Question Scratched motherboard with screwdriver - potential issues?

[buster108]

Hi,

Went to install a new nvme and had trouble pushing down the pcie tab to remove my GPU. Very tight gap thanks to big CPU cooler. Stupidly tried using a screwdriver. Slipped and managed to take a small but significant chunk out of my motherboard. Install nvme anyway and boot up. Everything seems fine. Run cinebench no problems or oddities, heaven is running now seems fine. Will do memory stress test soon. Anyway.

Everything seems to work fine. In the photos you can see the mark. Took out three traces. In the photo with the arrow you can see where abouts on the board it hit. In the third photo this is the general area where the trace ran to. It's hard to know specifically. Have I been extremely fortunate and taken out like RGD LED headers or something else I'm not going to use probably?

Wondering have I dodged a bullet here or is this going to be an issue down the road?

My motherboard is a B660M DS3H AX DDR4

Thanks!


Photo of chip: https://ibb.co/hgqQwLx

Photo of chipped area: https://ibb.co/Nr0N01J

Photo of where it leads to: https://ibb.co/jkcxDWf

 

[punkncat]

If you only damaged the board itself it shouldn't present as an issue. If you damaged or gouged out the trace leading over to those headers you may well have made one (or more) of those inoperable. If you aren't using them, or have others available to use it may never be a problem for your use case.

I tend to use a chopstick to reach such as the PCI-e lock where coolers and such block my fat fingers.

 

[buster108]

If you only damaged the board itself it shouldn't present as an issue. If you damaged or gouged out the trace leading over to those headers you may well have made one (or more) of those inoperable. If you aren't using them, or have others available to use it may never be a problem for your use case.

I tend to use a chopstick to reach such as the PCI-e lock where coolers and such block my fat fingers.

Hey thanks for the quick reply!

From the photos it seems I damanged the trace, what do you reckon? And i cant guarantee that the trace led to them but it seems to be LED headers or USB 2 headers etc down there. Also though a few small chips you can see and things like the Q Flash button etc.

And yep got it out eventually, just one of the stupid days where forget my senses and used screwdriver. Really dumb and very annoyed at myself for potentially writing off my board. Do you think a fatal/serious error could occur down the line or would it have presented itself by now?

 

[drea.drechsler]

... Do you think a fatal/serious error could occur down the line or would it have presented itself by now?

I'd seal the chip with a drop of fingernail polish. Reason being there are now bare copper trace bits that are extremely tightly spaced and could be pushed into contact if something brushes against it in the future. Basically encapsulating it in the fingernail polish will make that a lot harder if not impossible.

Otherwise, if one of the traces leads to an active device...like that ITE chip...it might not work as it should, leading to future failure. But that's pretty much unforeseeable right now so not much you can do but "use it till you lose it", as they say.

I use a plastic ruler to push on the PCIe extractor clip. It's also fairly broad faced with rounded edges on the end so even if it should slip it can't make much of a dent in the board.

 

[buster108]

I'd seal the chip with a drop of fingernail polish. Reason being there are now bare copper trace bits that are extremely tightly spaced and could be pushed into contact if something brushes against it in the future. Basically encapsulating it in the fingernail polish will make that a lot harder if not impossible.

Otherwise, if one of the traces leads to an active device...like that ITE chip...it might not work as it should, leading to future failure. But that's pretty much unforeseeable right now so not much you can do but "use it till you lose it", as they say.

Thanks for the info. Would a bit of electrical tape get the same result? Just because I have that to hand right now. Is there any risk with using the fingernail polish?

Out of curiosity what other devices/chips do you see down there that could be a big issue unlike the LED header? what is the ITE chip's function ?

Passed cinebench, heaven and memtest86 fine so thats hopefully the big hitters that are okay.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Wondering have I dodged a bullet here or is this going to be an issue down the road?

Those broken traces might be going to second M.2 slot.
It probably is not functional anymore.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Thanks for the info. Would a bit of electrical tape get the same result? Just because I have that to hand right now. Is there any risk with using the fingernail polish?

I would not use tape...that's because you'd have to push down on it to make it adhere and that could push some of those close space bare traces into contact, if there are any. There's no risk with the polish; the gel-coat they spray on the PWB in manufacture probably has much the same constituency.

Out of curiosity what other devices/chips do you see down there that could be a big issue unlike the LED header? what is the ITE chip's function ?

I'm not sure of it's function...it might be the RGB controller, might be the driver for the USB ports. I can't discern it's part number in the pictures.

Passed cinebench, heaven and memtest86 fine so thats hopefully the big hitters that are okay.

