snap fit bullshit

[james_s]

I don't think that's likely to slow down reverse engineering. Someone who really wants to reverse engineer something usually doesn't mind sacrificing one to do so.

[coppercone2]

You but you dont need to regulalry strip that shit to unclog a god damned heat exchanger

[Mr. Scram]

now that I am thinking about shit design, the heat exchanger on this thing is impossible to clean. You need to do a full disassembly to access the fins because they are hidden behind some plastic grate thats part of the bottom plate. If they had a ounce of thought that part would be accessible by a separate smaller panel held on by a few screws. If I were to actually fix this thing, I would have probably cut the damn plastic grate off on a band saw and modded it so you can take it off without disassembling the entire back panel with 12 snap hinges and like 15 screws.

Why the hell would you expect someone to take apart like 12 or more snap hinges to do regular cleaning of the heat exchanger? If you wanted to make it real good you would put a screw covered port on the back panel so you can stick a compressed air tube in there and blow out the heat exchanger. As usual its clogged with a 3mm layer of dust. But you get a little cake thing thats impossible to blow out. I have done this before. I ended up having to make special hook tools out of paper clips and shit to try to get the dust cake out of the area between the stupid laptop plastic protector and the heat exchanger. And you need alot more pressure and flow then a compressed air can.

People don't adapt to thermal requirements. Same as when I see LED lights used in old holders, I got the new ones that have convection air flow that works with the damn cooling fins on the bulbs.

Actually I think the thing was built with negative pressure, so it makes a dust film behind the heat exchanger that you can't blow out through the fan. It's just ridiclous.

I don't care anymore. Its dead and I am done with it. 

Videocards have this problem too but at least you can get a chassis with a dust filter on it.

Did you pay attention to how well the unit can be maintained when you bought it or did you just buy the cheapest thing you liked?

[coppercone2]

i tried to fix someones trash. It's not cheap either those laptops went for like 900$ when they were made. Surprisingly the lowest end Lenovo (what was it, like 300$?) from best buy is 100 times easier and faster to take apart. Also had more robust thermal design.

It's not a sign of good design. None of the stuff I mentioned is. It's like impossible to clean shower doors that I am sure some of us are familiar with.

[ebastler]

Seriously I hate this shit. I just had to fucking chisel into a god damn laptop with a fucking hammer to undo a snap fit. Now its in the trash. God damn. I refuse to even work on that dog shit.
[etc. etc.]

Sorry Coppercone, I think you simply missed the right point in time to put down your tools, take several steps back, let it sit over night. If you worked on the laptop in anywhere close to the mood you were still in while posting this, I am not surprised about the outcome.

[coppercone2]

i know how to open a laptop man, I own like 4 in about 5 year segments between 1998 to now. This one was just bullshit. I still prefer a old micro sized think pad to this new crap.

Bolts fuck up and fuse too, we have to use blow torches and magical fluid mixtures to get our cars apart.. but at least you can grind them or drill them or do lots of things. When a snap hinge system malfunctions boy is it fucked.

[maginnovision]

I don't know... I've got a 17" HP Omen laptop and I read about all sorts of people destroying the cases taking them apart. I did it and... No drama. Took it apart, installed 2nd hard drive, put it together. Been fine since, can't even tell it was opened. It's definitely a thing where some people can do it and some can't.

[CJay]

I've been doing laptop repairs since the first Macbooks and Compaq SLT machines (still have my SLT opening wedges and use them often)

If it doesn't come apart without breaking, you're doing it wrong or some sod has glued it together (nail polish remover works well for sealing cases up on some machines).

It really is that simple.

[bc888]

Great rant, can totally relate. Usually when I'm talking like that I've got bloody knuckles or something along those lines. Once started to teach my son and his 2 little buddies how to change the oil on a 1998 Honda Civic which was still fairly new at the time. I only turned my head for a brief moment and one of them decided we were done and jumped up, grabbed the hood and the hood folded over the bar used to hold the hood up. Not a swear word from me and after I finished laughing my ass off and showed them how the hood support shaft had to be lifted and placed back into the plastic socket we moved on to basic body and fender work with hammers and steel backers. But in your instance, that just seems so fu*ing needless that I'm with ya man.

[MrMobodies]

They got a tiny die-cast heat sink with a heat pipe on the CPU. Looks like they used about a mile high pile of thermal compound between the CPU and the heat sink. When I saw it I was just like yea this is trash and the engineers musta been fucking completely baked.

I was given a box of junk laptop motherboards some years ago but I binned them now.

Some Toshiba
Lots of Acers
Hp

and some Hannstar (not sure what make and model they came out of.)

Most them still had the processors and a heatpipe still intact and the the copper pipes were dark and black.

The copper joints on the board also showed that colour.

Obviously they overheated.

I chose a Lenovo laptop which is over 9 years and it works with no problems but its been through 3 batteries.

The one I choose has got two fans, one for the quad core processor and one for the Quadro graphics card. The are six vents on the sides, back and underneath. The air comes in from the side and the fans blow the air out at the back and doesn't depend on anything blocking the vents underneath.

It cost me a lot but it is turning out to be worth it.

I knew back then that there would be problems with the ones selling in the local shops when they put one tiny vent at the bottom and my suspicions turned out true for the amount boards I replaced over the years for customers.

Edit:
What I also find is that when you put them in sleep and place it in the bag, the battery drains quick in some of them so they turn in the bag to shut down something stops it so it overheats.

In my case I narrowed it down and it turned out to be the Quadro Display driver at the time which can cause it to hang when going into or coming out of sleep. Now I just shut it down and never put into sleep. I have seen the sleep issue happen to lots of other laptops in my time.

[bloguetronica]

Seriously? Another rant? What did you expect after using a chisel and a hammer? Mother Teresa carved out of a computer? 

Yeah, lets blame the tools. I opened several equipments using a credit card. It works every time. Perhaps you didn't tried hard enough (with the credit card, not the chisel).

Kind regards, Samuel Lourenço

[coppercone2]

haha credit card the plastic would not bend to slide a feeler gauge into

id like to see your wrecked credit card 

it opened just fine with some percussive maintenance but when I saw the puny heat sink and general internal design I decided to cut my losses lol

[bloguetronica]

Well, I don't use an actual credit card, although it is a good use for an actual one. A spreader from OSH stencils does the job well.

Kind regards, Samuel Lourenço

[coppercone2]

you could not slide paper into this seam

[wraper]

you could not slide paper into this seam

Because paper is not hard. In the past I repaired tons of mobile phones as it was my job and many of them are a complete bitch to take apart compared to the worst of laptops. It's just lack of skill, crooked hands, whatever... problem lies in you, not laptop or tools.

[bloguetronica]

you could not slide paper into this seam

Because paper is not hard. In the past I repaired tons of mobile phones as it was my job and many of them are a complete bitch to take apart compared to the worst of laptops. It's just lack of skill, crooked hands, whatever... problem lies in you, not laptop or tools.

I subscribe to that. A piece of cardboard can be used to gain a "foothold" to stick a piece of plastic into the gap. I don't like to use metal tools (knifes, screwdrivers, etc), because it dents the plastic and the result is ugly.

I've seen many wrecked TV remote controls in my life because people are not careful and use any tools available to pry into the soft plastic.

Kind regards, Samuel Lourenço