Troubleshooting a Non-Starting PC: My Experience with a Scratched Motherboard

Greetings, fellow tech enthusiasts!

Recently, I ventured into my PC’s insides for a little spring cleaning, armed with a can of compressed air. Unfortunately, while I was cleaning, some fluid from the canister misted onto my motherboard but quickly evaporated. What I thought would be an ordinary cleaning session took an alarming turn when I tried to detach my graphics card. The size of my CPU cooler made the task complicated, so I resorted to using a screwdriver to release the latch on the PCIe slot. In my haste, I accidentally scratched the motherboard, leaving me concerned that I might have damaged vital connections, often referred to as “traces.”

After this mishap, my PC refused to start. It wouldn’t even reach the BIOS screen; instead, it would endlessly reboot while displaying a persistent black screen. I recalled a prior issue I had that was resolved by properly securing the RAM, but this time, the same solution didn’t apply.

I took a moment to assess the damage and captured some images of the scratch for reference. Here’s a link to the scratch image.

System Specifications:

• Motherboard: Aorus Elite Z390
• CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K

Interestingly, the motherboard status LED displayed a red light, raising further concerns. I referred to the manual here for troubleshooting tips and possible indicators.

In hopes of resolving the issue, I tried several approaches:
– Resetting the CMOS
– Unseating and reseating the GPU, SSD, sound card, and RAM in different slots
– Checking all power and data cables

However, I encountered a particular challenge with the CPU cooler, as it was bulky and made it difficult to access the CPU pins. This required some thermal paste, which I was out of and couldn’t acquire at that moment due to store closures.

I remembered reading online that it’s possible to short between traces, which might have contributed to the issue, but I lacked the skill and tools for repairs like soldering. Hence, I made the decision to purchase thermal paste and a replacement motherboard.

My plan was to first try reseating everything on the damaged motherboard and, if unsuccessful