Scratched PCB - Repairable?

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SEALTeamSix

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Here's a pic of the PCB - Is this repairable? How much skill would be needed?

scratch.jpg


Thanks for the advice...

-SEAL
 
with the right tools, you might be able to reconnect all of the cut traces. which may or may not work, since the signal run times on those traces would be different from the other traces. Depending on what card it is, it is most likely cheaper to just buy a new one.
 
are you even sure that it is damaged, you would have to sever the whole line for it not to work. put the heatsink back and on give it a try
 
It's an easy repair. The proper tools are a weller 3001 soldering station with 1301 iron and a micro point soldering tip. You can probably snag one on Ebay for $100 ( and sell it later to recoup), you'll also need a nice ring light/magnifier lamp to give you a well lit magnified view of the repair area. Youll need some micro thin rosincore solder, a pen sized xacto knife with new SHARP blade, and you should be gold.

Simply scrape back slightly the soldermask on each side of the etch cut...we are talking 1/64th inch type exposure. Then use the soldering iron to heat both sides of the breach and trail the tip of a small (say 3") peice of the micro solder. It will stick to both exposed etch points, and actually bridge the gap naturally.

Pratice on some ginueapig dead board to get the hang of it before actually doing the work.

Or find a freind with skills in soldering/rework of electronics to make the repair.
The tiny bit of solder patching those cut datalines will have NO meaningful impact ont he electrical charateristcs of the signals and wont interfere with proper operation.

Looking close enough you can find on brand new retail boards spots of "rework" done to minor issues in manufacture, it's not unheard of. You'll be fine.... remember...

DONT PANIC!

Digikey, Mouser, and ContactEast are places to obtain the materials you need. The light is also something to get on Ebay maybe, though I'd consider adding one to your tool bench permenently....they got for $100-200 new. It gives you supermans eyes.
 
I agree, at least give the card a try first. Could be only the outer plastic layers are effected.

Far as fixing it goes ... I am no expert either. But seems to me I've read posts where
people had some success using a conductive pen or window defogger paint to fix broken traces.
 
1. As mentioned above, it is even broken. Those are signal traces and not current traces. As long as copper is still there it should work.

2. It is possible to repair if broken..but will not be trivial.

3. If you do need to repair, when you scrape, ONLY SCRAPE the traces. The solder mask is what will make or break or you repair. Scrape to much and you will have a solder blob instead of a nice pretty connection. So don't use the kitchnen butchers knife =P

-tReP
 
The problem with it is that it won't show red. I don't have the equipment to fix it, and was wondering how much it would cost to have someone or some shop repair it.

-SEAL
 
That scratch doesn't look severe/deep enough to cause any problems. And now that you say your picture is only missing the red color I bleive those traces aren't your problem. Sounds like your VGA cable or even your monitor.

I've seen broken VGA cables where an inner conductor has broken and they lose a color like that, either red, blue, or green. By wiggling the cable around you will eventually find a position where it may work ( and you may not depending on how bad the cable is). This would help prove the problem area. Replace your VGA cable, you can usualy find a cheap replacement at a local computer store. Much easier then PCB work :)

Unless you have a crappy monitor with a built in, non-removable VGA cable. I haven't seen any of those type of cheep monitors in years but I imagine they are still around. IF so you may be out of luck. I highly recommend against taking your monitor apart.
 
The right line being scratched/cut could definitely result in something odd like"it wont show red".

I cant imagine a rework operation charging you more than $50-75, and finding a skilled tech as a fellow OC/gaming enthusiast, you could get it done for the cost of a beer.

Time to NETWORK and find help.
 
xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:
The right line being scratched/cut could definitely result in something odd like"it wont show red".

I cant imagine a rework operation charging you more than $50-75, and finding a skilled tech as a fellow OC/gaming enthusiast, you could get it done for the cost of a beer.

Time to NETWORK and find help.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Based on where those signal lines are and how sandwiched between the GPU and Memory my best guess is that those are digital data lines and not for the analog color signal. If one of those lines was really cut I don't think the card would work at all, would have severe memory error or some such errata and may not even "boot".
 
i agree with above poster. Losing the red color due to slicing the lines coming out of the GPU just doesnt make sense. Those lines are clearly going to the RAM. Now lets talk about repairing it, yes a good tech should be able to do it, also make sure u clean any of the flaked PCB board off there, meaning clean it good, i would say it is a better chance that the scratch shorted out multiple leads than actually severing the lines. and they are definetly not analog lines, what analog lines would run from the gpu to the ram? Like another person said there is a good amount of coating that goes on these to protect this exact situation from happening, i would say try another monitor, try the other VGA out if there is one on that card. i dont know how easy it would be but you could try and get a multimeter and put the probes on either side of the lines, if you get any kind of reading the lines are good. there is extremely little current on those lines if any at all, it doesnt need much of a connection. I would put money on the fact that the line is not broken, shorting it out due to flakes connecting the wire? maybe, no red seems like a different problem.
 
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