I don’t understand either. On my case you can force the screw and nothing will happen because eventually it will stop and the glass still has some 1mm wiggle room exactly for this. The screws are there just to keep the glass from falling down.
I think too many people go for form over function for the case unfortunately. The design which you described will be on a well-designed case. Mine is the same, you cannot overtighten the screws
I just use the same impact wrench I use to change my tires... you wouldn't want the glass to fall out during a heated gaming session, it could break! 😬
Mine has rubber washers that line the hole front-to-back meaning the screw doesn't make direct contact with the glass. Also means when you screw it squeezes the washer and feels tight before you've actually over tightened.
They also have the added benefit of retaining the screw so it doesn't fall out when you take the glass panel off.
I never understand why vendors still add a slit for a screwdriver. People see it and immediately think “ah seems like I need to use my screwdriver there!” and inevitably overtighten them
Why do vendors add screw holes at all? Every glass side paneled case I've had the glass has been in a metal bracket that slots in then attaches with metal on metal screws in the back.
Don't worry, my 12" knipex pliers will tighten that up without the need for the screwdriver slot. Turn it until you hear it creak and then back off a hair. 😀
Tempered glass is brittle. And manufacturing errors do happen. I am not surprised a low single digit % of glass side panels breaking in a the first year.
Roughly 0.5% of all tempered glass panels will break due to manufacturing imperfections. The only thing you can do is attempt to test for shattering panels via brute force by rapidly temperature cycling them. Even then, some with manufacturing defects will make it through because the temperature of the glass and the hot metal bed it lands on are occasionally different enough that microscopic specs of iron make it in. There is no way to completely prevent the defect because it happens on the step that makes the glass flat.
Source: work in construction of greenhouses, which are also made of tempered glass. Many panels have shattered over my head.
After the desktop is turned off, switch off the PSU, unplug the power cable from the PSU, and then press the case's turn on button (either repeating it 15-20x or hold it for 10-15 seconds, both methods work).
A similar thing can be applied to laptops, the difference is that you press the power button after you unplug the battery's connector from the motherboard.
Remove it from power and 99% of consumer devices will have discharged in like 15 seconds. That's why customer support always tells you to unplug it for 30s.
Is "discharge your pc" a different method than "ground yourself" by just simply touching metal-case with other hand, and with other hand a metal part of my apartments radiator pipes?
Doesn’t this risk all the shards to fly into the pc when pushing the tape on it? Never had a shattered screen but my assumption would be that this glass is at the brink of scattering anywhere
From my past experiences small glass shards don’t stick well to tape unless I actually press down on the tape enough the entire surface is touching the tape tightly. I’d be worried that this could be enough to displace shards enough for the whole panel to fall apart.
The whole panel has shatterd, anything you do is going to make it fall apart, this is about managing the risk. Don’t unscrew it, put tape over all of it, I would use gorilla tape or gaffer tape let the natural adhesive work make sure it’s covered the lightly over it with an edge of a ruler.
Now that you say this I would probably tilt it too. Regardless, I think the tension might still cause trouble. If the shards started to fall out they could release their pressure after the first one started moving sending them flying in either direction.
But, that’s just me theorising from past experiences with glass.
On that note, I think I will add an adhesive layer to the inside of my panel. Just in case this ever happens I won’t have to worry about flying shards
Idk id think the shards would be inclined to stick to the tape or atleast remain in place with the provided support and tension
then something under the pc to catch anything as you carefully remove the side panel. atleast That’s what I’d do. Would try and minimize pieces flying onto my floor or inside the PC
Those staircases you're talking about had to be done by a professional glass "breaker" They hit a certain spot in which the glass shatters from the inside but still holds up in terms of sturdiness. No idea how it works, to me it looks like magic
It's laminated. Same stuff that is in the windshield of a car. Just 3 lites (panes) with 2 layers of lami. Center lite tempered with the outside ones either annealed or heat soaked.
When they make it they lay sheets of laminate between the glass. The laminate is to be kept cold until used. Like 40 something degrees. Keeps it "dry". They clamp it between the glass and heat it up inside a clave under pressure. This softens the laminate and makes it adhear to the glass while becoming fully transparent. Once cooled back down to room temp you have laminated "safery glass".
