Troubleshooting a Dead Motherboard: Lessons Learned from a DIY Mishap

In the world of DIY PC building and maintenance, the line between success and disaster can be painfully thin. Recently, I experienced this firsthand when attempting to clean my system. Here’s a recount of what happened, along with some insights into what went wrong and how I resolved the situation.

The Setup

I began my cleaning process with a can of compressed air, aiming to remove dust buildup from my components. Unfortunately, during this process, a bit of liquid inadvertently coated my motherboard. Although it evaporated quickly, the incident marked the beginning of my troubles.

As I attempted to detach my GPU, I ran into complications due to a bulky CPU cooler. To release the GPU from its PCIe slot, I decided to carefully use a screwdriver to unhook the latch. In a moment of oversight, I scratched the motherboard in the process. Instantly, anxiety set in; I feared I had damaged essential traces on the board.

The Aftermath

After reassembling my PC, I was faced with a grim reality: the system failed to boot. It wouldn’t even reach the BIOS screen, simply rebooting continuously and leaving me with a black screen. I remembered a similar issue from the past, which was resolved by reseating the RAM, but this time was different.

I documented the scratch on my motherboard with an image, seeking advice from the online community. The motherboard in question was the Aorus Elite Z390 paired with a 9700K CPU. Despite the motherboard status LED lighting up red, indicating some level of power, I had a sinking feeling that something more serious was at play.

Attempts at Resolution

In my quest to pinpoint the issue, I tried numerous troubleshooting steps:

• Resetting the CMOS.
• Removing and reseating the GPU, SSD, sound card, and RAM.
• Double-checking all cable connections.

However, the CPU cooler (NH D15) was too cumbersome to allow easy access to the CPU pins, and I lacked thermal paste to remove the cooler entirely. Frustration mounted as I conducted further research and discovered that shorting between traces could be a potential consequence of my actions. Unfortunately, I lack the skills to solder repairs myself.

Finding a Solution

Realizing I was out of options, I decided to head to the store to purchase thermal paste and a replacement motherboard. Before committing to a new board, I planned to reseat all components