possible reasons for motherboard damage?

I am an experienced IT Professional for 15 years and I can tell you some of the common things that may damage a system board.

One of the most common things is installing RAM. People tend to have it backwards and push down too hard, actually bending the system board and damaging it. They also damage the RAM.

The other factor is static. While I rarely see this happen, you can damage several components inside your computer if a static shock occurs.

While these two things I listed are cause for damage, I do not believe your friend has damaged the system board so bad that they will not replace it under warranty. I believe the vendor is making an excuse to to cover it.

If I were your friend, I would get on their case big time and tell them to honor the warranty.

Well ESD (electrostatic discharge) can cause damage to internal components to a computer, if the person opened the case, and removed the board himself, without any anti-static measures being taken, then that could have caused the damage.

All manufacturers and OEMs usually advise the use of at least a static strap (connects to your wrist, then a ground) while cracking the case of any computer. If he didn't do that, it's possible that he caused the damage when he removed the motherboard from the system. Without knowing what Intel found, it's really hard to say what happened. You stated that they marked a memory slot, but was it melted in any way, or did anything look burnt? Was it a capacitor, a lead, or anything?

So, the story is : Your friend bought a mainboard 20 months ago, he installed the RAM by himself and the PC works fine since that moment. And now, the PC just suddenly stopped functioning.

The meaning of "stopped functioning" can be a lot. Were there still any electricity ? was it really the mainboard broken or maybe other components such HDD or RAM or VGA card ? Too much heat ? or Processor got burned ?

Did he overclocked the PC ? Are there any capacitor get blown or leaked ?

If the local hardware assembler said that the mainboard was broken, on what facts he can said that ? Does he tested it before he send it to service center ?

there is not any stable answer to what befell, yet you could attempt plugging an exterior show screen into the pc to work out if that's broken... the thin ribbon cable working from the motherboard to the show screen has to run alongside the hing, so the wires get under pressure each time you open and close the lid, so as that they get under pressure and wreck. attempt the exterior show screen and bypass from there, a motherboard replace is perhaps extra $ than the pc is nicely worth

you mentioned physical damage... that means someone try to install or remove something and damaged something. in your case teh Ram slot. may you tried to install new memory. another possibility is that when you loose power (power outages) over and over or improber shut down you computer, you system can shorten. it is possible but unlikely. but personally i think that he might have touched it with his bare hands and didnt ground the computer. this is the most commen mistake people make. there are countless possibilities but these are the most common problems.

i am a computer technician, so i know a lot.

Installing the incorrect type of memory can damage a MB and would void the warranty.

Done this all by myself before! =)

whoa