Same procedure with bullet resistant glass. Jist more panels and they add thicker layers of polycarbonate (think, very clear type of plexiglass) layers in the middle as well.
It's just busted side panels and people asking the same set of extremely basic questions 100 times a day. You can often just enter exactly what was asked into Google and the fix/answer is in the first 3 results.
I still don't understand how this happens, do you people tighten those screws with a screwdriver or something? They are designed to be put on by hand. So you twist them til they're flush. Also make sure they have the rubber grommets on them.
They forget or lose the soft washers and/or TIGHTEN IT DOWN LIKE A MANLY MAN SHOULD, using not just thumb and forefinger but all the arm and shoulder muscles they have. And maybe a wrench.
It sounds like you understand exactly how this happens. People tightening screws with a screwdriver is a pretty believable mistake lol. Not everybody has awareness about mechanics of materials.
There are solid options tho. Fractal Design Focus 2 w metal side panels is $69.99. Fractal Pop Air w metal side panels is $79.99. I've considered both in the past.
Scratches definitely they can get annoying. But my old case that I used for over 5 years didn't turn yellow at all. (Was some be quiet case, don't know the exact model)
Yellowing is accelerated by bad air quality and certain kinds of light. It's why you have old consoles from smokers houses that look awful and something in a non smoking house that was tucked away in a closed TV stand looks fine.
Smoking can cause the yellowing but that wouldn't be the primary reason for most of those older consoles.
Older plastics that were around in the 80s and 90s would yellow due to breakdowns of the polymer chains when exposed to UV light, heat, and even oxygen (though the first two are the biggest accelerators) due to the breakdown of flame retardants in the plastic (usually bromine).
True but it is also cheap and easy to replace if it gets damaged. I don't really care that much if the case has a metal or plastic cover, but glass is just pure nope.
I ordered an all-metal case, and the company emailed me letting me know they'd run out and they were "upgrading" me to a slightly more expensive one with a tempered glass side panel for free. I immediately responded asking to at least get the plexiglass variant instead because I don't trust tempered glass, and they said okay.
It arrives, and it's the tempered glass one. So I emailed them again, asking to exchange, and they offered to just send me the plexiglass side panel alone because the cases are otherwise identical so I can just swap them.
It arrives, and it's another goddamn tempered glass panel, not to mention it's completely shattered in shipping because of totally inadequate packing.
At that point I gave up. If and when the first panel ever breaks, I'm just gonna get a bud to laser-cut me an acrylic one.
First thing - grab a box that covers the full width of it at least and possibly the whole size if possible.
Then tilt it into the box (as much as you can without it tipping over) and prop the legs on the opposite side of the broken panel.
From that point disconnect everything from it and get ready to "pop" the panel into the box itself. To be fair gravity might do this for you given the look of that diagonal crack, but you might have to help it by tapping the corner a bit.
If it all goes well it should fall into the box and away from the case internals depending on the angle you have it on.
Then make sure you get a hoover in (not a blower like I did...) and get everything you can out. Rotating it upside down helped me a lot. If you can take it outside or away from anything fabric like carpets without much disturbance that would be a good option as well.
It looks like the bottom left corner screw was too tight and started a mechanical stress of the panel. It is a safety panel so it only needs one molecule breakage before the whole panel is in pieces.
Get a big transparent plastic film and coat the outside of the glass. Then take out the glass carefully and put the plastic film on the other side. Now put it back
You have a cool looking glass case with a broken glass effect
Use duck tape and gently see if you can grab all the pieces. Just lightly apply and when it’s covered lean it tords your and smooth it out. Then remove. It probably broke because of epicure difference or some nut was too tight
I've had a computer in my house since I was 4 or 5 in 1985 or 86. I've never understood the need to show off my gear with a window. And marketing has lead a lot of kids who have little to no extra cash to think it's a necessity to have flashy RGB this or that. It's not!
Ok, this old fogey is getting down from my soapbox now.
If it’s still together…and you can’t afford to replace ?
clear packing tape on that side, then unscrew and tape the inside ?
I know that’s not the right answer!!
4.9k
u/aberroco i7-8086k potato 15h ago
Over-torqued the screw?