motherboard repair Broke a component on my motherboard, possible to repair?

[AlfredKwak]

Hi, I broke a component of my motherboard (aorus b550i pro rx) when closing the top lid of my pc, the top fans + cable were too much and I didn't look properly before applying force.

 

It didn't fell off completely but it looks like it took a small part of the pcb with it. 

 

The pc doesn't boot, all the fans rotate but I get no display. 

 

Do you think it can be repaired or should I just buy a new one? The motherboard is brand new, like one month old

 

Thanks! 

[AbydosOne]

8 minutes ago, AlfredKwak said:

Do you think it can be repaired or should I just buy a new one? The motherboard is brand new, like one month old

It looks like the pads lifted, i.e. the metal parts of the PCB are no longer bonded to the substrate, so the circuits are broken and it's essentially impossible to repair.

[mariushm]

Yes, it's possible to repair.

Go to a service place that repairs computers or phones and have soldering stations.

 

The component pulled the copper pads to which it was soldered, so the person working on the motherboard would have to look to what traces (copper wires on the board) the component pads were connected to, scrape off the layer of insulation from those wires and solder new wires between those traces and your component.

 

Another technique is to desolder the pads from the component, glue them back to the circuit board, create a bridge between the pads and the copper traces to which the original pads were attached, and then solder the component back onto the pads.

 

 

The component is an inductor , basically a coil of wire wrapped around a ferrite core or some other core with magnetic properties... then all is wrapped in the plastic cube to reduce noise produced by the wire rubbing against the core material.

It's part of a dc-dc converter, a circuit which takes some higher voltage and produces a lower voltage  ...  based on the location it may be powering the memory sticks.

[trag1c]

Looks like you ripped the copper pads off so that mobo is done.

[mariushm]

2 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

It looks like the pads lifted, i.e. the metal parts of the PCB are no longer bonded to the substrate, so the circuits are broken and it's essentially impossible to repair.

 

1 minute ago, trag1c said:

Looks like you ripped the copper pads off so that mobo is done.

 

This is BAD ADVICE.

Lifted pads or broken pads can be repaired, or an experienced service person can use wires instead of pads to create the connections.

 

here's an example from a company NorthridgeFix that have a Youtube channel and you can send them your motherboard to have it repaired, but it would probably be expensive:

This is a usb stick which had the pads lifted ... he's using wires to create the connections and get the stick working :

 

See at around 2:30 for example ... same thing can be done on your motherboard :

 

 

another example, a hdmi connector with lifted pads and broken traces ... it can be repaired :

 

 

 

[AlfredKwak]

Alright, thanks for the awesome feedback, repairing it looks like too much trouble, I'll just buy a new one and sell this one for parts

 

I'll be more careful next time, thanks again !

 

Cheers,

[AbydosOne]

4 minutes ago, mariushm said:

This is BAD ADVICE.

Both of those are low current, low voltage applications. I don't doubt it can be done for applications like that, but the (relative) amount of current flowing through that inductor would be enough to smoke those fine wires being used for those fixes. It might be possible, but it's pretty iffy to find enough space to solder a large enough wire to hand the current.

[mariushm]

Just now, AbydosOne said:

Both of those are low current, low voltage applications. I don't doubt it can be done for applications like that, but the (relative) amount of current flowing through that inductor would be enough to smoke those fine wires being used for those fixes. It might be possible, but it's pretty iffy to find enough space to solder a large enough wire to hand the current.

It's a "one phase" dc-dc converter, it's not a high current, maybe a few amps at most ... and it's two lifted pads ... you can solder multiple thin parallel wires if you're paranoid. Even with just thin wires, a thin wire can handle a lot of current if the distance is very short ... like half a cm or whatever you'd have in this situation.

 

Shame I live where I live, I would have been willing to give it a shot, maybe buy the board as is and try my luck, but shipping to me would be very expensive. Don't have near as high end soldering equipment as the ones in the video, but I think I'd manage to fix it.

[trag1c]

Just now, mariushm said:

This is BAD ADVICE.

Lifted pads or broken pads can be repaired, or an experienced service person can use wires instead of pads to create the connections.

It's perfectly sound advice that I gave. The OP is asking whether or not it is worth repairing, not if it is repairable. It's a ~$200 motherboard so no it is definitely not worth paying the labor costs involved with fixing a $200 item.