Help, LPB/Infinity users! Frazzled trace...

[Kameleon]

A while ago one of my Isense mods got detached, and the board wasn't too happy with this, the PSU kept tripping before I realised what had happened. So I've finally got around to soldering it back on, as much fun as that was, but what I didn't notice is that there's a trace completely burnt out, it comes from under the CPU socket at the writing end and disappears underneath/next to an IC marked "GD75232" next to the PS/2 and serial ports, which I think is to do with the serial controller, so shouldn't affect the board powering on.

The trace is completely bare, the insulation seems to have melted or something, and it's broken near the cpu socket. Apologies for the abysmal phonecam pic, but you can just about see what I'm talking about:

http://premium.uploadit.org/Kameleon/trace.jpg

That's looking at the corner with the I/O ports, you can see a mounting hole for board and CPU cooler. The copper is the trace in question, it breaks just where the white line around the CPU socket is. The copper is actually coming away from the board, I think if I'm not careful I could very easily rip it out.

Two things I need - firstly, ideas on how to connect it back up. I've already had a try just putting a big blob of solder on, but then it doesn't stick to anything - I need some way to connect the trace back together without damaging the board further. Secondly, if anyone has any idea where this trace goes from-to I'd be very grateful, it would help both in checking if my fix connects the points back up again and if something goes wrong I can always solder on a new wire between the two points.

Basically I got a good board that I've just abused a bit too much, I don't think I'd get another if this wasn't salveagable, but I want to play with my rig again, there's a lot more 3dmarks there with it :P

[jjcom]

does the system work at all? have you tried connectiong a wire and seeing what happens?

[Kameleon]

does the system work at all? have you tried connectiong a wire and seeing what happens?

I tried it without that trace connected, and it fried the PSU. Gonna try with it ghetto-connected tomorrow, once I can rip a PSU out of another rig.

[jjcom]

it killed the PSU :| I've tripped this old thing many times it hasn't died yet

[Kameleon]

it killed the PSU :| I've tripped this old thing many times it hasn't died yet

Tagan 480W, it's still not come back to me after some 9 hours :( I've tripped my Antec many many times, but this is the first time on the Tagan and it doesn't seem to like resetting much. I'll RMA it, it has some scratches but I've done nothing to it apart from trying to run this board :rolleyes:

[Kameleon]

OK, a bit of progress. The Tagan is definitely dead, there was a nice bright light from inside it when I tried to turn it on earlier :( Tried with another PSU and the trace roughly bridged by a piece of metal, and again it only turned on for a split second.

I've figured out where one end of the burnt trace goes, it's a SMD point without a resistor on, right next to the GD75232 chip. The other end that goes under the socket, I've traced it back to having something to do with the vCore circuit - a lot of the components inside the socket, as well as most of the vCore MOSFETs and all of the P4 connector pins, report a resistance of 42Kohms with the trace - I can't find out where this resistance is introduced, though - does anyone know which component/circuit this 42kohms comes from?

[persivore]

Could the burnt trace be a feedback line between the CPU's Vcore line and the Vcore contoller IC. If the feedback trace between the Vcore controller and the Vcore line was broken, the Vcore controller might be dumping too much voltage onto the CPU's supply, which casues too much load for the PSU to handle and trips the PSU. Overvoltage protection might also be triggered if Vcore is too high.
It is also possible that the broken trace could be shorting to ground and again trip the PSU due to too much load.