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I think the fasteners on your case might be torx. Those are sort of a six-pointed star. If that's what they are, you need a torx driver. You can get screw drivers, socket bits, or a folding set that fits them (there are lots of sizes) at Sears, an Auto Parts or good hardware store.
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I went to Google images for torx and they appear to be very close (the fasteners on my case are very small, barely viewable with a magnifying glass and I may have stripped them a bit trying to undo them with an allen wrench). I'll stop by Sear's on my way to poker later today.
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One thing i like about dells is that you don't need any tools to open the case, or get the front panel off.
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Same was true of my older Micron. Replacing drives was a snap.
Just in case I can't solve the unexpected shutdown problem I'm looking at getting another computer (otherwise no online play). I was disappointed at the latest ABS Computer web site (ABS is my current machine - I loved it until recent failures). Two years ago one was able within limits to pick and chose among many parts (e.g. cases/power supplies, CPU speeds, motherboards, drives, hard disks, CD/DVD RW drives, higher quality memory and so on). Now they have fixed machines in various lines with limited options.
Velocity Micro seems to have moved into the decent quality semi custom-made nich now. The
Vector SX-V with more memory and a bigger drive would be a nice machine for about $1100. I could probably add my existing memory (making 2 gigs) and add my second, less worn out hard disk) along with my Plextor CD RW drive. That would make the machine slightly better than what I have now.
Another nice thing about Velocity Micro is they provide a real copy of Windows XP, as opposed to the restore disk (which won't let you start with a freshly formatted drive). This is one reason I've stayed away from Dell and other major vendors, the other being I don't like getting "free" LCDs I don't need and so on, which at some level the customer obviously pays for.
With more workspace and time building one sounds like an interesting challenge, but when I checked out the price of parts two years ago it didn't seem like I'd save any money. I assume that's still true; OTOH I'd know how to remove my faceplate. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Thanks for the help.
~ Rick