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ScuzzBlog: Diaries June 2017

Entry 4th June 2017: Post: 01


It use to be much easier


Hi

Not sure how many of you have taken an Amiga 2000 apart. It really is a 
dream. Each part has a couple of screws and you can then lift the part 
off one at a time. Taking the machine down allows you to strip out just 
what you need to do a job. Fast forward to an XP machine that for some 
reason I have been mucking around with and my goodness...

I mean who designs a piece of kit with a tray for hard drives that you 
cannot neither get the drives in or the drives out without completely 
removing the processor fan and heat sink and the adjecent floppy drive. 
In the end I had to break open the front of the case and slide a drive 
in from there. Next... the screw holes for the drive to the case are so 
set that the drive sticks out a good two inches. There are no other 
choices up, down or back to front. The tray does not slot down as you 
may think.

Next the top two trays are completely boxed in save for a small hole to 
the open side and another to the enclosed side. You have to try and get 
your fingers into this incredible confined space to put on the ribbons 
and the electric connector. Again you could draw the cables though the 
front face but sadly none are long enough.

The cables will rest on the processor fan when the machine is open and 
in test mode and truthfully its pretty typical for tin cans coming out 
of the far east. I've seen worse. I always finish up with a computer 
with the front panels pretty well fully removed. Also, depending on the 
make you either can simply fold out and snap off the metal protecting 
plates, unscrew them or smash them with a large claw hammer.

I know that cables don't want to flop around and connectors come away, 
but I am convinced that the power connectors on these things were 
purposefully designed to scrape all the skin off your fingers as you 
fight to extract them in confined spaces.

After half a day, two machines, four hard drives, two graphics cards, a 
wireless network and simple Ethernet, two monitors and no end of 
replacement screws and ribbons I finally got a Frankenstein of an XP 
machine locked and loaded with Outlook Express 6 no less. Seems a lot of 
trouble... but hey read the next post.

scuzz




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Last updated 10/08/2017

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