I’ll show you how I fixed it, with a caveat or two.
- If you really don’t care about the $40 and doing a return to get another one… this solution is for you.
All you need is a little patience and an X-acto blade or maybe even a sharp pocket knife.
The issue is that when they were injection molding the case - the metal inserts (the black columns that your motherboard goes over) were loose in the mold or the injection pressure was a little too high and they pushed extra plastic into the space between molds and it rose up around the metal screw post.
Now, this should have been caught in quality control somewhere along the line. But because the inserts are metal and the case is plastic, it is pretty easy and almost fool proof to fix yourself if you don’t want to wait for a replacement.
The basic concept is to use the Xacto or knife to remove the excess plastic. I found the best ways is as follows. (you almost can’t screw it up).
- Remove your mother board from the case and any other pieces (sound board, wifi, etc). You only need the bottom half to fix this.
- Find a steady place that you can sit down at and work at a comfortable level.
- Place the bottom of the case down on a flat sturdy surface.
- Use a sharp knife or X-acto and cut parallel with the bottom of the case on the flat surface where the board should normally rest. The second frame of the picture above shows and example.
You want the blade to be flat to the bottom and cut toward the post. You don’t need to remove any plastic in this step, you are really only create a score mark around the bottom of the metal post. You can’t cut too far in toward the post, because it is metal and will stop the blade. Do that all the way around the base.
If you can’t reach all the way around on some of the posts, don’t worry too much - you can most likely get what you need done in the next steps.
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Once you have score the bottom. Now run your blade from the top down the metal post. The cut should basically scrape down the side of the post, cut into the excess plastic and stop at the first line you cut in step 4. (see frame above) This should free a small chuck of plastic. Keep rotating a little bit at a time around the post doing the same cut all the way around. You can angle the blade slightly inward toward the screw post - you will not be able to cut into it because it is metal.
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Repeat for all the posts - I think there are 5 of them.
You need to be pretty thorough – all the posts need to be cleaned all the way down to the flat.
Before you screw down your board, make sure it fits down to the bottom without any excess force over each post. You don’t want to introduce unneeded flex on the board. The ports on both sides should line up properly without have to rock or push down on any side/corner of the board. The middle of the board shouldn’t be bowed upwards - everything should be laying flat.
Take your time. It shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to do a proper job.
Once everything is okay - viola - enjoy.
You many be able to do this with a rotary tool or some other electric cutter - but I find the control of the X-acto much more comforting and it wasn’t a chore.
Hope this helps. I have been enjoying my case since I made these modifications.
