What often breaks in a computer?

PaulB

New Member
Hey guys! I'm new to the forum and my first question is what malfunctions in the desktop the most. I will be purchasing a new computer for gaming, and I want to put a warranty on the things that break the most. Is it the hard drive, fans, processor, motherboard or the graphics card? Please tell me a list of what breaks the most. Thank you so much! I really appreciate it.
 

strollin

Well-Known Member
In the 30 years that I have been using PCs, I would say the hard drive and power supply have been my most often replaced components. Other components that I have had fail are CD/DVD drives and floppy disk drives. Note that the hdd and other drives are mechanical in nature so are definitely more prone to failure.

I don't think I've ever had a video card, motherboard or CPU failure. I've had some RAM fail over the years but not very often.

Regarding hard drives, we always said that it wasn't a question of IF it would fail but WHEN.
 

jamesd1981

Active Member
Every part in a computer can fail from a cooling fan to a motherboard, some parts are more common than others the most common failures are power supplys and hard drives.

The amount failures you deal with rests on how many systems you deal with, the normal at home user with 1 or 2 systems will rarely have a failure, but someone who works with computers daily will see countless failures involving every component.

I have dealt with failures of almost every component, most hardware failures are easy to diagnose, the hardest failure to diagnose is processor and motherboard as the signs are very similar, if you have plenty of spare parts around it makes it much easier, if you don`t it is tricky to determine if it is the cpu or motherboard.
 

salvage-this

Active Member
Are you buying a pre built or are you building? What is the standard warranty that it comes with? what are you getting over the standard warranty with the extended warranty?

I agree with strollin. HDD and PSU are the most common. I have worked on systems that had GPUs and Motherboards die but it was user error or tweaking.
 

PaulB

New Member
I'm buying it at a computer store. I am buying the parts and they are building. Please tell me everything that I should warranty. I do not want to screw up. I am not very techy with computers that is why if something breaks, I want it fixed by a professional immediately. I am for sure going to warranty the Hard drive, Motherboard, Processor, and Video Card. Anyone have any idea of what else I should most likely warranty, or remove one of the things I listed with another? I really want to make sure its all safe and proof.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
The whole system should come with a warranty unless you have to warranty separate parts. Most of the parts you buy come with a year, 3 year, 5 year or lifetime warranty anyway.
 

PohTayToez

Active Member
As others stated, most parts come with a manufacture's warranty. The warranty you buy through the site is a retailer's warranty which means that you can return it to the retailer rather than the manufacturer which is sometimes easier, but otherwise pointless.

Hard drives and power supplies are the most likely to fail, but most hard drives already come with a three year warranty. If you have that then I would say no need to buy a second warranty. With the power supply, unless you're getting a high end one I'd say it's not worth it to get a warranty.

In fact, in general, given the rate at which computer parts depreciate and the likelihood that you'll actually need to use it, an extended warranty is not a good investment.
 

Jiniix

Well-Known Member
In my experience, if you swap the RAM around a lot, it tends to be the most failing component.
But other than that, HDDs tends to fail more often. I've never had a busted PSU that I bought (I got a bunch of no-name 250W-350W PSUs free, some of them have failed)
 

strollin

Well-Known Member
Retailers often push the extended warranties because there is a much larger profit margin on them then there is on the computer system. I agree with what's been stated already, most components have their own individual warranty and there is no need to purchase any additional warranty.
 

strollin

Well-Known Member
With some components such as hard drives and PSU, many manufacturers don't even require a receipt or other proof of purchase but will honor the warranty based on the serial number. Their records will indicate when that serial number was produced and they'll warranty for x number of years from the date it was manufactured.
 

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
Bit of a pointless discussion, if something fails RMA it.

But to answer your original question - people.
 

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
Somewhat the same answer as above. Years ago I would say the harddrive, but not so much anymore. Sorta equals out, not much difference in any parts.
 

OvenMaster

VIP Member
In all my years of maintaining and building PCs, the components that fail for me the most are power supplies... but they always take out another part with it when it goes. I've lost two motherboards, a keyboard, a mouse and two DVD burners this way.

In the past 12 years, I have only had one hard drive fail, a Seagate 320GB IDE drive that failed five months after its 5 year warranty ended.
 

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
In all my years of maintaining and building PCs, the components that fail for me the most are power supplies... but they always take out another part with it when it goes. I've lost two motherboards, a keyboard, a mouse and two DVD burners this way.

In the past 12 years, I have only had one hard drive fail, a Seagate 320GB IDE drive that failed five months after its 5 year warranty ended.

Never had one go, thats because I don't buy crap or underpower my machines which to be honest, even your current one is borderline with a max of 360W on the 12V rail.
 
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