Traces Destroyed during shipment

[cwdegood]

Well, I found out why the board wasnt working ..
turns out it was shipped with the backplate under the mobo, which in turn scratched the hell out of alot of traces connecting to the ZIF socket.

I'm a cheap, do it yourself type person.
I would rather spend 6+ hours repairing traces instead of buying a new board.

My question is, this being so close to the processor(some as close as 1 inch) will it affect performance any ?

I'm already planning to hit radio shack tomorrow to pick up a low wattage iron, some fine solder, wick, etc ..

but yeah, would it be best to break the traces and run a fine piece of wire from the original pad to the ending pad, or perhaps filling the gaps with some sort of filler, and then try to use a conductive ink pen to bring them back together ?

Open to anything really, the traces are very small and very close together.
Wish I had some pics for you.

Any ideas appriciated.
-Chris.

 

[PurdueRy]

I highly doubt you will be able to fix the traces yourself, they are simply too close together to be done by hand.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I agree with PurdueRy. Besides it sounds like the scratches may be deep and the board has multiple layers of traces.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Originally posted by: cwdegood
My question is, this being so close to the processor(some as close as 1 inch) will it affect performance any ?

I'm already planning to hit radio shack tomorrow to pick up a low wattage iron, some fine solder, wick, etc ..

but yeah, would it be best to break the traces and run a fine piece of wire from the original pad to the ending pad, or perhaps filling the gaps with some sort of filler, and then try to use a conductive ink pen to bring them back together ?

-Chris.

Will it affect performance?
Most Likely. Adding solder and wire to the mode changes the resistance to the trace.

You'll need flux (paste or liquid) also.

If you can clean the traces well enough (carefully scrap the lacquer from the copper),
and making sure not to bridge any soldering, you may be able to save it.
(try to repair the traces rather than adding the wire where possible)

Unfortunately if any of the pass-thru connections are damaged, it is unlikely you will
be able to repair it.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

If this is a choice between repair or throw away(dust binning ) give it a go.

Google trace repair or varients and you will find conductant epoxy for trace repair.
Repair must be done under magnification with a non-caffeened steady hand.

If byou chose to use solder, practice on a junk pcb first. You might do better by pre-heating
the board. A light bulb in a box with the board over it would work well. Try to pre-heat to
about 125F as it will really help. The iron should be grounded and you can rig something
to make sure it is.


...Galvanized

 

[cubby1223]

So you'd rather spend a lot of money for equipment to try and repair it yourself, than to spend a little bit more money and get a new replacement...

What if you screw up, and during testing you destroy the ram and cpu? How much is that going to cost?

 

[corkyg]

Whatever happened to returning the merchandise that was shipped/packed incorrectly?

 

[justinm]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Whatever happened to returning the merchandise that was shipped/packed incorrectly?

I'd get an RMA from whatever company you bought it from. Technically speaking it is thier fault ( which they will try and deny) that it was shipped incorrectly. It would be more worth it to try and get an replacement then if they do not send one, then try and repair it.