Troubleshooting a Scratched Motherboard: My Experience and Resolution

Recently, I had a rather unfortunate adventure while cleaning my PC that I believe serves as a cautionary tale for anyone looking to perform maintenance on their hardware.

The Incident

While using a can of compressed air to dust off my components, I accidentally sprayed a bit of fluid onto my motherboard (mobo), although it dried quickly. However, the real trouble began during the removal of my GPU. My CPU cooler was quite large, making it difficult to access the PCIe latch. In an attempt to free up the GPU, I used a screwdriver on the latch, resulting in an unintended scratch on the motherboard. Naturally, I began to worry that I might have damaged some crucial traces on the board.

No Boot-Up: A Tech Nightmare

After the incident, my PC refused to boot, getting stuck in a cycle of restarting with just a black screen. Previously, I had resolved a similar issue by properly seating my RAM, but that did not seem to be the case this time. I was left perplexed and anxious about the state of my setup, leading me to seek help from the online community.

You can see the scratch I inflicted on my motherboard in the linked image. My motherboard model is the Aorus Elite Z390, paired with an Intel 9700K CPU. The motherboard status LED was lighting up red, indicating something was amiss, as detailed in the manufacturer’s manual here (refer to page 21).

Attempts to Resolve the Issue

In my quest for a solution, I tried several troubleshooting steps:
– Resetting the CMOS
– Unseating the GPU, SSD, and sound card
– Reseating the RAM and changing slots
– Checking and reseating all power cables, except for the CPU pins, which was challenging due to the large NH-D15 cooler.

Despite all these efforts, I remained baffled. Some online sources suggested that it might be possible to short between traces even if they appear intact. Unfortunately, I lacked the skills and tools for soldering repairs, and I decided against attempting repairs myself.

The Decision to Replace

After considerable thought, I resolved to purchase thermal paste and a replacement motherboard. My plan was to see if reseating everything on