Look out! Tea & Dell = Hell!

[Tannin]

Quick! We have a Dell Optiplex G1 midi-tower that needs its RAM replaced, and Kristi and I don't know how to get the case open.

Unfortunately, Tea is quite certain she knows how to deal with it. I've just dashed in here to shoot off this emergency message because I don't know what else to do. Right now, Kristi is in the workshop grimly hanging onto about five of Tea's various limbs and threatening to take her chocolate ration away unless she (Tea) puts the Heavy Duty Precision Impact Adjustment Tool down.]

Please advise ASAP what ....

Excuse me....

(Tea! Put that girl down!)

.... what I need to do to get into the case.

(Now, Tea!) And, no. I haven't got a cold chisel.)

 

[timwhit]

I think there is a button somewhere on the case that pops the side of it off. That is if I am thinking of the correct model Dell.

 

[Tannin]

Thanks Tim. Phew!

That was a close one.

Lucky for us that Kristi is a smart girl. She fixed the problem. As so often, once you think of it, the answer was simple: jelly beans. All she did was go for a brisk walk around the block. (Well, more of a jog really.) Every couple of metres, she dropped a jelly bean. Naturally, Tea followed her, eating jelly beans all the way.

That gave me five minutes alone with the Dell, and I was able to reexamine it in a more relaxed frame of mind. I soon discovered that the answer is devilishly simple. What you do is you pop off the plastic legs the case has. (Yes - the legs! I've seen a lot of stupid cases, but this one is right up there with a couple of IBM models running in the final heat of the Most Stupid Case of All Time Award.) Then you can see a long plactic retaining bar that you slide in one direction in order to pop the plastic case off in a different direction. No tools required. And definately no need for a Heavy Duty Precision Impact Adjustment Tool.

Which is a pity, really. I kind of wanted to watch Tea doing it her way.

From a safe distance, of course.

 

[Tea]

It'z all liez.

 

[flagreen]

It'z all liez.

It's all an attempt by Tannin to take your bananas away. Key a close eye on him.

 

[Mercutio]

You talk about most stupid case ever, yet you do not mention the NEC "upside down" tower cases of the mid-90s, so you are clearly misguided. Nothing like having to take EVERY SINGLE PART out of a case to get to the screws on the CD-ROM drive...

 

[Tea]

Gahh! I was trying to forget those ones. I've seen some other upside-down cases (not NEC) that were actually perfetly OK, but rather confusing.

 

[Bartender]

I see Tea has switched her avatar to represent our handy HDPIAT. I was wondering where that tool went. Usually it's behind that bar and comes in handy when Buck gets out of hand.

 

[Pradeep]

Ahh, so that's how you open up those Dell crapboxes! I nearly cracked a case open a while back, trying to put a NIC in a machine. I was so sure those little tabs on the top and bottom were the key. Freaking taking the feet off, who woulda thunk it?

 

[Tea]

Perzacaly!

Next time I meet Michael Dell, I'll probably take his feet off. Somewhere in the shed, Tannin has a thing rather like the Heavy Duty Precision Impact Adjustment Tool, only one side looks different - sort of sharp and flat, if you know what I mean. I always wondered what that was for.

 

[The JoJo]

Ah, the answer I have been searhing for. Please remind me to add a Heavy Duty Precision Impact Adjustment Tool (TM) (Copyright) to my first aid box for computers. Those vomit boxes really make me...feel....feel....feeel.....urgh, gotta go....