I’m new here, as I recently started working on an IBM XT clone that was given to me by brother. As he had no monitors to support it, and with all the other retro hardware he has he really had no room for it. Anyway, I am giving the system a thorough cleaning before my MCE2VGA convertor arrives, and have never encountered a motherboard held in by pins before. =)
My question is, how would one get the motherboard off the clips, in the most efficient and safest way possible? I’m sure there is a correct way to do this, and I would really hate to damage such a beautiful piece of hardware. I’ve provided an image of the “clips” in question below, as to clear up any confusion I may have caused by being unfamiliar with what they are actually called.
Thank you in advance for any help you might be able to provide here. I tried googling the subject and had difficulties finding any information about it.
Those plastic clips were common at one time, but have fallen out of favor. If you look at the top, you’ll see that it has a central column with two ears folded back against it (like a droopy T) and that those ears are what clips the motherboard in. You remove it by gently squeezing the ears against the central column and lifting the board up until it clears the clips.
Small pliers are best for this job, and you’ll usually find that you can pull the motherboard up fast enough to squeeze the ears in itself at one clip while you work on the next. Try not to flex the board if you can help it.
Those clips may be brittle and prone to breakage; it’s not the end of the world if some of them break, as they were common enough that you can get more. Be as gentle as you can, but after all this time it may take a bit of force.
That was indeed the term I was looking for. Thank you so much for help, I was able to get the board out with some patience, and my trusty needle-nosed pliers. I even managed to not break any standoffs.=)
Thank you, I’m excited to see what it is capable of. It also has a MIO-100 daughterboard equipped with a Zilog 8644 co-processor, and a CPG-300 CGA graphics card
So, I received my MCE2VGA box, and powered on the computer… and… K-B error! One of the floppy drives has a steady LED light, as well as the HDD LED. Any ideas on what may be causing the filesystem error?
