Recommend me a motherboard diagnostic card

[nickslick74]

I could use a little bit of everyone's wisdom here. I find myself doing more and more computer repairs (mainly family and business is good!) and feel that a hardware diag card would greatly help me out. Since I have no experience in chosing or using a PCI Motherboard diagnostic card so I'm hoping some of my friends here can point me in the direction of a good, user friendly card. The only other caveat is that I would like to keep the price under $50.

Thanks guys and gals!

 

[raybay]

None of them are much good for very long. Motherboards change too frequently. Experience is the best teacher, followed by goog books by Muellar and Bigelow... and know your software.
The motherboard is very seldom the problem... in fact it is surprising how seldom the motherboard is involved in the problem. Same with the CPU. Only in eMachines, which you cannot fix anyway, does either have much to do with the problems.
Invest in a good thermal temperature gun, for under $50, a case of Dust Off, a good power supply tester, and a couple of quarts of denatured alcohol. Put the rest into diagnostic discs that you can trust... buy building your own from downloads at www.majorgeeks.com, www.pcworld.com, and elsewhere.