Scratched my Motherbaord

[amandeepmail]

I scratched my motherboard while removing the Heat Sink of the CPU. Actually, its the opposite side of motherboard where you mount the Heat Sink Holder bracket. While removing it i scratched hard on the motherboard and it looks damaged. I can't test it by starting it as I don't have other stuff ready. But I have uploaded some pics and you can tell if it is bad enough to cause damage.






PS: My Motherboard is Gigabyte EX58-Extreme

 

[LiquidSnak]

Do you have a test light handy? If so, grab a 9V battery, and hook up one side of the test light to the - side of the battery, and another wire to one end of the scratch. Run the probe end along the scratch lightly, and if it lights up (without physically touching the other wire), you have likely damaged the motherboard.

 

[amandeepmail]

I think if it lights up then the motherboard should be fine because there is not damage to continuity of current. Am i correct?

 

[LiquidSnak]

A motherboard is basically a Printed Circuit Board, or PCB. It is a giant sandwich of conducting and insulating layers of materials with paths for each circuit to follow on the motherboard.

Conducting layers are typically made of thin copper foil. Insulating layers dielectric are typically laminated together with epoxy resin prepreg. The board is typically coated with a solder mask that is green in color. Other colors that are normally available are blue and red. There are quite a few different dielectrics that can be chosen to provide different insulating values depending on the requirements of the circuit. Some of these dielectrics are polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), FR-4, FR-1, CEM-1 or CEM-3. Well known prepreg materials used in the PCB industry are FR-2 (Phenolic cotton paper), FR-3 (Cotton paper and epoxy), FR-4 (Woven glass and epoxy), FR-5 (Woven glass and epoxy), FR-6 (Matte glass and polyester), G-10 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-1 (Cotton paper and epoxy), CEM-2 (Cotton paper and epoxy), CEM-3 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-4 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-5 (Woven glass and polyester). Thermal expansion is an important consideration especially with BGA and naked die technologies, and glass fiber offers the best dimensional stability.

For a more in depth test to ensure no damage has been done, can you see each pathway right there, just below the surface? Touch the side by side paths with one end each of the test circuit. If there is a light, that is possible damage. If you touch the same path on either side of the wire, and you get a light, that means that the path is still good.

Basically. what you don't want to have happened is:

1. Severed a connection that was there already.

2. Created a connection that should not be there.

 

[amandeepmail]

Thanks for the help but i find it very confusing (i am not that good at hardware). I am not getting what to do? Is there a video demonstration at Youtube for such task? Any other method to test?

 

[LiquidSnak]

Frack, this is hard to explain on the internet. Let me see if I can find a video, and if I cannot, I will try to find a crappy old board in my stash and make a video for you

 

[amandeepmail]

No, you don't need to go that deep.

Look what I just performed.

1. I took one small light, 1 cell and wires.
2. I made the circuit.
3. When I touch one end of wire to scratch 1 and other to scratch 2 or 3 there is no light.
4. When I touch one end of wire to scratch one's top and other to scratch ones bottom there is light. Same goes with other scratch 2 and 3.



What do I conclude?

 

[LiquidSnak]

I have marked 3 sets of points. Can you test and report back? These are my major areas of concern.

 

[LiquidSnak]

Anywhoosle, if 2 is lit, it's good, if 1 and/or 3 are lit, try to track down where the traces go, and if they interconnect elsewhere you're all good, if it's not lit, then you're likely good.

I am off to dream land now, but I will reply to questions when I am conscious again

 

[amandeepmail]

Red- Not Lit
Yellow- Lit
Blue- Not lit

It was very tough to test as wires kept on moving from their place as it was very hard to hold them at one place.

 

[Dwarf]

I'm sorry, but I would consider the board ruined.

Most motherboards are multi-layer boards, some with upto 6 layers of electrical tracks including the top (component side) and bottom (the back). These individual layers are not much thicker than a piece of thin card. Even if you can repair the damage to the tracks on the surface of the board (either top or bottom, whichever is damaged), it is not possible to repair the damage that may exist with the tracks on the internal layers.

Having said that, you have nothing to lose. It may be that you have only caused superficial damage which can be repaired with the use of an electrically conducting silver-based paint and a fine applicator. Be aware though, that if there is hidden damage to the inner layers, it is possible to destroy your CPU/RAM/PSU when you next power it up.

 

[amandeepmail]

@dwarf
have you seen the pics. does it look that bad? if yes, then what should i do?
I can't buy new one it costs RS. 20000+ in India. Its still in warranty, will they cover it?

 

[Dwarf]

It's hard to say what damage, if any, has been incurred by the inner layers. As regards warranties, then I'm sorry, but damage like this usually renders the warranty invalid.

 

[pebbly]

Red- Not Lit
Yellow- Lit
Blue- Not lit

It was very tough to test as wires kept on moving from their place as it was very hard to hold them at one place.

amandeepmail , If blue is not lit, red is not lit and yellow is lit , then this shows as being superficial surface damage with no interconnection between the tracks ,I think you have been very lucky this time , In future take more care

 

[amandeepmail]

But as per dwarf there are many layers and due to scratch internal layers might be damaged. I don't really want to buy a new motherboard knowing that this might be fine, but still i don't want to damage other parts of my pc (cpu, ram) by using the mobo.

 

[pebbly]

But as per dwarf there are many layers and due to scratch internal layers might be damaged. I don't really want to buy a new motherboard knowing that this might be fine, but still i don't want to damage other parts of my pc (cpu, ram) by using the mobo.

looking at the photos' it looks like surface damage only ,Dwarf is correct in what he states as the mobo being multilayer and if sufficient depth of scratch as occured , then you would be looking at interconnection between the outer and inner layers of the board ,but in your case i personnally dont think the scratch is that deep

 

[amandeepmail]

Yup the scratch is not that deep. I rechecked and the yellow one is only lit and looks like it is fine. So, I applied some nail polish over it to prevent corrosion of visible copper. I took idea of applying nail polish from Google and hope it doesn't spoil anything.

I also checked that two lines go from CPU to DDR3_5 so will probably damage triple channel memory of its bad.

 

[pbcopter]

Hi,
First, I would not use a 9V battery to perform any tests. Since you don't know where those traces go, you could damage components that are connected with that much voltage.
From what I see, I doubt if you damaged any inner layers of the board, just my opinion.
The only concern I would have is with the two traces that are scratched next to each other.
I would get a magnifing lens and see if the copper from one was "smeared" to the other causing a short.
If not, then I would, in my opinion, say you were lucky and good to go.

 

[amandeepmail]

I used 1.5 V x 3 cells to perform the test. The tests are good and shows they are not short. So, I applied nail polish to cover it (thats what i had in home ).

 

[pbcopter]

I probably would not have used nail polish since I don't know the conductivity or dielectric characteristics of it. Depending on what those traces are for, it may effect the circuit.