Accidentally damaged pci-e port, will the motherboard still function?

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fudungi

fudungi

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Jul 24, 2013
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hi, I wanted to replace my old video card on my mobo but the damn thing wouldn't budge, so I put in a bit of force and accidentally up and ripped out my pci-e port, and now there are some wires and pins poking through where the plastic cover thing was supposed to be. Luckily, I have 2 pci-e ports and dont really intend on using sli, but are the exposed wires and stuff of the old pci-e port harmful to the rest of the parts? should I tape it down or something? suggestions would be nice. don't let me down guys!

my motherboard model is gigabyte ga-970a-ud3
 
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I've never run into this situation before, but I would bet it will still work just fine. I would probably trim off any wires that had a risk of shorting with adjacent wires and call it good. For what it's worth, I doubt you'd damage any other parts in the PC by trying. I would just try first without a video card installed.

--Russel
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rusabus

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I've never run into this situation before, but I would bet it will still work just fine. I would probably trim off any wires that had a risk of shorting with adjacent wires and call it good. For what it's worth, I doubt you'd damage any other parts in the PC by trying. I would just try first without a video card installed.

--Russel
 
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fudungi

fudungi

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Jul 24, 2013
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well that's relieving! I'll try that and put some tape on it just in case. But for the record, why would I want to try it without a video card? (im not disagreeing, just wondering)
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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In case there is some crosstalk between the various slots. Doubtful, but it never hurts to test without using the slot.
 
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fudungi

fudungi

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Hmm, good point i'll tell you guys the verdict once I test it
 
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rusabus

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I think there are 2 ways you'll possibly damage your motherboard or other components more than it already is:

1. A short between V+ and GND in the broken socket. This could damage the voltage regulators or burn out traces on the motherboard. This is the reason why I recommend trimming off any of the lose wires/traces.

2. A short between one of the power supply pins and one of the signal pins. The power supply pins can supply either 12 volts or 3.3 volts, but PCI Express signal lanes run at lower voltages. If you supplied 12V to some of the signal lanes, you might damage other things connected to the PCI-E bus. But who knows, I've never tried this :) This is the reason I recommend trying it without any other cards installed. In fact, you might as well try without anything hooked up if you can, just to remove as much from the "line of fire" as you can.

--Russel
 
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fudungi

fudungi

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Jul 24, 2013
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Thanks for the help everyone. I tested my comp without the gpu, and then with the gpu, and it worked fine, I'm still gonna trim any exposed wiring that's there if there is any.
 
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