I Opened The Back Case, Put It Back, Now The Top Is Gaping

[Alex.]

I opened the back case to clean it a little, but now when I put it back the seams of the top half of the unit do not close completely, leaving a 0.5-1mm gap. Extra-tightening the screws makes very little difference (except to my fingers). The gap can be easily closed if I physically press down on the case, but the screws alone aren't holding it into place.

Only the bottom plastic snappers make a *clack* noise when I close them, those at the top do not. They don't appear to be broken, though their claws seem too short to be of any use? Am I missing something very obvious? :unsure:

 

[Pickle]

I opened the back case to clean it a little, but now when I put it back the seams of the top half of the unit do not close completely, leaving a 0.5-1mm gap. Extra-tightening the screws makes very little difference (except to my fingers). The gap can be easily closed if I physically press down on the case, but the screws alone aren't holding it into place.

Only the bottom plastic snappers make a *clack* noise when I close them, those at the top do not. They don't appear to be broken, though their claws seem too short to be of any use? Am I missing something very obvious? :unsure:

I would take it all apart again, maybe the plastic pieces on the sides didnt snap in right. It really sounds like you have some piece slightly out of position forcing the gap or worse a wire is in the way.

 

[Alex.]

Thanks for the advice Pickle. I took it out again, and made sure everything including the glossy border is as tightly fit as possible, then I put it back again, still without any luck. There are no snaps on the sides though, just two at the top and two larger ones at the bottom. I wouldn't mind this all that much, but it feels so awkward to have the case move while you hold it and press the buttons, it really distracts from the actual play.

 

[Sphinxter]

I had mine apart when the on switch slipped its station and recall it was quite the puzzle to fit back together, don't remember that combo though, pix?

 

[Alex.]

Here it is gaping, with the screws in tight:

This is how it looks when I hold it pressed with my fingers, and how it used to look before I opened it:

And this is a photo of the whole board, all that needs to be mounted is the back cover:

 

[Coder_TimT]

Are you positive the screws are fully tightened? One thing I remember about taking my old unit apart was needing the correct size small screwdriver so as to be able to tighten the screws all the way without rounding the heads. In other words the screws were hard to turn and required quite a bit of force(both down and rotational) to get tight.

Might not be the case here, and I surely don't want you to strip anything out, but you might try carefully to continue tightening with the case pinched closed...

 

[Pickle]

I too think you can squeeze it together it is probally the screws. So push it together then crank on screws. Hopefully the plastic isnt stripped.

 

[Sphinxter]

I just looked at my F100 and it has a bit of gap on one side and I can squeeze it a bit, think it's the screws, were any of them longer than the others?

 

[abertalia]

Mine does the same thing. I tried opening it up again to try and fix but then the gap just went to the other side <_< It might be because the plastic is uneven. Has any F-200 owners had this problem?

 

[Alex.]

All screws are the same length, except that one has a bent head :lol:

I'm reluctant of tightening them more than they were when I first opened the unit, I don't want to wear the plastic down and besides, they won't really tighten any more. I'll try one last time, and if I don't get the gap closed I'll fix it with some black tape.

 

[Alex.]

It turns out it was the screws after all. I couldn't imagine I had to tighten them that much. The plastic can't possibly handle more than two or three such strains :-/

Oh well, at least it's back like it was, and cleaner too

 

[Sphinxter]

It turns out it was the screws after all. I couldn't imagine I had to tighten them that much. The plastic can't possibly handle more than two or three such strains :-/

Oh well, at least it's back like it was, and cleaner too

Scary, very scary, glad that worked out. B-0 woo.

 

[slaanesh]

Yes, the same thing happened to me when I did the DaveC DPAD mod. When I finally put it back together I got the same gap as described by Alex. Tightening the screws is basically what did the trick.

I wouldn't want to take it apart too often in fear of stripping the plastic. If this did happen, what's the solution?

 

[simonb]

I wouldn't want to take it apart too often in fear of stripping the plastic. If this did happen, what's the solution?

Ever so slightly longer, and thicker screws...

As a point of note, if you're ever going to pull apart electronic gadgetry, you really really need to invest in a decent pair of screwdrivers, and never use those shitty ones you can get from poundland or whatever. I've got a set of these, and they're utterly awesome:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...ers&doy=4m2

 

[bacteria]

Each time I opened my GP2x's case, I had the same problem, I had to hold the case together while tightening the screw, so it held the case down in position. No real issue.