Those little paper discs that come with the motherboard screws

[CalvinHobbes]

Do I need to use the little paper discs that come with the mobo screws? Do I just use bare screws?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Follow the destructions in your MB manual. It can't hurt to use them.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Amazingly the manual says nothing about the screws or securing the mobo.

 

[markymoo]

those are felt washers. they a precaution your screws dont touch the top of the board. on certain boards pcb circuit tracks run close to the screw holes, the washers stop you from getting a short.

 

[Peter]

The rule is, if the mounting hole has an exposed blank ring of solder around it, then the screw MUST make blank contact with it.

If the hole just has PCB around it, then you use these washers to avoid board damage - above and below (tricky!). This is hardly ever seen on ATX boards ... so unless you're screwing around with some old baby AT material, the simple answer is, you don't use these washers at all.

 

[lenjack]

Not needed or useful.

 

[tcsenter]

The rule is, if the mounting hole has an exposed blank ring of solder around it, then the screw MUST make blank contact with it.

I disagree. There is no purpose or need for a conductive pathway between the board and mounting points in normal applications (consumer and office PCs), except *perhaps* for a little added ESD protection when mucking around inside the chassis. Plastic stand-offs can be used just as well.

The solder can (and does) react to the screw metal and corrode over time. I've seen the solder ring literally pull off the PCB because it had bonded to the screw. Mounting screws provided with a lot of cases have a 'toothed' underside that can grind through the solder ring when tightening/loosening. The felt washers should be used to prevent corrosive reaction and/or to prevent the head of the screw from chewing up the solder ring when tightening/loosening, unless one doesn't mind it, then by all means don't use them.

I wouldn't use any fastener on a hole without a solder ring. A plastic push-through stand-off under it, yes, but not a metal fastener.