Tiny dot scratch on the motherboard, am i good to go if i didn't have any problems since one week it's powered on?

[Awman]

Hi,

 

Whilst installing my motherboard, my screwdriver ripped, and made a little dot scratch, it's very small, just a dot like the size of a needle tip, but i can see copper color (can't show a picture it's now built and hidden by the GPU) (don't know if it touched a line or no). I got that PC powered on since one week 24/7 (going to sleep at night) and didn't experience any reboot or problem, does it mean that it didn't damahge anything or could i have a bad surprise later on?

Stupid question: that kind of damage can't start a fire hazard right? (with a short circuit for example?)

 

Thank you

[Uptivuptiz]

If any metal touches the exposed copper, it could become a problem, but other than that I think it'll be fine.

I will mention that if the motherboard dies later down the line and you RMA it, it might be rejected due to the exposed copper. ASUS tends to sometimes go to the extreme with this.

 

What motherboard do you have?

[Awman]

Asus X570 ProArt Creator. The scratch is realy small it's just a screwdriver poke you know, like the siz of one or two grain of salt. 

The chance of metal touching that copper while the PC is turned on are close to zero... it's above the graphic car if i recall + i use an aircooler so that part of a motherboard is not accessible + that would require me trying to touch willingly (which would be stupid an dangerous) the motherboard, with a metal piece like a screwdriver, while turned on... and also touching exactly that tiny little spot. I think i got more chance to win the lottery than for it happening.

Just in case, can i just apply a tiny piece of electrical tape over it?

 

I'm not worried with RMA as it's unlikely that my MB dies and if it does, it's likely it would already be out of warranty anyway

[Uptivuptiz]

3 minutes ago, Awman said:

Just in case, can i just apply a tiny piece of electrical tape over it?

 

I'm not worried with RMA as it's unlikely that my MB dies and if it does, it's likely it would already be out of warranty anyway

You can use electrical tape, but I typically use car polish or clear nail polish. It's just easier to work with and doesn't come off as easy.

 

If you want to be sneaky you could cover the mark with a sharpie. ^_^

[Awman]

sharpie + nail polish is good to go? it's not conductive or should i use a special nail polish? The sharpie = moist, it's not a risk of short circuit?

[mariushm]

Just let it be.

Or if you're paranoid, use just a tiny drop of nail polish, no sharpie or anything else.

 

[Uptivuptiz]

47 minutes ago, Awman said:

sharpie + nail polish is good to go? it's not conductive or should i use a special nail polish? The sharpie = moist, it's not a risk of short circuit?

 

7 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Just let it be.

Or if you're paranoid, use just a tiny drop of nail polish, no sharpie or anything else.

 

The sharpie is just to cover the scratch in case the board needs to be sent in for RMA, so it's an optional step  

[Awman]

42 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Just let it be.

Or if you're paranoid, use just a tiny drop of nail polish, no sharpie or anything else.

 

what worries me the most is fire hazard risk (i'm no electrician so i don't know if it's posible in my case). So far no reboot, nothing so i guess it didn't break anything right?

[Awman]

any nail polish will do? it doesn't have to have a special composition?

[mariushm]

You said it yourself is just a basic small dot like scratch ... you don't even know what that trace does, or if it's even a trace ... it could be a thick ground plane. 

A lot of traces carry low voltage signals, like less than 1v 

 

The traces on a motherboard are covered mainly to prevent oxidation of the copper. As oxides form on top of copper the resistance of the copper trace on the circuit board can change, and the signals can degrade or in the case of pairs of wire that carry a signal, one wire could have a different enough resistance from the other resulting in transmission errors. 

A side effect of covering the board with this coating to prevent oxidation is that you also get insulation, less risk of shorting out two traces by dropping something conductive. 

 

As you describe it, the hole is too small to cause any significant amount of oxidation or degradation of signals. 

 

 

In your case you have a tiny "hole" in the insulation layer, basically if you'd take a microscope your board probably looks like this 

 

    v  your scratch. 

__   ___

----\/------ << copper trace (not actually cutting into the copper trace but accept my text drawing limitations)

 

Even if something falls flat on the motherboard there, it wouldn't go in the hole and touch the exposed copper, the insulation would still be around the hole where you made the scratch. There's most likely insulation all around the area where you made the scratch so chances are very small you're gonna drop something and actually cause some issue. 

It's more of a risk that you'd end up pouring something or having a drop of conductive liquid fall exactly on or around that area and liquid spreading so that there would be a path for current to go from some trace or pin of a component to the copper inside the hole caused by the scratch.

 

Like I said ... really really low chances of this causing any problems 

 

So just get a bit of nail polish and fill the hole with it and you're done. edit : any will do, but I'd suggest getting a transparent one, least perfumed, most basic nail polish.

 

If you want to make it more professional, there's actual solder mask liquids (similar to the actual coating on your motherboard) but they require being exposed to UV to harden.

Here's a good example - the store belongs to a company that has Youtube channel and fixes stuff on their channel, so it's safe to buy: https://northridgefix.com/product/premium-quality-solder-mask-choose-from-green-blue-red-new-10ml-bottle/

You would need a UV lamp or flashlight to harden after application : https://northridgefix.com/product/mechanic-uv-light-used-for-solder-mask/

 

You can see in the video below at around 6:00 how he uses this solder mask liquid to make sure some fixed traces aren't moved from the location he puts them in : 

 

 

 

[Awman]

thanks for the detailed answer   I'll go the nail polish route but it's inreresting to see that video

No chances of liquid, i don't use water cooling and never will + my PC is not in a place of risk (only risk would be a flood with the neighbours upstairs, but then, it's not just the motherboard that'll be dead but everything