Crushed resistors-How bad is it?

[Mr.Breakstuff]

Greetings everyone!
A newbie here with a situation from hell.

Symptoms:
Recently my motherboard (msi ka780g) first lost power to the USB ports, getting the plug in - unplugged sound from windows repeatedly before quitting.
Dealt with that using a spare pci slot usb port.
Then the graphic card in the pcie started acting up, getting randomly horizontal lines on screen.
Then it gave up. It's getting no signal when it's plugged in, fan working, having power. Not seen in device manager. Internal gpu working fine, and windows booting normally.

Then I took the motherboard out for a close look and found this:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/dsc0041sox.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/526/dsc0035ys.jpg/

I guess i broke off a couple of surface mount resistors while taking out the graphic card to clean it a while ago.

Question:
Will that be the cause of PCIe slot and usb ports failing, and/or could that have killed my gpu?
The computer is running normally inspite this.
Right now i am unable to check the card in another computer, for some reason everyone is using Mac and laptops these days.
Where to go from here?
I can't find a schematic for the board online, or even a descent large photo of a functional board to see what kind of resistor are there.
I am open to ideas about replacing them, or any kind of workaround.

Any help here would be very appreciated.
Thanks

 

[PottedMeat]

crushed/damaged resistors can cause the problems you describe even though they may not be directly part of the problem. maybe thermal stress causes the resistor to make intermittent contact, causing portions of the motherboard to power up at seemingly random times. or the resistor is part of a voltage selection part where now it's a new unstable value. could be a dozen other things.

you can:

a. look up the 'fintek' chip and see if you can find a schematic, trace the pins from that chip to the resistors and try the values in the schematic. generally these are specifically used on motherboards and msi wouldn't deviate too far from the demonstration design supplied by fintek.

b. i would ask someone with the exact motherboard for a high resolution photo of that area, or ask for the numbers (hopefully) painted on the resistors. if there are no numbers they would have to desolder & measure the values

 

[Harvey]

As PottedMeat said, if you want to replace the broken components, you have to identify them. However, surface mounted resistors and capacitors look very much the same so be very sure what they are. You will also need good soldering skills to work with surface mounted parts.

The second pic is more bothersome because two to four vias (conductive holes) show evidence of burning. Most motherboards are multilayer circuit boards so, even if you can ID and successfully replace the broken parts, there is no guarantee it will work.

If you are able to find the right parts and replace them, yourself, it may be worth the effort as a science project. If you would have to pay a skilled tech to do the work, or if you need to have your machine working immediately, it would be cheaper and more expedient to buy another board that can use your AM2/AM2+ CPU and DDR2 RAM or sell them and use the money to help pay for a new setup.

Good luck.

 

[jaqie]

having tried to repair motherboards (and done so to many, failed on some) I can tell you that harvey is right...

don't bother trying, though it really feels like you can in all likelihood it is beyond your capabilities (because of under-layer problems and unidentifiable components, along with damage to other parts because those went missing and it was run without them)...

Find a replacement mobo, or use this as an excuse to upgrade.

 

[Mr.Breakstuff]

Thank you guys for great answers.
Yes, as i dwell deeper into the issue, i see that the self repair option will be troublesome, to say the least.
I looked up the chip ( Fintek F71882FG) around which the damage occurred, and downloaded the datasheet, and it seems to be controlling a lot of voltages on the board.
Haven't yet found the connection to the PCIe port though, or the resistors involved, but there is a lot more research to be made.
When and if I find the appropriate parts, i might give it a shot anyway, because the pro repair option is out, due to funding.
I'm yet to find out if my gpu got hurt in the process, and see from there.
I sure hope not.

While on the subject, could you point me in the direction of some good boards equivalent to mine? Just in case.

Cheers.

 

[scannall]

Try http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Socket-G...2B+motherboard

It's cheap

 

[jaqie]

zotac's warranty support is nonexistent. I really don't recommend them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ECS-MCP61SM...565563358?pt=Motherboards&hash=item4cf73e33de
This would do you fine.

