31 Mar
2015
31 Mar
'15
2:37 p.m.
Does anyone know how to remove the side skins on an SGI Origin
(specifically a 2200 deskside cabinet). The manual mentions removal of the
top and front, but says that the sides are more tricky and to contact SGI
for the procedure.
I'd like to remove them as there's some minor paint splatter on them, which
would be much easier to deal with off the machine.
I see there's a screw at the bottom of the machine on the rear edge (much
like the one for the front which releases the front skin), but removing it
doesn't seem to let the rear plastic molding drop in the same way, and I
assume this needs to come off first.
cheers
Jules
31 Mar
31 Mar
4:37 p.m.
Just my opinion but if no functional issue I'd probably just leave them as
they are... Older SGI plastics as used on i.e. the Indigo, Indigo2, Indy
seem to be pretty robust even after 20-30 years down the line (though I'm
still loath to pull the cover on an Indigo2 nowadays unless I really have
to because getting them lined up to put back on can be tricky and you risk
breaking the tabs at the back of the top case...
But the later SGI equipment... well, I am thinking of the O2s in
particular, they must have changed the formulation on the plastics used for
the case skins because they did not age well and became quite brittle
fairly rapidly. They aged almost as poorly as the plastics in my Power Mac
8500 which are completely held together by epoxy at this point, LOL. What
was Apple thinking! (cost cutting, obviously)
I'm not sure if this was such an issue on the higher end systems i.e.
Octane, Origin/Onyx, Tezro, etc. but if I were in your shoes, my concern
would be that the side skins could fracture or shear in the process of
being removed or reinstalled. SGI's case designs were so striking; I want
to try and do everything I can to keep the skins in nice shape. Is the
paint really very bad? I'd just consider it a little bit of character :O
Best,
Sean
On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 5:37 PM, Jules Richardson <
jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
Does anyone know how to remove the side skins on an SGI Origin
(specifically a 2200 deskside cabinet). The manual mentions removal of the
top and front, but says that the sides are more tricky and to contact SGI
for the procedure.
I'd like to remove them as there's some minor paint splatter on them,
which would be much easier to deal with off the machine.
I see there's a screw at the bottom of the machine on the rear edge (much
like the one for the front which releases the front skin), but removing it
doesn't seem to let the rear plastic molding drop in the same way, and I
assume this needs to come off first.
cheers
Jules
11:55 p.m.
On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 07:37:54PM -0400, Sean Caron wrote:
Just my opinion but if no functional issue I'd
probably just leave them as
they are...
I agree! Try to clean the plastic in place, be careful with the solvent
you choose. Test whatever you clean it with on a spot that is not
visible.
I'm not sure if this was such an issue on the
higher end systems i.e.
Octane, Origin/Onyx, Tezro, etc. but if I were in your shoes, my concern
would be that the side skins could fracture or shear in the process of
being removed or reinstalled.
My experience is that the skins on the Octane, Indigo, Indy and Personal
Iris holds upp pretty well.
The O2 and Indigo2 are ok, but you have to be careful.
The Origin 200 and Origin 2000 are absolutely horrible!! Strangely the
Onyx2 seems to hold up better, it has been suggested that the blue color
in the O200 and O2k might be involved and the Onyx2 is purple. The rack
version has metal tabs where the deskside have plastics.
I've never seen an original Onyx, Challenge or Crimson but I've read
they are fairly brittle as well.
That being said, I have an Origin2000 with the skins removed and I could
look at them to see if I can figure how the sides comes.
The reason I haven't put the skins back on is that lots of little pieces
broke off when it was removed and as long as the machine is in storage
it is probably best to leave them off. I expect to spend some time
repairing when time comes to assemble it.
Regards,
Pontus.
1 Apr
1 Apr
5:11 p.m.
On 04/01/2015 01:55 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 07:37:54PM -0400, Sean Caron
wrote:
Well, I got it... I ended up removing the I/O card cage, which allowed me
to reach through the holes in the framework below (the fan tray was already
out, obviously) so that I could access the plastic clips on the reverse
side of the rear plastic molding. There are six clips, four along the top
and two farther down, but I only needed to unhook the top four (one at a
time, while applying a little backward pressure to the rear molding so they
didn't snap back into place) and then the panel came off.
Once that real panel's off, the side panels just lift up and off very easily.
Access is really tight doing it that way though, and I confess to breaking*
a locating lug in the center of the rear molding while I was removing it,
so I can't help but think that the official procedure is different!
* not critical to reassembly, thankfully. I might glue it back on so I can
break it again the next time :-) Or I might just leave the rear molding off
altogether - once the machine's sitting up near a wall, it's not
particularly critical to looks, other than the lower couple of inches where
it just wraps around to the sides.
Just my opinion but if no functional issue
I'd probably just leave them as
they are...
I agree! Try to clean the plastic in place, be careful with the
solvent
you choose. Test whatever you clean it with on a spot that is not
visible.
Soap, very hot water and a toothbrush did the trick! I considered some form
of more aggressive cleaning solution, but decided that I didn't want to
risk it.
The O2 and Indigo2 are ok, but you have to be careful.
Getting the case back on my Indigo2 was a major pain in the butt
The Origin 200 and Origin 2000 are absolutely horrible!! Strangely the
Onyx2 seems to hold up better, it has been suggested that the blue color
in the O200 and O2k might be involved and the Onyx2 is purple.
Maybe, although this (blue) Origin 2200 seems fine - perhaps there's a
heat/sunlight element involved too, though.
That being said, I have an Origin2000 with the skins
removed and I could
look at them to see if I can figure how the sides comes.
Well, see above - "solved" but I have a feeling that SGI's official
procedure is different to what I did. Or maybe it just wasn't something
that was ever really done in the field, and they had a special tool back at
service centers to pop the tabs via the front of the fan bay (furthermore,
if they were replacing side skins at a customer site I can believe that
they might just replace the rear molding too, and so it wouldn't matter if
they broke the old one).
The reason I haven't put the skins back on is that
lots of little pieces
broke off when it was removed and as long as the machine is in storage
it is probably best to leave them off. I expect to spend some time
repairing when time comes to assemble it.
Makes sense!
cheers
Jules
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jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
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scaron＠umich.edu