I accidentally scratched my Asus X870e Hero motherboard right by the middle far-right screw while using a gooseneck fan extender. I think I might have exposed some of the copper plane and two traces, which are those orange bits in the pictures I've linked. I'm not sure if the traces have been damaged or if there's any serious impact on the motherboard's functionality. I've tested all the ports I could with devices, like SATA, USB, RGB, fan, front panel, and sound panel, and everything seems fine. The computer boots up, shuts down, and restarts without issues, and I can run tests with software like Aida64 and Geekbench. However, I've also noticed that I can't trace where these damaged areas lead. For now, I've covered the scratch with tape to protect it. Should I use black soldering mask ink for repair, or just send it to Asus for a costly repair that might be due to my mistake?
1 Answer
You might want to reach out to Asus and see if they’d be willing to help. With everything working fine, it’s likely you didn’t damage anything critical on that trace, but they might have more insight on it. If it's not broken, disassembling the whole PC for a replacement might not be necessary.
Yeah, if it’s all functioning for now, it might be best to leave it as is.