Small light scratch on motherboard cause problems?

[Phak Hee]

I tried to fix something, and the knife, yes knife, slipped and cause a really light scratch on the board: https://imgur.com/umynVTs . The board still works and i stressed it by playing far cry 5 and fortnite all day. No problems, should i be concerned? note: the scrath is on top of the intel logo.

The lines still look connected and i dont see any copper sticking out.

 

[getochkn]

If it runs fine, you didn't cut any traces. Can we ask why you needed a knife to fix something in your PC?

 

[Elf_Knight]

Keep an eye on the temperatures and monitor the temperatures of the motherboard. Try MSI Afterburner or Speccy or whatever tool helps best. I have bumped motherboards with a screwdriver on accident and had no issues. They are very sturdy and durable these days. If you see any fluid leaking from the motherboard it could be that something has shorted or blown because of the scratch but if it works fine then you should be okay. Keep an eye on it and email the manufacturers if you are worried. I think it will be okay. PC components are very hardy these days.

 

[Phak Hee]

If it runs fine, you didn't cut any traces. Can we ask why you needed a knife to fix something in your PC?

There was a tiny piece of paper in the socket, the knife was sharp enough to get it out

 

[Elf_Knight]

You could have used tweezers or pins that way you can avoid scratching the motherboard.

 

[grimfox]

That's strictly cosmetic. Not a problem. I've pulled boards fresh out of the packaging with worse scratches and they were fine.

How can you tell when it is a problem? When you can see copper or metal under the scratch. You can and probably should get a little magnifier and check to be sure.

Smashing damage, like you'd get from dropping a screwdriver or GPU on the board (or drive cage or something else) can be a lot more tricky to determine if there's a problem. Many motherboards have several layers of traces so any one of those layers could be broken even though the surface doesn't look that bad.