in mind that many times, finding a defective component is achieved by ruling out problems with the rest of the computer’s components.

detect a fault in the components of your PC

The typical hardware failure in a PC

As in any component that has electronics, there are a series of typical failures that occur. These can be of various kinds or sources, but normally the basic solution goes through the same parameters as its diagnosis.

We are not going to offer magical solutions, they do not exist as such, but we are going to address the most common and generic problems and resolutions that occur in this sector such as the PC. For this reason and with what has been said, we will divide it into the following sections:

  • Processor
  • motherboard
  • RAM
  • Graphic card
  • Storage
  • Power supply

We hope you find your bug and if you can’t fix it at least you can briefly diagnose it.

Super Torre Cajas PC

What problems can the processor have

It is extremely rare for a processor to cause problems on its own. The most common is that the component that causes these problems is the hardware associated with it . For example, if the processor overheats, this may be due to not using a suitable heatsink for this processor, or that the heatsink itself is making poor contact with the processor’s IHS. But the fault, per se, is usually not the processor.

Typically, a catastrophic processor failure will result in the system not booting. If we are sure that the rest of the system components work correctly, then the only solution is to throw out the defective processor and replace it with a new one, compatible with the socket on the motherboard.

The main problems are usually OS crashes, system slowdowns or outright freezes. When a processor is damaged, the system normally does not start and marks 00 in the QCode (if the motherboard has it).

The way to check if this component fails is with one or several stress tests, which could be for example RealBench, AIDA64 in FPU and Caché or Prime95 in Blend Test. We recommend the first one because it is more realistic both in terms of load and oscillation of the same, it also tests different buses that other more specific programs in extracting maximum performance and stress to the processor do not do.

You should always have the temperature of the CPU controlled as well as its voltage.

Most common motherboard failures

Problems related to motherboards are more often due to overheating of the motherboard’s VRMs , which can cause stability issues. But it is also true that most of these problems usually occur when overclocking them. That is, under normal circumstances, temperatures tend to remain in a more or less normal range.

To check if we have a temperature problem with our motherboard, it is best to use the HWinfo program and, using Prime95 x64 (if your Windows is a 64-bit version), look at the temperatures reached at full load .

Other typical motherboard problems are due to poor insertion of the processor in the socket where it goes, which can result in bent pins . In this case, you can always try to straighten them with the help of a wooden toothpick or a bank card (and a lot of patience) so that they make good contact again. Otherwise, you only have to throw the motherboard in the trash.

pines doblados socket

Another of the most common and little talked about errors is the bending or bending of the motherboard. This is caused by excessive pressure in the processor retention system or excessive weight in key components such as the graphics card.

The heat and thermal cycles end up deforming the straightness of the board after months or years of use, causing small energy leaks in the PCB or even the processor not touching the socket pins with its PCB.

It is not something that can be repaired unless we apply prolonged heat and try to straighten the plate, where in any case this does not guarantee anything since the damage and breakage at the microscopic level has already been done. In any case, being such a general component that includes many buses, ports and small management systems, it is very difficult to find a specific hardware failure.

RAM memory and blue screens

RAM memory can give several types of failures. The most common is that the slots become misaligned , after you have been doing things inside the computer, such as cleaning it. In this case, simply removing all the RAM modules and reinserting them will be enough to solve the problem.

Another thing is when one of the RAM modules suddenly stops working properly. These types of failures are shown as constant instability of the computer, that the graphics card does not start when you start the computer, files that get corrupted or incorrect information about the amount of RAM available on the computer.

In this case, to verify that it really is a RAM problem, what you should do is get the MemTest86 program , which is capable of subjecting the RAM modules to a series of tests, to find out if they are the culprits of the problem. issue. In this case of hardware failure, then you must repeat the tests for each of the RAM modules that the system has. If all the RAM modules fail, then it is very possible that the motherboard is faulty, since it is very rare for all modules to fail at the same time.

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The graphics card, the problem that usually generates the most fear

Failures with the graphics card are usually presented as the system not recognizing it when starting it. Or that the performance in games drops quite unexpectedly. Or that it gets too hot and causes the computer to shut down due to excessive temperatures.

If the computer is not able to detect the graphics card when starting up, you can directly throw it away, unless the problem is in the power supply, of course.

When there is an unexpected drop in performance in games, it is most likely due to excessive temperatures, which causes the operating frequencies of this to drop a lot. To know the temperature data, it is best to use the HWinfo program and a program that you can run in a loop for a long time.

In this regard and keeping this hardware failure in mind, Unigine Heaven or Unigine Valley are perfect programs to stress the graphics card and observe the temperatures it reaches when it works. If the temperatures are very high, a good option you have is to clean the heatsink of it and change the thermal paste it uses. If the problem is that the original heatsink has stopped working properly, you can look for a third-party heatsink to replace the original.

amd-radeon-rx-6000-gpu-refresh

The most common failure in storage units

In mechanical storage units, this type of problem can be detected by a failure of the SMART protocol that can inform us that the hard drive is not working as well as it should. We might also hear the drive giving a lot of internal knocks (“clack, clack, clack”) because the pickup arm cannot be positioned correctly on the drive.

In the case of solid storage units, the first news that we will have of a failure with them will be a sudden drop in their performance when it comes to storing and reading data on them.

In both cases, a program like CrystalDiskInfo can help us to a great extent, since this program is capable of reading the SMART protocol and informing us of possible problems with the drives on our computer.

If this program detects that there are problems with one of our drives, the best thing we can do is move all the data we have on our hard drive to another drive that does not have these problems and stop using the problem drive. If it is the case that the unit no longer allows this to be done, you can try to use the HDD Regenerator program to remove the data from its interior.

Power supply problems

To finish off the list, power supply issues often manifest as unexpected computer restarts , both when the computer is under low load and under high load. They can also manifest as certain hardware components of our computer cannot be started when it starts.

In this case, it is best to use the HWinfo program to check the voltage provided by each of the three main channels of the power supply: +12, +5 and +3.3 V. The tolerances of these channels are ±5 % . If the voltages are very far from the nominal value that they should be, the best thing you can do is remove the faulty supply and replace it with a new one before it can cause more problems.

It will not be easy to diagnose a hardware failure of this type, since for this we need a measurement and control system for amperage, frequencies, voltage and voltage, equipment that is extremely expensive, but luckily there are some devices such as voltage clamps that they are affordable and will allow us to see in real time what is happening cable by cable.

Also, many high-end motherboards have voltage checkpoints to measure with a multimeter. The problem is that if it is a hardware failure in the components or PCB from the same source, we will only see the result of the failure, not where the problem is or even be able to diagnose it, since this implies a scout of values in all the components of the PSU.