The Insides of a Computer

[ExplorerDMB]

About 4 months ago at work a guy was working on a Honda which had a intermittent no-start condition. The guy who owned it tried to do the normal stuff, starter - battery - etc. But he couldn't figure it out. The engine was just replaced with a junk yarder - and after the guy installed it, the problem came about. Anyhow - after a few times of trying to get it to fail so we could test things, it finally did. Tested a few things and everything was good except a few grounds which were grounded through the computer. We replaced the computer and it started everytime. I, however, took the old computer since there wasn't a core on it. I believe it's out of an early 90's Honda Accord - but I can't remember exactly.

Here is the outside:

The little sight-glass is for when you do the little paperclip jumper and the codes blink at you. There is an LED inside there that blinks.

In the above picture is all the goodies - capacitors, transistors, resistors, etc.

And here is a picture of the side:

Pretty cool huh? Usually when a computer goes crappy - you can see burn marks at a certain area. This one however did not have anything out of the ordinary. You can take the circuit board out - but there's nothing on the other side either. To remove any transistors, capacitors, or whatever you want - just flip it over...heat up a solder gun, and melt the solder off.

-Drew

 

[BrooklynBay]

This must be an old computer, since the printed circuit board uses insertion mouted parts, not surface mounted parts. If you've ever looked at old motherboards on desktop PCs, you will see insertion mount technology. My desktop is old, and actually has a combination of both insertion mount, and surface mount technology.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Here is an example of mixed technology on a desktop PC's motherboard (photo courtesy of Robb):

 

[jordan23]

Another interesting note...some/or one of the capacitors may be sligtly 'bubbled up'. that is another indication of a system board problem. Very dif###lt to see at first glance but could be there nonetheless.