From: thomasm@agcs.com (Mike Thomas) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo Subject: Re: Series 400 Date: 23 Aug 1994 09:35:21 -0600 Organization: gte In article <3367gq$4u6@kelewan.dandelion.com> Leonard N. Zubkoff writes: >For the first time, I find myself needing to look inside a Series 400 to see >what can be done about a failed disk and/or controller. So, the question >comes, how does one open up these machines? It's not real obvious how to do >so. Thanks. > > Leonard I'm assuming that you're talking about the HP9000/4XX product line, not the Apollo DN 4XX products. The 4XXT deskstop systems have a plastic front panel which can be released by inserting a small screwdriver in two slots on the top of the panel toward the right and left side. After the top is released, grasp the plastic panel at the right or left side and using a prying motion pull it towards you. The entire plastic bezel will come loose and it is now possible to simple lift the top cover (there may be a screw retaining the top cover in place on the left side) and rotate it up and towards the rear. Reassembly is just the reverse, except that I find it necessary to generally give the plastic front panel a firm smack with the flat of the hand to seat it properly. The 4XXS deskside systems (which are one of the worst most pathetically designed enclosures ever conceived in the computer industry) have one or two thumb screws holding on a top cover. After removing the screw or screws, as the case may be, give the front top of the cover a firm whack with the heel of your hand towards the rear. Don't just lift up on it or the plate that is glued (yes, glued) to the front top inside of this cover will be pried loose. After this top cover is removed the sides may just fall right off, alarming everybody in hearing distance. The sides are just barely held in place by the clips or guides that insert into the enclosure. Pay attention to the guides at the bottom as these must be aligned properly when reassembling. If you need to get at the EISA bus there is another cover plate held in place by similar guides and the natural spring tension of the cover, just press down on the top and pull it away from the machine. The disk drives themselves are mounted on a bracket that is held in place by two screws accessible from the right front of the system. These screws are inset slightly due to some metal sheeting and are relatively easy to strip out, so be cautious about using gorilla force when reinstalling. There is a completely moronic plastic plate which hides the screws for the bottom bracket. This plastic piece is simply held in place by the spring tension of two plastic guides, simply push it straight back towards the rear of the maching about 1/4 of an inch and gently move it outwards. It is possible to break the plastic guides if you're too violent in jerking it out of the system. Try to overcome the urge to grab this ridiculous piece of engineering and rip it right out of the frame. It will eventually come loose and can be slid out towards the front of the system. After you've removed the two screws, it is relatively easy to slide the bracket and disk drive out of the system. There are 3 small cover plates to the left side of the system which are the cable access covers. Remove the single screw and cover, you can now reach in and disconnect the SCSI drive cable and DC power cable. Probably should be wearing your static strap now. Sometimes the drive bracket will stick and once again a firm whack with your hand on the rear of the drive will probable release it. Occasionally I've had to sort of jam my hand in there and put quite a bit of pressure on these drives to push them out, be careful they'll pop right out onto the floor. After you've got everything out, call over the local HP bigots and laugh in their face about this farcical piece of engineering. If you need to take the motherboard out for some reason, there *are* a lot of screws to be removed. There is enough slack built into the power cable and SCSI cable that it is possible to set the drive on top of the system and spin it up. This will allow you to listen closely to drive operation to determine whether it is spinning and whether the heads are being released and doing their self-test dance. I do all my drive troubleshooting on top of the system this way, one word of caution, it is relatively easy to knock the drive off and onto the floor (not a good thing for a spinning disk). Hope this helps some, -- Mike Thomas thomasm@agcs.com