Anyone have tips on repairing a broken/burnt/lifted trace on a PC motherboard?

Ohighway

Wannabe Minimalist
Subscriber
Picked up a PC from a little local antiques/junk store for $5. HP Pavilion 500-267c Has Intel core i3-4130 processor, 8Gb ram, 1Tb HDD , DVD-RW and WIFI.

Looks clean and unmolested, but when I tried starting it got a series of 5 long beeps that repeat 5 times then quit. CPU and case fans were running, HDD spins up, but nothing shows on the monitor and there seems to be no response to keyboard input.

Investigated a bit deeper and notice that there's a broken/burnt trace on the mobo. Anyone have tips on how best to repair this? Might not fix anything but seems worth a shot.

pcb.jpg
 
Looks like you have copper exposed on each end of the trace which could hold solder ?,... if that's the only burnt place, I'd jumper it with small guage wire and see what happens.
 
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. However that's just small enough to push the limit of my equipment, eyesight, and ability to hold my hands steady !
 
A Weller 'fine tip', glass magnifier, and small jumper wire should do it. You can do this! :thumbsup:

Watch the temperature and don't glob the solder. The ends look clean, so I think it's possible.

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Jumper is worth a try (nothing to lose) but that burnt trace is not necessarily the problem, but rather a symptom of another fault on the board.

It's also a multi-layer board so the damage may be below the surface.
 
Well I can hardly believe it. Guess where I'm sending this message from !!?? :jump:

Cut the old pieces of trace away, soldered in a piece of wire, re-assembled the system...........It booted right up and here we are !!

Guess the next step will be...... we'll see if the repair lasts !!
 
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When MB's start delaminating they start really having other issues.

Oh come on, a short, high current, vaporised track is more indicative of an accidental shorting by the previous owner or an errant insect. Even the CPU spring locking clamp could do it if it was previously (foolishly) plugged in but soft powered down.

He's fixed it, and for $5, I'm proud he had a go when some told him not to bother. :)
 
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Well I can hardly believe it. Guess where I'm sending this message from !!?? :jump:

Cut the old pieces of trace away, soldered in a piece of wire, re-assembled the system...........and here we are !!

Guess the next step will be...... we'll see if the repair lasts !!


Glad that worked out. Bravo!
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Well I can hardly believe it. Guess where I'm sending this message from !!?? :jump:

Cut the old pieces of trace away, soldered in a piece of wire, re-assembled the system...........and here we are !!

Guess the next step will be...... we'll see if the repair lasts !!
/
Nice job! Traces usually don't just self combust. It was a short. Maybe something else on the board has also burned open? Maybe a card that has been removed was faulty? But since it didn't burn again immediately you should be good to go.
 
Looked like the hard part was getting it clean for soldering.

Glad it worked out so nice.


Barney
 
So instead of dancing around on this, what exactly do you mean? That a shorted memory stick is definitely the cause, or that its merely one of several possible causes?
 
all i see is the trace heading to the slot . lets say if the slot was empty it is not likely shorted . trace may go further on though and goes thicker . ? i haven't seen the schematic so cant comment on that .
was just my way of logical thinking .
 
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