Don't worry so much the stress tests, check functionality of all the features you use. USB ports, fans, LAN ports, etc.

 

[buster108]

Those broken traces might be going to second M.2 slot.
It probably is not functional anymore.

I gave it a quick follow and they seemed to bypass that and go down to the area in the third pic. Hard to tell but I believe it to be around there. Hoping none of those are vital parts

 

[buster108]

I would not use tape...that's because you'd have to push down on it to make it adhere and that could push some of those close space bare traces into contact, if there are any. There's no risk with the polish; the gel-coat they spray put on the PWB in manufacture probably has much the same constituency.

I'm not sure of it's function...it might be the RGB controller, might be the driver for the USB ports. I can't discern it's part number in the pictures.

Don't worry so much the stress tests, check functionality of all the features you use. USB ports, fans, LAN ports, etc.

Okay thanks ill give polish a go later.

Luckily Im not one for RGB and my case's front USB ports are plugged in elsewhere. So far all fans running fine, front IO working too.

I was about to reinstall windows on my new nvme. Bad time to do it now you reckon ? haha

 

[drea.drechsler]

Those broken traces might be going to second M.2 slot.
It probably is not functional anymore.

Or maybe other PCie slots that are currently unused?

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
I was about to reinstall windows on my new nvme. Bad time to do it now you reckon ? haha

Ahhh..no...it's a good time It's got to work for the purpose you intended it for...right?

 

[buster108]

Ahhh..no...it's a good time It's got to work for the purpose you intended it for...right?

Yeah ahhah. Cant believe I messed this up so bad, is only a month old. Could try my luck returning it and hope the company I got it from dont notice/simply write it off as a bad board anyway.

Is annoying knowing that potentially something is not going to work on the board

 

[buster108]

If you only damaged the board itself it shouldn't present as an issue. If you damaged or gouged out the trace leading over to those headers you may well have made one (or more) of those inoperable. If you aren't using them, or have others available to use it may never be a problem for your use case.

I tend to use a chopstick to reach such as the PCI-e lock where coolers and such block my fat fingers.

Ahhh..no...it's a good time It's got to work for the purpose you intended it for...right?

Hey there,

Just a follow up. Painstakingly followed the traces. From the impact photo it seems only two traces are hit. They end in those two little dots that ive highlighted in blue and red.

Which seem to end in either of the two chips to the right and left of them?

I got the name and function of the smaller chip on the right: GL850G KSA0160 1471100

One return came up from a search, a pdf explaining all about this chip. Its the USB 2.0 controller. No loss at all for me that.

The other chip, the ITE one, is tricky.

ITE IT5701E - 128
2240 - BXA S1B9MAGB03

googling it5701e gets some good results. However, as seen in the images its a mixed bag. Some say its RGB controller or the q flash bios function or both. Not sure what to make of that. If it is just RGB no loss for me. Q flash would be a shame. Would I lose my ability to flash my bios overall? Surely that functions remains in the m-bios chip?

Thanks again!



red and blue dots showing where tracer lines end: https://ibb.co/XyWB3nm

pdf showing usb controller: https://ibb.co/HDWbLkB


tech4gamers showing ite chip as RGB: https://ibb.co/KK6nGM5

chinese site translated showing it as RGB: https://ibb.co/2K0dZpz


random site showing ite chip as q flash: https://ibb.co/0Fw07gH

another random site as q flash: https://ibb.co/BrSfqGQ

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hey there,

Just a follow up. Painstakingly followed the traces. From the impact photo it seems only two traces are hit. They end in those two little dots that ive highlighted in blue and red.

Which seem to end in either of the two chips to the right and left of them?

I got the name and function of the smaller chip on the right: GL850G KSA0160 1471100

One return came up from a search, a pdf explaining all about this chip. Its the USB 2.0 controller. No loss at all for me that.

The other chip, the ITE one, is tricky.

ITE IT5701E - 128
2240 - BXA S1B9MAGB03

googling it5701e gets some good results. However, as seen in the images its a mixed bag. Some say its RGB controller or the q flash bios function or both. Not sure what to make of that. If it is just RGB no loss for me. Q flash would be a shame. Would I lose my ability to flash my bios overall? Surely that functions remains in the m-bios chip?

Thanks again!



red and blue dots showing where tracer lines end: https://ibb.co/XyWB3nm

pdf showing usb controller: https://ibb.co/HDWbLkB


tech4gamers showing ite chip as RGB: https://ibb.co/KK6nGM5

chinese site translated showing it as RGB: https://ibb.co/2K0dZpz


random site showing ite chip as q flash: https://ibb.co/0Fw07gH

another random site as q flash: https://ibb.co/BrSfqGQ

Those two little dots are VIA's that transfer the signal path to another layer of the motherboard. From there, you really have no easy way of knowing where they go.

