windows freezes, dying / dead mbrd

I had a comp where windows froze many times, leaving nothing in event
viewer for the time it froze.

Each time I turnned the machine off and on, and got it going again.

eventually I turned it off and it wouldn't turn back on. I got the
standby voltage in there , mbrd light on , and more i think - maybe
even fans on. Nothing on screen. I smelt some burning but
couldn'tfind where.

I had had another issue with it some months ago, one time it wouldn't
start. I took all cables out the back and it started(I think it was
just one that stopped it). Another time it crashed in the BIOS or
loading my ethernet driver. I took out the ethernet cable, and it
started.

Also, freezes seemed to correlate with apps crashing. AVG had some
license issues after a system restore. Windows froze many times. I
uninstalled AVG and comp was fine. I installed audacity, tried to do
something in it, app crashed. Later, windows started freezing again.
That was the day where in the end I turned it on and nothing - maybe
fans,

I didn't realise that a bad MBRD can cause windows to freeze. And win
freezing with no system event in event viewer is a possible sign. I
didn't check my PSU but I expect it was ok, it's a good make and I did
check it last year with a multimeter. CPU temp was fine too. Free hdd
space was low.

I have another MBRD with similar issues. I think I remember win
freezing, and eventually comp not starting. Though those were app
crashes ocurring at he same time as windows freezing. Any app would
crash. Typically vid clips and audio.

I may have had another MBRD (that's 3 down!!) with similar.

These are old boards. P4 or Athlon XP

I looked at the capacitors though i'm not trained. I didn't see
anything fishy there.