Anybody bother to fix newer computer motherboards these days?

Yes its a common repair ! Replacing bad caps often extends the life of a machine. Emachines... Yuk Look for pin holes in the bridge chip(s).

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Pin holes in the plastic chip housing? So you are saying a chip blew up and in doing so poked a hole in the casing?

Yes ! Quite common. Sometimes you have to remove a heatsink to find one. I've seen the RAM PSU switcher chip simply vanish ! Just the bits of lead frame attached to the board.

Another interesting failure mode, is the CPU PSU switching chips getting so hot that the solder holding them melts and they slide off the pad and generally destroy things.

Nothing on the board seems missing. I took the heatsinks off the Geforce chip (odd there was no heat distribution grease or pad, it must run cool) and it looks fine. I took the heatsinks off the chipset chip (it had a heatsink heat transfer pad) and the chip looks like it might have launched a piece off from the side (heatsink pad is missing mateial in that direction that is in a lump on the edge of the heatsink). So looks like the main chipset is blown (doesn't looked cracked or overheated, but it would explain no error beeps on startup). This board is junk, but I will test it with a PC post card when I get it just for the heck of it.

Powermac Inscribed thus:

Sometimes damage like that, if there is any, can be hard to spot ! There isn't always burn marks or discoloration to give you a clue.

The "Post Boards" are in my opinion a waste of money ! Most of the time you couldn't repair the fault anyway, thats assuming that you actually get a genuine fault result ! Those things are really aimed at problem diagnosis on working boards where, for example, you have a missing interrupt or bad address.

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I ordered the POST card mostly for my older 286 and later motherboards in my collection. Newer boards pretty much have all the brains in one surface mounted chip that you cannot replace, but a POST card should let you know if you have video problems, ram problems, or voltage problems you can trace back to PS or capacitors that can be replaced. I hate tossing anything unless it is unrepairable.

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I like to break 286 computers.

If it's vintage (like an Altair), by all means yes - it's worth saving. If it's a modern one, it's not worth your time. Just go out and buy a new machine. Chineese labor is cheap.

Of course, I'm sure it could be done - if you want an intellectual exercise and don't have anything better to do.

-J