XP unlock problem.

I was trying to unlock my XP1800 and I scrathed some of the plastic casing off. The scratch mark is wide and I can see the metal underneath. The mark is very close to one of the L1 bridge dots. It is impossible to lock the bridge without some conductive material connecting the scratch and the bridge. The cpu works. Although my unlock attempts are without sucsses. Is it possible to unlock it in this state, or am I in need of a new cpu? :/

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Well, I would think that if you haven't already damaged the proc you could just seal the scratch in the same manner as the laser cuts at the bridges. If the scratch is sealed then the trace material(whether it be defogger or trace pen etc.) wouldn't come in contact with the traces beneath.

i would try to unlock it, u got almost nothing to use, tomshardware.com has a really in-depth tutorial

I had the same problem

I had the same problem when I unlocked mine. I actually had two different places that became exposed becuase of my attempts to remove some excess super-glue.
I wouldnt allow the exposed area to come in contact with the conductive. You dont really know where it leads, and I was afraid I would short something out.
I basically just worked around the two areas I exposed. I can tell you it wasnt easy....the distance between one end of my bridges and the exposed area was about half what the distance is between two paralell bridges. IT WASNT EASY!!!!!!!!!!!
But its managable, especially with a magnifying glass.
BUT, things are a lot tougher for you now. If your not extremely careful, and precise, there is a chance you could damage the processor, if the exposed area is connected to some other part of the processor.........make sure the overclock is worth it......

For the record, I used epoxy and defogger paint on mine, messed it up and used acetone to remove all traces of both with no damage to the chip (was real pretty after this, looked new). I redid it last night and all is well, even laid a coat of epoxy over the bridges after it was done as the paint does not stick real well. I would not try to clean off a scratch going to dubious circuitry. I would tape it off and epoxy it with clear 2 part 5 minute epoxy and move on with the oc.

Love how the acetone cleaned up ALL of the epoxy and defogger paint. I swear the chip looked brand spanking new after this with no trace of a bridging attempt.