pin 5 and 6 conflict on Arduino Duemilanove [328]

Hey there,
i searched in the forum and found nothing like the problem i have so i started a new topic.

While trying to make a simple keyboard i found out that two of the digital pins on my Arduino output the same tone, in particular pin 5 and 6, although the sketch seemed to be quite right.
The board i'm working on is an Arduino Duemilanove board powered with Atmega 328 chip (i think one the first made with this chip 'cause i had in february '09).

So i turned the board upside down and found out that the two pins are soldered together!

So now, do you think that some damage may happen to the board if i try to divide them?
Do you have any suggestion on how to act?

Thanks a lot in advance!

here is a picture of the board:

Yup, that's a solder bridge!

If you have a soldering iron you can fix this yourself. Easiest is to get some solder wick (or solder braid), like this stuff:

Heat the iron up, put the solder wick on top of the bridge, then press down with the iron (don't hold the wick with your fingers too close! it will get hot!) until the solder flows into the wick.

--
The Quick Shield: breakout all 28 pins to quick-connect terminals

So now, do you think that some damage may happen to the board if i try to divide them?
Do you have any suggestion on how to act?

Wow that is quite the defect! As far as permanent damage, it is possible if at any time both pins 5 and 6 were programmed to be output pins and then one set high and one set low. That would cause a short circuit between the pins and would damage one or both pins.

The fix shouldn't be too hard, but will require a soldering iron to remove most of the solder causing the bridge and then something sharp like an exacto knife to make a cut between the pins.

Lefty

ok, i did it! thanks a lot for your fast replies, that's what i wanted to do but i was not sure about damaging something on the board.
i had no solder wick here, but in the end i used the soldering iron and something very sharp to make a cut between the pins.

now it works fine! except for the pin 5 playing a bit louder note than the other pins, i really can't understand why...
:-/