Is one broken pin in motherboard's SATA port a problem?

[zac.r.aus98]

In trying to remove the SATA cable from my PC's motherboard, I removed the plastic cap over the 7 pins. When trying to replace it, I broke a corner pin (ground pin?). I switched my hard drive to the other good SATA port, and DVD cable in the broken port. The PC works fine. I was able to play music from a CD and install a program from a disc.
Would continuing to use my PC as it is have negative effects?

 

[drea.drechsler]

In trying to remove the SATA cable from my PC's motherboard, I removed the plastic cap over the 7 pins. When trying to replace it, I broke a corner pin (ground pin?). I switched my hard drive to the other good SATA port, and DVD cable in the broken port. The PC works fine. I was able to play music from a CD and install a program from a disc.
Would continuing to use my PC as it is have negative effects?

Just make sure nothing is shorting pin-to-pin in it and you should be able to continue using the board with no ill effects. I'm surprised the damaged port works at all, though. Don't you have any other ports you could move the DVD to and just abandon that broken one? That would be preferred to prevent anything strange from happening down the road.

 

[zac.r.aus98]

Just make sure nothing is shorting pin-to-pin in it and you should be able to continue using the board with no ill effects. I'm surprised the damaged port works at all, though. Don't you have any other ports you could move the DVD to and just abandon that broken one? That would be preferred to prevent anything strange from happening down the road.

Thanks,
I'm glad to know it shouldn't be much of a problem.

No, there is no shorting. I was able to neatly align the remaining 6 pins to replace the plastic cap. Actually, I put the broken pin into the cap when replacing it with a hope it makes contact, so perhaps that's how it still works.

This used to be the port where the hard drive was plugged in. When plugged, the hard drive refused to work with it's broken pins. The DVD drive was plugged in only the other SATA port (good and in-tact pins). So I switched them: plugged the DVD cable into the broken one and the hard drive cable into the good one.

A side note: After I posted this question, my dad (the owner of the PC) took it to a hardware repair store. They recommended replacing it (or something similar, i don't know) and not using the damaged port till fixed. So as of now, the DVD drive is non-functional.

But I'm happy to know more about this for the sake of knowledge.