Cut Trace

[Rally2xs]

Had an Intel motherboard acting up, and sent it back for warranty. Got an e-mail that there was "customer induced damage" and a cut trace.

Anyone ever have anything like that? I thought I was fairly careful, and am a bit mystified as to where a cut trace might have happened. I was an electronic technician back in the 60's and 70's, and to the best of my knowledge, never damaged a circuit board before.

Only possibility I can think of is that the little silver shield that goes around all the connectors on the board that stick out the back of the case put some sideways pressure on the board, which caused me to have to push on it a little to align the screw holes with the mounting posts. I would have thought that there wouldn't be any traces near those, but I didn't actually look, either.

They're sending the board back, with an explanation, and its on its way to me in Virginia by UPS ground from Chicago (why'd they have me send it to Lousiville for repair when it ends up in Chicago?) Guess I'll know probably Friday or next Monday, considering ground transport.

Anyone else know of such "mechanical gotchas" of mobo installation? This was a fairly expensive bosrd, a DX58SO, so I'm glad it at least didn't nail the Core i7 965, 3.2 Ghz processor that was $1K all by itself.

 

[Modelworks]

Traces on boards have gotten really small . In years past it was pretty hard to damage a trace, even intentionally trying to cut one took some work. Now though, one slip with a screwdriver can ruin a board. They are not supposed to route traces close to the screw mounts, but I have seen some pretty bad routing before. One board was so bad that I placed a rubber washer under that point on the board and didn't screw it down. I would go over the board carefully when you get it back . If they can find the cut trace then maybe you can to. Traces that are visible like that can almost always be repaired with a little solder.

 

[Rally2xs]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I imagine I'll find it. I'd be afraid not to tighten a screw lest they were using that for grounding thru the case. I have known circuit boards that have done that. I think they'll probably provide an explanation, too.

Trying to thing of some way that I could shield the traces from physical contact until after I get all the screws tightened, then remove, say, a protective plastic sheet. How to affix sheet without causing damage, and remove sheet without causing damage, etc... something maybe 0.02" - 0.05" thick, flexible, plastic. Probably damage it from ESD. Gaaaa...

I've already ordered another board, but I'll repair this one if it's easy.

 

[Gillbot]

I have, usually by a screw driver slip. A good soldering iron, single strand of wire, a steady hand and tape or varnish can fix it if there are accessible solder points. Otherwise, it's still doable but more difficult.

 

[ahenkel]

I've cut a few traces once on an old a7n8x slipped installing the heatsink. I used a trace repair pen worked great http://www.web-tronics.com/2200-mtp.html

 

[Rally2xs]

Originally posted by: ahenkel
I've cut a few traces once on an old a7n8x slipped installing the heatsink. I used a trace repair pen worked great http://www.web-tronics.com/2200-mtp.html

Hey, now there's a neat tool. Hadn't seen anything like that before. Thanks.

 

[Rally2xs]

Followup. Got the board back. Found a couple small arrows pointing toward a couple scratches. The scratches are very, very light, barely exposing the copper of the traces, and not visibly cutting them. I got out my digital VOM, and could easly follow the traces to where the solder lugs that connect them were located, and found the short circuit that should occur if the trace was OK. That was true for both traces. Neither were the traces shorted to each other.

I think they just looked around for any sort of abrasion, and just declared that the cause, rather than actually testing anything. No more Intel Mobo's for me. Will probably just try ASUS next.

Any company that sends you a board that is 8 months after introduction, with about a dozen updates to the BIOS having already occurred, and then sends it with the original introductory code in the BIOS - well, they're just not really trying.