Damaged motherboard?

[rjzak]

I ordered my first Raptor product, the Talos II (+CPUs bundle), and it arrived today! However, after unpacking, I had some concerns.

In the attachments, there's an image of what looks like spilled solder on a memory slot, and a weird orange rust-looking dot on a chip which is not present in the high-resolution image from the Wiki. Yet, there was a note in the package showing that tests passed. How worried should I be? I'm afraid the solder spill could short something out, and I spent too much money (personal money for personal computer) on this so I'm going to nit-pick.

I did email support, waiting to hear back.

[Hasturtium]

You're not wrong to be observant. I'd be more concerned about the solder on the DIMM than discoloration on the socketed chip, but wait and see what support says. Good on you for being proactive and documenting with photos, and keep us updated.

[rjzak]

They are sending a new board early next week, and covering shipping (and return shipping of the solder blob board). They said this hasn't happened before. I do appreciate their quick response (and on a Saturday too!). Also, the paint on the chips indicates the version of the firmware at shipping, which is neat.

[rjzak]

It's the third week, and I'm still waiting for the replacement motherboard. It's frustrating that "early next week" has become week three and no response from Support or Sales, and I've emailed them a few times last week and the week before. I also tried reaching out on Twitter last week, and the message is unread yet they're tweeting. It's not fun being ignored waiting for weeks for something which was supposed to be quick, and I'm trying to be patient since I'm sure they've got a million things going on.

In the meantime, what does the community think about using it with just CPU1, since the damage is to a memory slot for CPU 2? It seems that the RAM slot connects only to the CPU, and it not being there wouldn't damage anything if the solder blob is connecting wires that shouldn't be connected. Thoughts?

[MPC7500]

I would write to Raptor publicly on Twitter, no PM. They usually respond very quickly on Twitter.
As long as the new motherboard is not there, I would use the defective one with just one CPU.

[atomicdog]

I think it's still a pretty big risk to try and use it.
With that big of a solder splash, there could be other smaller and harder to see ones anywhere else on the motherboard.
Or even loose solder balls rolling around waiting to short out some pins.

[rjzak]

I think it's still a pretty big risk to try and use it.
With that big of a solder splash, there could be other smaller and harder to see ones anywhere else on the motherboard.
Or even loose solder balls rolling around waiting to short out some pins.

Turns out, it was fine using the damaged motherboard. I did receive the new one ~2 weeks ago. So all is good!

[MPC7500]

Great to hear, finally :-)