Monitoring The Motherboard

While some computers offer monitoring capabilities within the BIOS, that doesn't do the average user much good when trying to diagnose intermittent problems with their PC. It is far easier to have a program running in the background that can set off alerts when your CPU fan dips, when the CPU temperature rises beyond a predetermined temperature, or when the power supply voltage spikes or sags.

A great utility that runs in the system tray is Motherboard Monitor 5 . This tools allows you to set thresholds for alarms, and provides a readout that you can watch as you perform normal PC operation. You will need to know the type of motherboard you have when setting this up to run so it can interface with the hardware. While newer boards may not be recognized, this program is only an example of many different tools available from various other websites.

So what are the safe thresholds? Once the CPU begins to exceed the 60 degree Celcius it can become unstable. The power supply voltages will fluctuate slightly from the usual 12.00, 5.00 and 3.3 voltages they are supposed to run at. This is normal.But once they begin the dip or spike a whole point, the power supply may reset the PC or cause other strange symptoms.

Monitoring the motherboard is a great way to run out a hardware issue. Using a program like motherboard monitor 5 is a great place to start, or users can search for others, such as Sandra Sisoft. For more information on benchmarking, please join our free tech support forums .

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