What is a Motherboard?

A motherboard is widely recognized as the backbone of a computer that supervises the selection and performance of other connected elements. As per definition, it’s the primary printed circuit to hold a bunch of elements, including processor, graphics card, memory, and many others, so these can flawlessly communicate. For your information, it was first made by the famous company IBM. Later, several other brands started making it in several sizes like ATX, small ATX, and several others to fulfill the needs of several users. 

These different sizes of motherboards are to work with certain kinds of processors and other components. Knowing what is a motherboard is essential, but it is also important to understand its exact working phenomenon along with some additional general information. Well, in this post, we will see this component in detail so you better know its actual operations, fundamentals, and more about it. To further simplify everything, we have discussed several features to better understand this item’s in-depth utility. 

What is a motherboard?

The term “motherboard” is visible as a supervisor responsible for each component’s action as it provides them with the ground to perform. It does nothing on its own, but it connects every part like a bridge and lets the components make sense together to compute any information or data. If the motherboard is fine, it will allow other components to run correctly with great potential. The motherboard takes power from the PSU and supplies it to various components according to voltages so that other components can do their job without any distortion.

A bit more about a motherboard

Functions and features

As we have come to know, the motherboard is the central hub for each component, and it allows subsystems to interconnect with each other. It regulates the power of the whole system to run every component. It has various types of buses that are used to transfer data from element to element on the mainboard as needed. Modern motherboards can now support up to one processor at once, which adds more to their functionality. It also allows expansionary cards by adding which users can enhance the functionality too.

Ports of motherboard

Ports are sockets attached to the motherboard’s backside to connect external peripherals like a mouse, keyboard, camera, microphone, graphics cards, SSDs & HDDs, and other components. The internal ports that are printed on the board are mostly used to enhance the PC’s performance, and externals are used to make the users more comfortable. Having more numbers of ports means having flexibility in adding newer stuff. Some of the central ports are discussed, which play a vital role in an improved experience.

VGA: This port is a standard base port for taking video output on the screen from the system. Most of the latest monitors are still using VGA ports to make connections.

HDMI: This slot is also used for transferring high-quality audio and video with one medium or channel. Generally, every laptop company is building this slot on laptops to have secondary screens.

Fan Connectors: These are small three to four pin slots that provide your PC fans filtered power to let your system cool by blowing out the hot air and keeping cold air inside.

Ethernet: These ports are attached to the motherboard to hold an internet connection. These have two types, one is standard ethernet, and the other is for servers.

Audio: These ports are used to transfer audio, whether through the microphone as input or speaker output. There are three types, one for audio input and two for audio output.

USB: These ports are well-known and commonly used ports for transferring data through USBs, mobile data cables, and connecting other external devices with the PC.

How to maintain your motherboard?

Ensure proper thermal management

Most of the time the motherboard overheats if the cooling fans run slower or maybe jam. Several other reasons can also lead to overheating your system. Still, you need to plug out your system and open the PC case. Now check the fan connections and fans, too. Maybe the wires are cracked up, melted, or loose due to overheating. Clean the fans, plug in all the cooling fans, and check the heatsinks to prevent your system from overheating.

Take care of any electrical damage

If the system gets electrically damaged, it may be because the power supply could not provide the power accurately or the PSU supplied adequate power before attaching heavy components. If your system is sparkling from the inside or generating some smell or smoke, then it will be the fault of the power. You need to take your system to the repair center if you use it that way, and it may create fire or blow capacitors, or damage other components.

Remove dust and keep copper connections clean 

Sometimes, the system fans run more loudly and create noise, possibly because of dust or junk. It needs to be cleaned from time to time; otherwise, it may affect performance or can cause the permanent failure of the mobo or other stuff. To avoid it, change the place of your PC if you use it near any window or dusty area. Just open the PC case, clean the motherboard with compressed air, and clean copper wires with cotton to get your PC running back.

Keep checking the damaged capacitors and CMOS battery

If a constant beep from the motherboard occurs at the time of starting the PC, then it may be due to the incorrect time because of the lower battery of the CMOS cell. Also, your system’s capacitor manufactured on the motherboard may blow up. Both damaged capacitors and lower CMOS batteries would not let your PC run. Therefore your PC needs to be repaired, or the CMOS battery should be replaced so that the PC can be used again.

Conclusion

A motherboard is nothing alone but everything for a computer since it contributes to supporting all peripherals as it is the main bridge for all connections to be connected. A motherboard cannot start a PC without its components, such as a power supply, processor, keyboard, mouse, battery cell, and RAM. It distributes the power between other parts and links those components to work together. It also consists of many slots and ports to attach peripherals and get performance according to the need.

The purpose of these slots is to attach the internal and external devices and parts that are needed according to the requirement. All of these have different functions according to their types, like the CPU slot holding the processor. Same as that VGA slot capturing the monitor’s cable, and the fan connectors connect fans to reduce heat on the motherboard. When you add more features to improve performance, you should not forget to take care of overheating, dust, and other electrical damage to wires, batteries, and capacitors.