Broken pins on PCI-E lane.

[Clifford]

Hey everyone. A friend of mine broke the pins on his motherboard for the GPU PCI-E lanes and so he gave me the board and I was planning to turn it into a secondary build (without using a GPU) just for like a media build or something to mess around with.

 

I was wondering if I could just break off the pins so they wouldn't be exposed and start a fire or something. Any suggestions?

 

I don't have a picture of the motherboard so this is something I found on google that's similar. 

[W-L]

Hey everyone. A friend of mine broke the pins on his motherboard for the GPU PCI-E lanes and so he gave me the board and I was planning to turn it into a secondary build (without using a GPU) just for like a media build or something to mess around with.

I was wondering if I could just break off the pins so they wouldn't be exposed and start a fire or something. Any suggestions?

I don't have a picture of the motherboard so this is something I found on google that's similar. 

-PIC-

 

Well RIP...

 

You could take a pair of flush cutter and cut off all the pins and basically be left with what you have to work with for the motherboard.

[Admiral Naismith]

I don't see why not, as long as they're not in contact with each other I doubt the motherboard will have issues.

[Clifford]

I don't see why not, as long as they're not in contact with each other I doubt the motherboard will have issues.

Yeah, the motherboard was brand new LOL. 

 

Everything should work fine in theory as long as I don't plug anything into the broken slot.

[Morgan MLGman]

But it says the mobo supports SLI, so it has to have PCIE x8 slot so why without the GPU? you can put it in another slot and ignore that one

[Clifford]

But it says the mobo supports SLI, so it has to have PCIE x8 slot so why without the GPU? you can put it in another slot and ignore that one

Not the same motherboard in the picture. Stole the picture off Google.

 

I haven't picked up the motherboard so I don't know which model it is.

[Morgan MLGman]

Not the same motherboard in the picture. Stole the picture off Google.

 

I haven't picked up the motherboard so I don't know which model it is.

Oh, okay. Maybe it does have more PCIE slots though?

[Clifford]

Oh, okay. Maybe it does have more PCIE slots though?

It's a Z97 board and he paid ~$150 if I remember correctly. I'll check it out but that's a good idea you pitched. Maybe I'll just throw in a cheapo GPU like a 950 or something. 

[Morgan MLGman]

It's a Z97 board and he paid ~$150 if I remember correctly. I'll check it out but that's a good idea you pitched. Maybe I'll just throw in a cheapo GPU like a 950 or something. 

If it's a Z97 board and he paid that much money for it, I'm almost certain it has more PCIE slots ^^

[Clifford]

Any other tips to remove / break off the pins other than flush cutters?

[W-L]

Any other tips to remove / break off the pins other than flush cutters?

 

Just make sure non of the contacts are bridged together, at that point you can leave them exposed, it wouldn't affect anything.

[Kingslayer Kyle]

Just make sure none of the pins are touching each other, I would definitely cut them off though

[Clifford]

Just make sure none of the pins are touching each other, I would definitely cut them off though

Any method you could recommend?

[W-L]

Any method you could recommend?

 

Using flush cutters to trim leads is pretty industry standard way of doing it, unless you want to go through the trouble of de-soldering every pin there isn't really a need to do that though.

[FruitBasketSilex]

Any method you could recommend?

A hammer.

/s

Flush cutters.

[Necrodead]

Woah, but how did it happen?

[Clifford]

Using flush cutters to trim leads is pretty industry standard way of doing it, unless you want to go through the trouble of de-soldering every pin there isn't really a need to do that though.

Oh, it just seemed ghetto at first. If it's the standard though I'll defenitly do that then. 

 

Woah, but how did it happen?

From what he told me, he was trying to realign his GPU or something and it all just went to sh--. 

[Clifford]

UPDATE. The motherboard is a MSI Z170A Gaming M3. 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130874

 

Here's what the pins look like 

 

 

There's another PCI-E lane so should I throw in a 950 or something and turn it in to a media build?

[W-L]

-PIC-

 

Yeah you can toss it into the lower PCI-E slot and it will work no problem after removing those now exposed pins. Oh so painful to see that on a new board.

[Clifford]

Yeah you can toss it into the lower PCI-E slot and it will work no problem after removing those now exposed pins. Oh so painful to see that on a new board.

Yeah I cringed when he sent me the Snapchat of it. *crying laughing emoji* 

 

At least now hopefully I can put it to use even though it's broken!

[W-L]

Yeah I cringed when he sent me the Snapchat of it. *crying laughing emoji* 

 

At least now hopefully I can put it to use even though it's broken!

 

Make sure he unhooks the PCI-E lock next time around so it doesn't happen again.

[Clifford]

Make sure he unhooks the PCI-E lock next time around so it doesn't happen again.

Actually that's exactly how it happened, LOL. He didn't realize there was a clip cause it was his first build, haha. I taught him all the in's and out's so it he should be fine now.