White substance on motherboard

[Grapthor]

Hello. I recently built a PC and around 2 hours afterwards I had a strange smell come from the PC that I can't quite put to words. After I smelled it I asked a friend he said it was probably thermal paste and that it should go away after a day.

But after 2 days it still wasn't gone and I found out after researching that I had removed some insulation for my bracket from my heatsink that was supposed to prevent shorting.

And that the smell was likely coming from my PSU from heating up. So after I found that out I unplugged the PSU's external power to prevent anymore damage until I could get some electrical tape to replace the insulator and some isopropyl alcohol to re-apply the thermal paste.

However once I got the things I needed and I opened up the case and took out the mobo, I noticed this stuff

Spoiler

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near all of the mounting holes that I used on the bottom and the top. I would really appreciate if someone could tell me what this is and what to do about it.

I apologize for my English and thank you for your time.

 

[WyomingKnott]

It looks to me like you scratched the heck out of the motherboard when installing it. That damage can be anything from cosmetic to requiring that the motherboard be replaced.

 

[Grapthor]

It looks to me like you scratched the heck out of the motherboard when installing it. That damage can be anything from cosmetic to requiring that the motherboard be replaced.

Thank you for answering!

I am very relieved by that. I had wondered if it had shorted it or something like that.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Well, as I said the damage could be sufficient that the motherboard has to be replaced. The traces can be damaged so that one is broken, two are shorted, or that a power trace was 90% obliterated at one point and is overheating carrying the power. There is no guarantee that the mobo is usable and stable.