[SOLVED] How durable are the small resistors and components on the motherboard (scratched but still working) ?

[wevesasaldo]

I accidentally scratched a small resistor or something on the motherboard and I'm worried that all of a sudden the motherboard will stop working, I didn't actually "scratch" per se more like I hit it a bit while trying to screw something into the motherboard.

I'm talking about one of these brown thingies: https://c2.peakpx.com/wallpaper/786/451/696/transistors-gpu-processor-pc-chip-wallpaper-preview.jpg

Does anyone have any idea how dangerous this is? How durable one of those things are?

Thanks

 

[RealBeast]

I accidentally scratched a small resistor or something on the motherboard and I'm worried that all of a sudden the motherboard will stop working, I didn't actually "scratch" per se more like I hit it a bit while trying to screw something into the motherboard.

I'm talking about one of these brown thingies: https://c2.peakpx.com/wallpaper/786/451/696/transistors-gpu-processor-pc-chip-wallpaper-preview.jpg

Does anyone have any idea how dangerous this is? How durable one of those things are?

Thanks

Nah, you should be good if nothing happened right away, a deep gouge into the main part of the board (as it can cut the small copper traces) is usually a lot worse and even then some clear nail polish to "bandage it" is often the answer. Torquing a board excessively is a common killer.

 

[wevesasaldo]

Nah, you should be good if nothing happened right away, a deep gouge into the main part of the board (as it can cut the small copper traces) is usually a lot worse and even then some clear nail polish to "bandage it" is often the answer. Torquing a board excessively is a common killer.

How easy is it to damage a motherboard with for example a flathead screwdriver? I'm just wondering, I need to be more cautious in the future.

 

[hotaru.hino]

How easy is it to damage a motherboard with for example a flathead screwdriver? I'm just wondering, I need to be more cautious in the future.

If this is any indication for surface mount resistors, most of the body is ceramic (note this is upside down):

If it's a capacitor however, that's a different story:

However I would imagine it won't take too much to simply lop off a small component if you happen to slip. The good news though is it's likely fixable: solder the thing back on. The bad news is SMT components are kinda hard to solder by hand.

 

[wevesasaldo]

If this is any indication for surface mount resistors, most of the body is ceramic (note this is upside down):

If it's a capacitor however, that's a different story:

However I would imagine it won't take too much to simply lop off a small component if you happen to slip. The good news though is it's likely fixable: solder the thing back on. The bad news is SMT components are kinda hard to solder by hand.

Looks like I dodged a bullet then.

 

[Eximo]

Those little brown ones are capacitors. They are smoothing and filtering caps, just providing that little extra protection against quick changes in power consumption and preventing noise from other components from creating unwanted behavior. They aren't strictly necessary for operation in most cases, but damage to them may cause system instability.

I agree, bullet dodged.