Question Black screen after moving SSD, did this scratch do it?

[Iron Duke]

Motherboard: ROG STRIX Z270F GAMING

Existing Samsung Nvme SSD plus an old school HDD. Everything was working great for years. Got a new Intel SSD drive. Inserted it into the upper SSD slot as it was free. booted and my HDD disappeared And the Intel SSD wouldn’t show up though I could see it in my device manager. Found out it was because of SATA stuff, so I swapped my older Samsung SSD which was in the lower slot putting it in the top slot and moved my Intel SSD to the lower (better) slot where the Samsung was.

This is when things went to hell.

the Samsung screw was on very tight so I had to use some pliers but it came off okay. Problem was when it did I slipped and made a minor scratch. Since flipping the SSD locations and that small scratch, everything seems to be running but I get a black screen and am unable to boot (pressing f2 the boot key, or holding del, etc nothing works), I tried everything: flipping the SSD back, taking the SSD out, only the original SSD, and taking out all hard drives and taking out all SSD, even removing the dvd drive, and doing CMOS reset. Nothing works still black screen. Everything seems to be running (cpu fans and graphics card fans running, hear boot up sounds with HDD when it’s plugged in, keyboard lights up when power is connected and I can use it to turn on the computer when I hit any key, etc.). I try plugging into the motherboard directly with multiple monitors(original dvi, but also tried an HDMI) and still black screen.

so I am left with the nagging feeling this scratch did it unless there is something else I’m missing. Anything I can try? Here is the scratch. Why would they design it so a tiny scratch right next to the screw would prevent booting? Anything else I can try? Please help!

 

[lvt]

Do you mean this one?

 

[lvt]

And when you tried the onboard video, did you remove the GPU completely?

 

[Iron Duke]

And when you tried the onboard video, did you remove the GPU completely?

yes it’s that scratch and yes I removed the GPU completely (tried with and without it). I am running out of things to try except maybe getting a conductive pen and trying to fix that scratch which will probably ruin the motherboard and costs $20 so I may as well get a new motherboard if that is really the issue (would suck if it’s something else). I took out everything there are no hdd, no ssd, no gpu, just the cpu, RAM, and motherboard.
I just can’t believe such a small scratch near a screw point could cause a failure to boot.

 

[lvt]

You should clean the damaged area with a bit of alcohol and a Q-tip, then use a magnifying glass to verify the printed lines that run through the area. Sometime the lines aren't completely severed but they are short-circuited with the nearby lines by the conductive debris.

Anyway you will have to clean before using a conductive pen, so with a little of chance it could work again.

 

[Iron Duke]

So I gave up and bought an entirely new motherboard and new processor, went to turn it on, yet guess what? Still the same black screen!! Now I’m really clueless but thinking maybe the whole process somehow caused the power supply to go iffy or something and am going to replace that too. But if it’s still black screen at that point I am running out of ideas!

 

[USAFRet]

Please give us a full rundown of ALl the parts involved.
And, where these SSD's are.
And what drive the OS is on.

 

[Iron Duke]

Please give us a full rundown of ALl the parts involved.
And, where these SSD's are.
And what drive the OS is on.

OS is Windows but it won’t even boot to BIOS. It turns on but doesn’t boot. I previously tried taking everything out, and leaving only the motherboard and processor to try to see if it can get to BIOS but to no avail so I assumed it was a motherboard issue.

May have installed the SSD wrong but if that caused the issue how do I fix it since even taking out both of the SSD drives doesn’t fix it or allow me to get back to the BIOS (tried resetting the previous motherboard too).
Bought this entirely new motherboard and processor, and still the same issue granted I deeply regret not testing it without the drives first but I never imagined it could happen once those parts were replaced.

 

[USAFRet]

OS is Windows but it won’t even boot to BIOS. It turns on but doesn’t boot. I previously tried taking everything out, and leaving only the motherboard and processor to try to see if it can get to BIOS but to no avail so I assumed it was a motherboard issue.

May have installed the SSD wrong but if that caused the issue how do I fix it since even taking out both of the SSD drives doesn’t fix it or allow me to get back to the BIOS (tried resetting the previous motherboard too).
Bought this entirely new motherboard and processor, and still the same issue granted I deeply regret not testing it without the drives first but I never imagined it could happen once those parts were replaced.

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Please give us a full rundown of ALL the parts involved.
And, where these SSD's are.
And what drive the OS is on.
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