[rescue] replacing an Ultra2

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: "Clemson, Chris" <Chris.Clemson at softwareag.co.uk>
>Date: 2007/04/24 Tue AM 04:03:44 CDT
>To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [rescue] replacing an Ultra2

>> I can't understand why people resort to brute force. Usually
>> that means
>> something is wrong.
>>
>> I saw a guy the other day installing RAM in a workstation,
>> and he pushed
>> so hard on the DIMMs that the motherboard struck its tray bottom.
>
>Have you actually tried putting DIMMS or PCI cards into a cheap PC
>motherboard?
>Disturbingly, sometimes brute force is needed.

Well, working with my E420rs, I've noticed another issue with PCI add-in cards: sometimes things don't line up well.

I added a "vertical" UPA framebuffer to one, and it didn't go all the way in - it sort of floated a 1/16th of an an inch higher where the back plate met the chassis. Turns out, the bottom "lip" was caught on an opening ust below the cut out - I had to tuck it in to get the card properly seated, and I wouldn't say an E420r is "poorly made", but some brute force was required.

The thing that annoys me is when *good* PC cases have overly complicated chassis covers - my Dell PowerEdge 830 is one example: It has a key lock on the front, that unlocks the face plate, then there is a catch that needs to be slid before the face plate can come off. Once the face plate is off, then you have to unscrew a (previously) hidden screw to slide the side panel off. Getting the side panel back on is an adventure in lining up hidden teeth and grooves that always takes several tries...

Oh well, what can you do?

Lionel