[SOLVED] Solder damaged

[Itschi]

Hello,

bought a used Aorus z390 Elite but it arrived damaged as you can see in the picture.
My question is if it can still be hooked up with power without worries since some solder bumps are now connected with each other.
And can the front io, seen in the second picture, still be used with the solder in there?

I don't know anything about solder on mainboards, so any help is appreciated.

Backside

Front io

 

[MadsModsat]

I don't think you'll get much entertainment out of that motherboard. Even if it can be salvaged, I don't think you should keep it - unless the description was very clear and mentioning this damage, in my opinion it is false advertisment, and you should return the board immediately

If you were expecting a 100% working motherboard based on the description, and this thing arrived, I would consider it as an attempt of fraud.

I can definately understand why you hope it can be fixed, so the hassle of returning it can be avoided among other things - and the excitement of new gear, but in my opinion you did not recieve the product you paid for (unless you were aware of the damage when you bought it)

The damage is way beyond something you could expect even when buying 2nd hand

EDIT :
And if someone let this happen to the motherboard, who knows what other damage there could potentially be

I'm a little bit impressed, that the person managed to get soledring material all over the motherboard, considering how quickly soldering material hardens

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hello,

bought a used Aorus z390 Elite but it arrived damaged as you can see in the picture.
My question is if it can still be hooked up with power without worries since some solder bumps are now connected with each other.
And can the front io, seen in the second picture, still be used with the solder in there?

I don't know anything about solder on mainboards, so any help is appreciated.

Backside

Front io

It may not be all lost... I believe there is hope left here!

The solder on the back side looks like solder splatter that could most likely be picked away with your fingernail. Same with the front side... and possibly even that on the front panel header.

The fingernail might work but I'd use a spudging tool and try to gently scrape the solder splatter away. Any soft, stiff tool would work...tooth brush handle, tooth pick, chop stick, whatever's at hand. If it comes off, clean each area with isopropyl alchol to get the last of it.

Carefully check the entire surface of the board for more. Also carefully check the CPU socket contacts. Somebody did not care much for what happened to this board and those things are very delicate.

The splatter on the header might be a problem, but only if the goofy careless tech that did this actually heated the pins hot enough (with a soldering iron) for the solder to 'wet' and form a metallic bond with the pin. Otherwise, it would be a perfectly cold connection that you should be able to pick away with a tooth pick or other tool.

If it can't be picked away any decent tech could hit it with a soldering iron and clean it up in a jiffy.

But ultimately, you're left with a questionable board and I have to ask why a tech at a bench would not mind flicking excess solder off his iron onto that particular motherboard. The answer seems obvious, but that's the gamble you take buying used.

 

[Itschi]

It may not be all lost... I believe there is hope left here!

The solder on the back side looks like solder splatter that could most likely be picked away with your fingernail. Same with the front side... and possibly even that on the front panel header.

The fingernail might work but I'd use a spudging tool and try to gently scrape the solder splatter away. Any soft, stiff tool would work...tooth brush handle, tooth pick, chop stick, whatever's at hand. If it comes off, clean each area with isopropyl alchol to get the last of it.

Carefully check the entire surface of the board for more. Also carefully check the CPU socket contacts. Somebody did not care much for what happened to this board and those things are very delicate.

The splatter on the header might be a problem, but only if the goofy careless tech that did this actually heated the pins hot enough (with a soldering iron) for the solder to 'wet' and form a metallic bond with the pin. Otherwise, it would be a perfectly cold connection that you should be able to pick away with a tooth pick or other tool.

If it can't be picked away any decent tech could hit it with a soldering iron and clean it up in a jiffy.

But ultimately, you're left with a questionable board and I have to ask why a tech at a bench would not mind flicking excess solder off his iron onto that particular motherboard. The answer seems obvious, but that's the gamble you take buying used.

Thanks for the reply, I should have gone into more detail.

There ist splatter on differnet parts of the MB, some on the io shield, some on rbg prarts and its fluid.

My best guess is that it's due to the terrible packaging (the bord was directly over the extras without any barrier besides the plastic case mobos come in) and inside the plastic was also splatter fluid.
So maybe the solder bumps came off during transport and went everywhere, but I don't know...

 

[drea.drechsler]

....
So maybe the solder bumps came off during transport and went everywhere, but I don't know...

That is competely true! There could be solder splatter anywhere. If you have the option, return it to seller. I hope they made assertions that it was 'functional' at least, or 'like new'.

I disagree about packaging, that could not have caused this. This is most likely a board that was sitting at a tech's bench and he flicked excess solder off his iron onto it. It's very common to do that: when resting your iron between uses you load it up with molten solder to keep the tip from oxidizing. We taught our techs to remove it by wiping, both because flicking it's a safety hazard and it can contaminate good hardware. I'm pretty that's what happened here: a lazy tech.

 

[Itschi]

Sry for wasting the time of you guys, I didnt check the cpu socket and founds this...
it's still liquid

socket

so yeah, gonna try to use the paypal buyer protection

 

[MadsModsat]

Since it is still liquid, I can't see how it is related to components on the motherboard being knocked loose in any way.

Solder joints can break the connection, but they don't just become liquid - that would require a good amount of heat, not something you'd see during transport, and it would also harden almost instantly again at normal temperature.

Instead it sounds more like it could be liquid metal thermal paste, since it is still in liquid form.

The silver looking finish, also looks like liquid metal thermal paste. That would also explain how it got smeared all over the place.

Unfortunately it is also electrically conductive, and very difficult to clean off once it is in the CPU socket, and other delicate parts of the motherboard

Like I initially said, I would definately still recommend returning the board - I'd say there's very little chance that the seller isn't aware of this issue (although I actually hope I'm wrong about that)

 

[drea.drechsler]

Sry for wasting the time of you guys, I didnt check the cpu socket and founds this...
it's still liquid

socket

so yeah, gonna try to use the paypal buyer protection

I'm with @MadsModsat , if it's still liquid this is most likely a liquid metal thermal interface material the PO carelessly spilled all over. The board is a binner, for sure. Super-fine metal particles contaminate the surface of the plastic parts and are nearly impossible to clean away.

Defo get buyer protection on this scam. You should have been informed what happened and that it was a board good for 'parts only'.