Cant get to caps on a Dell Optiplex 270 motherboard because of metal plate!

[Optiperplexed]

This metal plate, located underneath the motherboard, I assume, protects the bottom of the CPU from something or other. It also acts as some sort of anchor for the CPU heat sink. There are four plastic holders at the four corners.

The problem is that it is blocking the areas underneath several capacitors that I have to remove, and the four plastic corner "bolts" are impossible to remove so I can get it out of the way. Short of drilling into them, I'm at a lose.

I know this board has had many bad cap issues, so I hope that someone that took the effort to replace them has some advice on what can be done.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[MXM]

Re: Cant get to caps on a Dell Optiplex 270 motherboard because of metal plate!

post some pics dude, some members may not be familiar with that board.

i'd also recommend to check out some post on this board maybe someones already figure that out.

peace.

[severach]

Re: Cant get to caps on a Dell Optiplex 270 motherboard because of metal plate!

These plastic holders are easy to work with. A small torx driver will push the white lock pin out then the black retainer can be removed. I pry on the plastic assembly after protecting the board.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Cant get to caps on a Dell Optiplex 270 motherboard because of metal plate!

some 270's have screws on this instead of plastic push pins, screws are preferred. sometimes you break those plastic push pins cause overheating on that heatsink (which is fairly common) warps the plastic of those

[digge]

Re: Cant get to caps on a Dell Optiplex 270 motherboard because of metal plate!

I worked on a SX270 a few days ago. On that board it had screws from the top. Without pictures its hard to visualize how it looks unless you worked on the exact board.

If indeed the plastic melted it can be tricky as the others already stated, one way might be to glue something to the top and pull them out, but can be very hard to do without it breaking loose.

[cookieCAM]

Re: Cant get to caps on a Dell Optiplex 270 motherboard because of metal plate!

Desktop
--Or--
Slimline Desktop

[Agent24]

Re: Cant get to caps on a Dell Optiplex 270 motherboard because of metal plate!

Upload some photos here on the forum with your next post so we have a better idea what's going on...