MSI X870 Tomahawk factory scratched

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silverwerewolf.102152b02d3

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Hello, I received my motherboard about 12 days ago and there was a small line, I thought it was a white hair but when I looked more closely it was a scratch...
I'm attaching some photos, should I be worried? From what I see it seems almost entirely superficial, except for one point where you can see a bit of copper right around those holes in the PCB.
Should I be worried? I don't think anything will happen but I don't know, I can still return it or exchange it, the problem is that the store don't think it was me...

Also one of the corners, where the screws go, another defect can be seen

Thanks.
 

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Was this an open box sale as it looks like someone did a minor repair on the motherboard as there is heat marks ( scorching ) from a hot airgun
 
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While there is no seal/sticker on MSI motherboard boxes, the anti-ESD bag has a piece of tape which can act as a seal, because the pattern breaks when you pull off the tape:

MSI Seal.JPG



Do you remember if this was the case for this board? Was it even in such a bag? Did the tape perhaps pull off very easily? Normally you have to pull on it quite hard. If you have doubts that this was a new board, you should contact the vendor and explain the situation.

While it's certainly the case from time to time that a board gets reworked by hand in the factory (because they don't want to throw away an entire board over some small defect), the board should definitely come in the original bag with the characteristic cross-hatch pattern, and the "seal" tape unbroken. If that is not the case, then it's not new from factory, but probably used/refurbished. And then i would rather want a brand new one. Especially with things like the protective coating scratched off the end of one PCB trace, and whatever other things there may be.

If the board was brand new, then yeah, you can apply some clear coat on that spot with a small brush, but if there's any doubt about it being new and otherwise 100% ok...
 
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citay said:
While there is no seal/sticker on MSI motherboard boxes, the anti-ESD bag has a piece of tape which can act as a seal, because the pattern breaks when you pull off the tape:

MSI Seal.JPG



Do you remember if this was the case for this board? Was it even in such a bag? Did the tape perhaps pull off very easily? Normally you have to pull on it quite hard. If you have doubts that this was a new board, you should contact the vendor and explain the situation.

While it's certainly the case from time to time that a board gets reworked by hand in the factory (because they don't want to throw away an entire board over some small defect), the board should definitely come in the original bag with the characteristic cross-hatch pattern, and the "seal" tape unbroken. If that is not the case, then it's not new from factory, but probably used/refurbished. And then i would rather want a brand new one. Especially with things like the protective coating scratched off the end of one PCB trace, and whatever other things there may be.

If the board was brand new, then yeah, you can apply some clear coat on that spot with a small brush, but if there's any doubt about it being new and otherwise 100% ok...
Click to expand...
Yeah, it came with that, in fact I stuck it and peeled it off several times because I was checking the mother several times and the sticker was never damaged i think...
Im still waiting from my rams to arrive so i couldn't test it.
I will try to change it or better return it and buy it from another place...
 
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I guess sometimes it's possible that the sticker doesn't get the pattern ripped off. But on most boards it would rip off like that. It's also important to have this exact type of antistatic bag. I've had one board before where it was supposedly new, but it was immediately obvious that it wasn't. Here on the right, you see where they sent a used board in an antistatic bag that's totally unlike MSI, just a plain silvery one:

MSI wrong bag.jpg


Since i was very short on time for that system and had to have it finished within less than a week at that time, i couldn't return the board for a new one, so i installed everything and thoroughly tested that it worked. But you can bet that i complained about it (this wasn't the only thing wrong, there was some more damage here and there, like a bent integrated rear I/O cover etc.), and that i got a bit of compensation for it. Because they certainly sold it to me as a new board. With the help of an MSI contact, i found out that this board had been an RMA case with them before, and somewhere along the line this must've been erroneously declared a new board again. But i was lucky, everything worked, and months later, zero complaints from the guy i build the PC for.
 
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citay said:
I guess sometimes it's possible that the sticker doesn't get the pattern ripped off. But on most boards it would rip off like that. It's also important to have this exact type of antistatic bag. I've had one board before where it was supposedly new, but it was immediately obvious that it wasn't. Here on the right, you see where they sent a used board in an antistatic bag that's totally unlike MSI, just a plain silvery one:

View attachment 197755

Since i was very short on time for that system and had to have it finished within less than a week at that time, i couldn't return the board for a new one, so i installed everything and thoroughly tested that it worked. But you can bet that i complained about it (this wasn't the only thing wrong, there was some more damage here and there, like a bent integrated rear I/O cover etc.), and that i got a bit of compensation for it. Because they certainly sold it to me as a new board. With the help of an MSI contact, i found out that this board had been an RMA case with them before, and somewhere along the line this must've been erroneously declared a new board again. But i was lucky, everything worked, and months later, zero complaints from the guy i build the PC for.
Click to expand...
My bag is not like the left one but also not like the right one, is plain transparent. For what i see on youtube unboxings its the same. And the seal is still perfect.
So maybe it was factory repared, in that case i dont want it either... the worst thing is the scratch...
 
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Oh ok, maybe for the AM5 boards they use different bags then. Factory repaired would at least mean, 100% functional, so at the most you should have cosmetic issues. But yeah, i can see how this is not ideal.
 
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Well, as soon as you have some guy in MSI's factory going at the board with a soldering iron etc. to rework some stuff, it might've happened there by accident and he didn't notice. Maybe it was even after the automated optical inspection, so it didn't raise any red flags in their final checks, as long as it passed the functionality tests.
 
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