If the Problem Is Hardware Related, Determine Which component is Failing

Hardware problems are pretty easy to figure out.If the modem doesn't work,and you know it isn't a software problem,the modem is probably the piece of hardware that needs to be replaced.
With some of the newer computers,several components are integrated onto the motherboard.If you troubleshoot the computer and find a hardware component to be bad,there's a good chance that the bad component is integrated into motherboard(for example,parallel port circuitry)and the whole motherboard must be replaced-an expansive proposition, to be sure.