If it is the QFlash, it may be the only loss is updating BIOS using the Qflash feature, which is a way to flash BIOS without a processor in the system, i.e., BIOS Flashback button. You might still be able to use the in- BIOS flash utility. An EFI shell flash utility or even a DOS shell flash utility should also work although you'd have to get a little bit techy and create an EFI or DOS boot USB to use them.

 

[buster108]

Those two little dots are VIA's that transfer the signal path to another layer of the motherboard. From there, you really have no easy way of knowing where they go.

If it is the QFlash, it may be the only loss is updating BIOS using the Qflash feature, which is a way to flash BIOS without a processor in the system, i.e., BIOS Flashback button. You might still be able to use the in- BIOS flash utility. An EFI shell flash utility or even a DOS shell flash utility should also work although you'd have to get a little bit techy and create an EFI or DOS boot USB to use them.

Ahhh damn, was thinking that was too easy. So no way of knowing where they lead then? So annoying there isn't schematics/blueprints online. I've messaged gigabyte support showing which traces but I doubt they will do anything.

So is it a potential risk flashing my bios the usual way in the future?

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
So is it a potential risk flashing my bios the usual way in the future?

There might be...unless you can positively rule out it being associated with BIOS updating. The thing is, the ITE chip is right between the Q-Flash button and the BIOS chip so the chip does looks associated. The thing to do is not update BIOS obviously, luckily I don't think Intel's as active with updates as AMD boards are. But if a situation arises where you must, then be prepared for the worst.

But the damaged traces go to a subsurface layer right in line with the lower M.2 socket so they could run to that, although I'd suspect it's data path is to the chipset right next to it. And there's another IC next to the ITE chip (can't read numbers at all). That could be a controller for those USB ports. Or they might run to one of the PCIe sockets. Or, it could even run to the LPT port or serial ports (or supporting circuitry) which are unpopulated with a header, so unused even though the board has provisions for them.

Something to check are the USB ports and M.2 socket, also the reset switch, just to rule them out if you haven't yet.

 

[buster108]

There might be...unless you can positively rule out it being associated with BIOS updating. The thing is, the ITE chip is right between the Q-Flash button and the BIOS chip so the chip does looks associated. The thing to do is not update BIOS obviously, luckily I don't think Intel's as active with updates as AMD boards are. But if a situation arises where you must, then be prepared for the worst.

But the damaged traces go to a subsurface layer right in line with the lower M.2 socket so they could run to that, although I'd suspect it's data path is to the chipset right next to it. And there's another IC next to the ITE chip (can't read numbers at all). That could be a controller for those USB ports. Or they might run to one of the PCIe sockets. Or, it could even run to the LPT port or serial ports (or supporting circuitry) which are unpopulated with a header, so unused even though the board has provisions for them.

Something to check are the USB ports and M.2 socket, also the reset switch, just to rule them out if you haven't yet.

Hey, really appreciate the help just wanted to say!

Okay so in terms of testing what it is that got messed up. Don't update bios as don't want to mess with that if that's busted. How can I test RGB and usb? Buy a RGB kit then return it after? And for usb headers could I try my usb 3.0 cable and see if it works with them? I'll try reset switch in a bit, does that just simply restart the pc?

Think I might have an old WiFi pcie card to test that with. And guess I could swap my m.2 SSD over to test it.

Big question is by doing all this do I create the chance for a shorting or making it worse? Are those copper wires transfering data even when their respective connections arnt in use?

Thanks

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hey, really appreciate the help just wanted to say!

Okay so in terms of testing what it is that got messed up. Don't update bios as don't want to mess with that if that's busted. How can I test RGB and usb? Buy a RGB kit then return it after? And for usb headers could I try my usb 3.0 cable and see if it works with them? I'll try reset switch in a bit, does that just simply restart the pc?

Think I might have an old WiFi pcie card to test that with. And guess I could swap my m.2 SSD over to test it.

Big question is by doing all this do I create the chance for a shorting or making it worse? Are those copper wires transfering data even when their respective connections arnt in use?

Thanks

Doesn't your case have front panel USB ports, with connections you can make to the headers? try each one to see if it works.

And swapping your m.2 SSD is a good idea, as well as the PCie card to see if it's functioning.

RGB is a problem: try to borrow something RGB to plug in and see. The idea is to try and find something broke even if you don't use it 'cause if it's broke then the BIOS flash likely isn't so you can feel better about updating BIOS in the future. It's unfortunate there's no way to test the unpopulated serial and parallel port headers to see if they work or not.