I would personally upgrade, but if I had to get an am2+ mobo it would be something like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Gigabyt...198804115?pt=Motherboards&hash=item3a7c9d9093

 

[Harvey]

This ASRock board has pretty much the same features and specs as your board with slightly newer versions of the various chipsets, controllers, etc.

ASRock A785GM-LE AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
SKU: N82E16813157274
$58.99 + $7.98 shipping

It's a micro-ATX board if that doesn't bother you.

AMD 785G vs. AMD 780G chipset
ATI Radeon HD 4200 vs. ATI Radeon HD 3200 onboard video
DVI, but no HDMI video connector
No S/PDIF optical digital output

Newegg's link to the specs for your KA780G board (discontinued) for a full comparison.

The user reviews look pretty good. If you can live with the feature set, it's a pretty inexpensive build to salvage all of your parts. Onboard video will get it going so you'll have a working machine even if your GPU is damaged.

 

[crashtech]

BTW, stop removing your video cards Gordon Freeman style, okay?

 

[Mr.Breakstuff]

BTW, stop removing your video cards Gordon Freeman style, okay?
[/QUOTE

:biggrin: You got me there. Gordon would be proud if he saw me work that crowbar.

There are some great suggestions in your guys' posts, i might just go with one of your choices.
The thing is, this is my setup that fits my needs nicely in terms of gaming/music making/performance standards, which, as you can tell are not set that high .
So for now I'm going to check around town for something that fits the description, or even test my crowbar swinging skills on my board.
But if my beloved Radeon is deceased, and "If the milk turns out to be sour...", well, it's time to stick in there a while and go for a full upgrade.
Thanks again.

 

[CZroe]

As PottedMeat said, if you want to replace the broken components, you have to identify them. However, surface mounted resistors and capacitors look very much the same so be very sure what they are. You will also need good soldering skills to work with surface mounted parts.

The second pic is more bothersome because two to four vias (conductive holes) show evidence of burning. Most motherboards are multilayer circuit boards so, even if you can ID and successfully replace the broken parts, there is no guarantee it will work.

If you are able to find the right parts and replace them, yourself, it may be worth the effort as a science project. If you would have to pay a skilled tech to do the work, or if you need to have your machine working immediately, it would be cheaper and more expedient to buy another board that can use your AM2/AM2+ CPU and DDR2 RAM or sell them and use the money to help pay for a new setup.

Good luck.

I don't see the burned look in the other picture so I think that's just the camera playing tricks on us. Also, they are definitely resistors (see the "R" silkscreening on the board?). I think it could be worth a shot.

 

[Ichinisan]

OP has crushed the resistance.

Good job, OP. You've earned a commendation from the emperor.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Not my greatest subject, the board is basically gone. So why not fix it then? Can't sell it the way it is, or pay to have it fixed?

I got tons of parts if you need them, let me know what you need. Or if you want send me the board, I'll give her a go.

 

[Mr.Breakstuff]

Hey people I've got some news...
I fixed a part of the problem :awe:.
Got my usb ports running. For now at least. I found an old junked 32mb graphic card lying around and took off two resistors that woud at least fit the size of broken ones if nothing else, and slapped them on the board. And surprise surprise... stuck a keyboard to the port and now I'm typing with it!
Amazing, considering that my soldering skills are crafted on fixing guitar cables. And these things are smaller than a grain of sand.
But no luck with the graphic card.
I've put the two right hand side ones, from this picture
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/526/dsc0035ys.jpg/
I guess im an idiot for thinkin that there was nothing there on the third one.
Saw a lot of blurry photos of the board, and it seemed there's nothing there.
What do you think?

I'm gonna have a beer now. I believe i deserved it.
Cheers!

 

[Mr.Breakstuff]

OP has crushed the resistance.

Good job, OP. You've earned a commendation from the emperor.

Hahahaa...nice one

 

[Mr.Breakstuff]

Not my greatest subject, the board is basically gone. So why not fix it then? Can't sell it the way it is, or pay to have it fixed?

I got tons of parts if you need them, let me know what you need. Or if you want send me the board, I'll give her a go.

Thank you very much for the nice offer!
But I'm going to keep trying myself, i might just make something out of it.
Plus, i am on another continent, the shipping alone costs more than the board .
Cheers