Medion Akoya E32014 - Burning smell and turned off

[appers]

Hi, I recently purchased a brand new (old stock so no warranty) E32014. It was sealed in the box and definitely brand new. It worked fine for a few days and then turned off unexpectedly and smelled of burning. I eventually worked out the issue. The motherboard ECS B460 had a sliver of copper poking out from the edge of the motherboard and this had touched the case causing the issue - I can see a small burn mark on the case. I removed the motherboard as part of my investigation, found the issue and snipped off the sliver of copper. The motherboard and PC now appears to work OK but my question is whether this is safe or not or if I need to replace the motherboard. My thanks to whoever can offer some advice 🙂

[Fishtown]

Hello @appers and welcome
unfortunately your motherboard is defective it can no longer work properly.

What you see there in your picture is a piece of conductor track that it has most likely torn due to overvoltage.

That's why you can now see the two ends. you probably need a new board.

bye Fishtown

[appers]

Hi Fishtown, thanks for the quick reply, a few questions spring to mind:

What kind of things can cause overvoltage and this type of damage?

What is the conductor track at the edge used for? ... because .....

The board is working fine now (at least it appears to be) since I removed the copper strands and there is no short - is the board safe to use or should I replace it?

Thanks again 🙂

[Fishtown]

Hello @appers 
Without a circuit board layout, no one can tell you what the track belongs to, at least you would need a circuit diagram, but you won't get that either.
an overvoltage can have many causes, it also depends on where the conductive path leads. what surprises me is that it has no typical "tempering color" at all, as is usual when the temperatures are too high, before it burns through, but looks "blank".
it looks more like it is mechanically separated/ torn off.
something is not going to work now anyway.

If it were my circuit board I would replace the now missing piece of conductor track with an insulated cable with stripped ends and solder it there to restore a connection.

Bye Fishtown

[appers]

Thanks Fishtown, the ends of the copper were black and flaky and 'carbonised' and fell off when I moved the board. One other question that would be helpful to educate me - the Medion 250w PSU has a 4 pin CPU connector and the motherboard has an 8 pin. Can I upgrade the current PSU to something higher wattage with a GPU plug in order to use a GPU with the PC?  Is it OK to connect an 8 pin CPU power plug (most PSU seem to be 8 pin) to the 8 pin on the motherboard. The processor is i3 10100 and I'm not planning to change it, I know it is lower wattage and only needs a 4 pin connector but will using an 8 pin connector be OK?

Most likely I will replace the motherboard when I can afford to as I am not skilled with soldering / repair.

Thanks Again 🙂