New motherboard, odd discharge.

[pejolo]

Hello tomshardware! I just received the ASUS P8Z77-v pro and after inspecting the board I noticed inside the cpu socket there's a yellowish/brown/orange like substance on some of the pcb components. I cannot for the life of me identify what component this is. Is it a transistor, resistor, or other? Is this something I can clean with a toothbrush, alcohol, and patience? RMA?

Here's some pictures of what I'm talking about.
http://imgur.com/a/VnwbQ

Any insight on what this discharge, stain, or solder is would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tradesman1]

Not good, somethings been in there that shouldn't be, I'd RMA/exchange

 

[pejolo]

It was an open box item off ebay. "Bought on liquidation. " return policy states I can return. I'm going to check out asus site and see if I can exchange through them. No high hopes, we'll see. Thanks for the reply tradesman, have you had experience with this before? What do you think got in there?

 

[Tradesman1]

Looks like Liquid in ther so liquidation may be appropriate, although liquidation means moving of on hand stock - if any problems ask why they are selling defective products - open box should mean no damage

 

[pejolo]

Liquid in liquidation, never would have thought 😛. Makes me think that it was a floor model in a humid building and then was stored away or something. Just so odd that that is the only spot on the mobo where it's found, because everything else looks new and all accessories were present. I suppose it's time to get my money back.

 

[Tradesman1]

Maybe someone bought it and spilled some morning coffee or a coke or something and just trick to sponge it up and left residue, have seen similar a few times

 

[pejolo]

After further research it looks like this could also be a normal thing. I have found out, thanks to Gabriel Torres at hardwaresecrets.com, that those chips are actually a type of small ceramic capacitor and that yellowish stuff is a protective lacquer. Source
Just strange that its only clearly visible on the spots pictured.
What do you think?

 

[Tradesman1]

I myself would send it back, haven't seen a socket like that before and have looked at over a thousand over the years

 

[raja@asus]

Looks like Flux residue to me. Open box items are something to be wary of in my experience.

 

[pejolo]

Thank you Tradesman and Raja. After getting some local advice it was flux residue. I gave the board a shot and it's dead. Has power for about 1 second and shuts down, then powers itself back on again for about 1 second and turns off. This repeats until I unplug or switch off at the psu.
Going to try a new board.

 

[Tradesman1]

Let us know how it goes

 

[pejolo]

Shipped the board back to seller and was refunded. Luckily the seller wasn't trying to pull any funny business with the refund and was cooperative and nice. I gave ASUS another shot and purchased that same board off newegg new. Boom! Powers on no problem and has been running fine since with the exception of sensor readings occasionally being inaccurate.

My new rig.
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro
Intel i5 3570k stock
2x WD 7200 rpm SATA Raid0
Radeon 4850 512MB (I know) I'm saving up for a 7950 or 760gtx.
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB (8GB) DDR3 @ 1600 9-9-9-24
Corsair HX650 650Watt PSU

 

[Tradesman1]

Took a couple weeks, but glad you got it straightened out, now you can have some fun! Thanks for the update, had been wondering 😉 Might want to go ahead and close the thread now, C U around 😉