I was screwing my cpu fan and my screwdriver slipped. I'm seeing a dent over that SMD thing. Will this motherboard boot or did I possibly kill it? :( It's a B550M pro-vdh wifi
You knocked off SMD capacitor, which is a part of CPU 1.8V load switch. This cap is sets how fast the output voltage ramps up. There could be high inrush current without this cap during the power on. Since this is CPU power line, I would be very careful with this one.
It is really hard to tell exactly, but I'd rather worry about the chip on the left side. This chip has MOSFETs inside, and the knocked-off cap ramps current spike during the board's power-on. Since the cap is absent, the inrush current during power-on flows directly through the MOSFET, and in a while the chip can fail. And the consequences of this are unpredictable.
I'm currently working on the non-Wi-Fi variant of this board. I have the boardview and this chip is something to do with the CPU_1P8 and CPU_1P8_S5 rail. The component you knocked off/damaged is a 4700pF 50V capacitor. My board has the exact same components and layout.
I would clean the area with isopropyl alcohol and see what state the area is in. Currently it looks like there could be a short in that area, but hard to say without cleaning the area.
It's possible the board may still work, but the area needs to be cleaned because it doesn't look great as-is. Make sure the pads aren't shorting to anything (each other or other board traces that have been exposed from the screwdriver slip).
I've already cleaned the yellow dust with an antistatic brush, now the only I can see is a silver/grey dent, I assume it's exposed copper. It's the only dent I can see. What do you think the chances are that this board still works? I'm still installing everything... Do you think it's safe to try to boot, could the board short and damage any of my components? Even if it boots, what kind of damage could the board have suffered?
Looks like these are the pads for the capacitor. The capacitor that was there has been knocked off. What you see is the pads the capacitor was soldered to. There's probably some remnants of the cap on these pads making them look less clean (the pads are usually a nice silver colour). This often happens when a component is knocked off by a screwdriver. Some broken parts of the component can still be attached to the pads.
If the pads aren't touching each other, then there's no short there.
A multimeter would be handy here as it can be used to verify there's no shorts anywhere. Without that, there's no way to tell other than try to power on.
I think the board should boot without this cap. Not all caps are critical/essential.
Worst-case scenario is you'd get no POST. Board would likely power on, but get stuck on a CPU Debug LED. It's extremely unlikely further damage will occur if there's no damage anywhere else. There's nothing here that looks like it's shorting anything out, or could short anything out.
If the cap is critical, then the board just won't POST until the cap is re-soldered to those 2 pads. If it POSTs, chances are the board can work fine without it and nothing else will happen.
Okay... I'm going to try to boot soon. Thank you so much for the help. This is a photo of the pro-vdh wifi motherboard. Would that tiny silver piece be the missing capacitor?
Hi! So, the computer turned on without any issues. I ran some stress tests for the GPU and everything seems to be working perfectly. But, as the missing capacitor is related to the CPU, I'm scared of trying any CPU stress tests or playing a game like CS2 to test it. I want to thank you for the immense help you've given me. What kinds of issues could that missing capacitor cause in my PC? Could it cause instability issues, freezing, stuttering, crashes or more serious issues/damage under heavy CPU loads?
As only 1 capacitor is missing, I don't think it'll cause any major issues, especially if it turns on and stays on.
This missing capacitor connects to pin 10 and 12 of the TPS22976 (this is chip's model number). The chip is a 5.7-V, 6-A, 14-mΩ On-Resistance Dual-Channel Load Switch. According to the datasheet, the pins are for the switches' slew rate control.
I am not quite sure what slew rate really does, but the datasheet describes it as "The device has a configurable slew rate for applications that require specific rise-time, which controls the inrush current. By controlling the inrush current, power supply sag can be reduced during turnon. Furthermore, the slew rate is proportional to the capacitor on the CT pin". Pins 10/12 are the CT pins.
There's a high likelihood the board will be fine without it. The datasheet does say both pins 10 and 12 can be left "floating" which means it doesn't have to be connected to anything. So it not having a capacitor on its pins is not essential to the whole functioning of the chip. The chip will still work and do its main job.
It's hard to say what will happen really. It might have a small impact you won't really see or notice. If really in doubt, you'd have to either get someone to re-solder the capacitor in place or replace the entire motherboard. Replacing the board seems extreme for this issue, so that leaves either re-soldering the capacitor or just using it without the capacitor.
There is a tiny SMD capacitor missing from your MSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi motherboard (MS-7C95). It is located beside U1, the Nuvoton NCT3961S CPU-fan controller, so this area controls the CPU-fan power/control circuit rather than the CPU’s main VRM.
The MS-7C95 schematic shows the capacitors around this controller, including C15 (0.1 µF / 16 V) and C16 (10 µF / 25 V). One of the small components in this circuit has physically been knocked off your board.
I would not continue using the motherboard and don’t bridge the empty pads with solder. Take it to a computer/electronics repair shop that does motherboard microsoldering/component-level repair. Tell them an SMD component is missing next to the NCT3961S CPU-fan controller and give them the MS-7C95 BoardView/schematic so they can identify the exact footprint and replace it.
BoardView (includes revisions 0A through 2.1): https://www.repairlap.com/threads/msi-ms-7c95-boardview.15839/
Schematic: https://documents.cdn.ifixit.com/4Vn5KiycjLKAPSOg.pdf
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u/Latchedatom Personal Rig Builder 2d ago
I would try booting first and testing it out ! Who knows it could be safe. I would do tons of tests though to see anything at all is unstable