 

[buster108]

Doesn't your case have front panel USB ports, with connections you can make to the headers? try each one to see if it works.

And swapping your m.2 SSD is a good idea, as well as the PCie card to see if it's functioning.

RGB is a problem: try to borrow something RGB to plug in and see. The idea is to try and find something broke even if you don't use it 'cause if it's broke then the BIOS flash likely isn't so you can feel better about updating BIOS in the future. It's unfortunate there's no way to test the unpopulated serial and parallel port headers to see if they work or not.

Hi yeah was just making sure my usb 3.0 (plugged into another header on right side of the board) will be compatible with these 2.0 headers. I assume they will be.

If I find a problem with one or two of any of the options in terms of headers, is there still a chance there's an issue with my bios that I might never know about until I flash? At which point I'm assuming I could easily brick the board?

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hi yeah was just making sure my usb 3.0 (plugged into another header on right side of the board) will be compatible with these 2.0 headers. I assume they will be...

No, they aren't. Not without an adapter

And there's always a chance your board could brick itself at some point whether or not it's related to BIOS flashing... not without full knowledge of exactly what those cut traces do.

 

[buster108]

No, they aren't. Not without an adapter

And there's always a chance your board could brick itself at some point whether or not it's related to BIOS flashing... not without full knowledge of exactly what those cut traces do.

Yep what I feared. Gonna figure out what's best next move now. Thanks again for the help

 

[buster108]

No, they aren't. Not without an adapter

And there's always a chance your board could brick itself at some point whether or not it's related to BIOS flashing... not without full knowledge of exactly what those cut traces do.

Flashed the bios. Admittedly to the latest one which I was already on. Figured that wouldnt matter as the process probably treated the same regardless. PC seems fine. Reckon ive dodged any bios issues?

 

[drea.drechsler]

Flashed the bios. Admittedly to the latest one which I was already on. Figured that wouldnt matter as the process probably treated the same regardless. PC seems fine. Reckon ive dodged any bios issues?

It does seem so! If it's working for you with the way you use the motherboard it seems all's good.

Did you also check the 2nd M.2 with an NVME? I know I'd like knowing I have that available for more high speed storage when the time comes.

 

[buster108]

It does seem so! If it's working for you with the way you use the motherboard it seems all's good.

Did you also check the 2nd M.2 with an NVME? I know I'd like knowing I have that available for more high speed storage when the time comes.

Yep just did it how I always did, off a usb stick and no real problems. Bios works as normal, xmp functions, manual fan curves etc all good it seems.

not done components check yet. ive ordered two bits of aRGB. One kit that fits the three pin gigabyte connection and the then one for the other larger pin set next to it. found my old pcie wireless card however it needs usb 2.0 to work. So also ordered a little 9pin to usb 2.0 female. will test that first to see how the usb 2.0 headers are, if they good ill try the wifi card.

I will also move the nvme drive into this potentially bad slot and see if it registers it. If not, not the worst loss tbh i reckon ill be able to live with one slot. I dont use much storage and if worst came to worse I could always get like a 4tb drive down the line or something. Maybe some high capacity Sata drives as auxilaries for stuff dont care about. But ill cross that bridge when comes to it.

Thanks again!

 

[buster108]

It does seem so! If it's working for you with the way you use the motherboard it seems all's good.

Did you also check the 2nd M.2 with an NVME? I know I'd like knowing I have that available for more high speed storage when the time comes.

Hey so did a load of checks.

Small pcie with wifi card worked, which used usb 2.0 cable to power it so tried that on the two headers - worked fine.

Reset switch worked fine.

Also got a usb 2.0 internal to female usb and tried a wired mouse on both headers - worked fine
Switched the m.2 SSD to slot 2, its not formatted yet but speccy showed the capacity and brand as it does in slot 1 - seems fine

Bought both the 3 pin and 4 pin (5v and 12v I think) LED/RGB strips respectively. When I plugged in the 3 pin there was a slight noise from the PSU I think but I could not replicate it again from numerous power ups. I think just a coincidence really, it wasnt a bad noise kinda just sounds like power snapping on. Think ive heard that before. Anyway, that RGB and the other both lit up.

Though didnt try changing colours and such. Similary with m.2 2nd slot, pcie or usb headers, didnt get longevity/change in functionality tests out of them. But I figure if an issue were to occur due to this sliced trace it would make itself apparent almost immediatley with these components? They all powered on and were recognised.

If im right and these components are in the clear, it seems the likely hit ones were the seriel ports or the q flash. Not sure I want to try the q flash.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks!