O Mother, Where Art Thou?

[LT(US)]

This is a basic request to any who know about motherboards.

The M-board to my (previously) working HP Pavilion Media Center has fried it's video chip. Happily it does appear that the data can be saved, transferred to an external drive, but for some reason the tech person seemed to think it would be better to just get another pc off the shelf. Huh?
The reasoning is that probably within a year the unit will have another problem.

I cannot give all the info about the PC as I did not have it memorized, and the m-board is in it's suspended animation static bag on the shelf here. I will say that I bought it specifically because I work with a lot of pictures and some video and looked for a pc that had a lot of what I needed.

But why not keep this unit going? Is a new motherboard that outrageous?
How about boosting to a stronger video card? I am looking for a sensible solution and it's possible I don't understand the pros and cons of new vs. repair.

Knowledge input and thoughts please? Thanks!

 

[Slapshot136]

umm it depends on how old the motherboard is, if it's over 3 years then just the performance boost is probably worth getting a newer one.. especially if the video card slot is AGP instead of PCIe, because i would not recommend getting an AGP video card.

 

[sqrage]

I don't think repair is an option.

If you can find out what kind of processor, RAM and video card your board had then we can give you a model that you can replace it with and still use all your old components on.

 

[Tru_Power22]

Sucks, motherboards are one of the more expensive computer components.

 

[chris]

Personally id be tempted to get a new motherboard..Motherboard + 2.2 dual core cpu from Asrock cost something like £100 from my local shop.

Please remember that with the new motherboard you will POSSIBLY need Power supply unit (due to the connector port) and R.A.M as well.

Yep you could have problems but if yor replace all of the above you virtually have a new tower anyways.

 

[sqrage]

Sucks, motherboards are one of the more expensive computer components.

Not true, graphics cards and processors are usually much more expensive, unless you get a really top of the line mobo.

 

[LT(US)]

Thanks for the input so far. I'll be another week before deciding whether repair or purchase new, so I'll be checking prices and see what options are available.

Dang! About 4 years and it's Zonked.

 

[LT(US)]

Small Update: Information from you who have posted was a great help. Right now the Hard drive is in a Rocketfish SATA enclosure and all info is available. I plan to get a new hard drive and reinstall all the programs from recovery discs from HP, upgrade the video card and get a higher power unit.

The fun part, just for laffs, is I am running everything off a previously owned, refurbished, Dell Latitude D600 that I paid a romping $200 bucks for.

Go figure

Thanks.