conformal fail...stuck buttons :(

Hi Folks

Tried to fire up the rex last night and very happy I decided to air test before going to the cascade....4 buttons were completely stuck (in the depressed state) The board tries to start but then shuts down, tries to start, shuts down, etc.

Got the bios reset button un-stuck but the other 3 (power, toggle and confirm) are giving me trouble.

What's the best way to get them un-stuck?? Am thinking nail polish remover around the entire button then try to let it seep through then try to gently work the buttons up and down?

Any ideas?

The Poleesh de'nail (Lego movie reference, LOL!) should work but it will likely smudge the plastic buttons a bit...

You mean polish remover? Like acetone.

Thanks EarthDog-o-delic! Not worried about smudging buttons...already ripped the face off the bios reset one and scratched up the start one...just want to get it working.

So....just try to pour remover inside the button housings, let it sit for a few minutes then try to gently-ish work them up and down?

I wouldn't 'pour' it in there, I would use a mostly saturated q-teep(another lego movie reference.. can you tell I have young kids?!) and rub that around the edge allowing some of the product to get in the surrounding groove.

Isopropyl alcohol would be better though as there are some oils/other things in the nail polisih remover... (I think the alcohol would work...)

not to mention that nail polish remover is acetone.. which can do really nasty things to plastics and paint (and your brain if you sniff it too much)

So, apply less for a shorter period might be a lot smarter as "pouring in"

alcohol or nail polish remover? thinking mebbe try alcohol first

funsoul said:

alcohol or nail polish remover? thinking mebbe try alcohol first

Click to expand...

...

not to mention that nail polish remover is acetone.. which can do really nasty things to plastics and paint (and your brain if you sniff it too much)

So, apply less for a shorter period might be a lot smarter as "pouring in"

Click to expand...

EarthDog said:

I wouldn't 'pour' it in there, I would use a mostly saturated q-teep(another lego movie reference.. can you tell I have young kids?!) and rub that around the edge allowing some of the product to get in the surrounding groove.

Isopropyl alcohol would be better though as there are some oils/other things in the nail polisih remover... (I think the alcohol would work...)

Click to expand...

They seem to be loosening up! Did the q-teep with alcohol method. The tops of the buttons popped off so that got me access to the stuck parts.

Working the buttons a bit. Apply alcohol, work buttons a bit, repeat...they seem to be getting there. Will try another air test in an hour or so.

Technique will come in handy...one of the buttons on one of the matrix cards is also stuck :/

Next time.. tape 'em up man!

Had them all taped up...not sure what went wrong but it seems I've got a bigger problem

Buttons are un-stuck but the board won't post. Tried with different cpu, ram and vga card. No beep codes. Nada.

Now it gets worse Tried with my other 2 rex boards and none of them post *ARGHHH!!!* What the heck?!? Have tried with 4 different q6600's, 4 different sticks of ram and 4 different vga cards. Can't imagine all 4 cpus are bad but can't figure out what I'm missing. All power is connected and seated, sticks are fully seated, kbd, mouse, ide and vga are all connected.

Think I'll relax for a couple hours, think about it, listen for feedback and try again later

Any ideas???

Glad you got it worked out .......

You posted a sec too soon Witchy...kinda hosed over here atm

Ahh man, that bites bro

hope it works out, had another fail last night with the 780,

Can not get that card to work ??? going to try the 460 to rule out the board or CPU being the culprit

good luck with the x48 , have my fingers crossed for you

Got it!!

Tried all kinds of stuff (including re-cleaning the cpus) but nothing was working. Took the rest of the night off then tried again this morning with each of the 4 q6600's...nada :/

Thinking that maybe, possibly all 4 cpus were somehow bad, tested with a e6600 and boom...immediate booting. Tried the same cpu in the conformaled board (I got one of the other rexes booting) and woohoo...success!

Having gotten the board to boot, I then put in 1 of the q6600's and it works! Updated (downdated?) to the ln2 bios and now installing chipset and other drivers. Also will set up setfsb. Once everything's set up will shut it down, insulate and throw it under the cascade.

Hoping to play with it today/tonight a bit to see what the chip can do before moving on to the next cpu.

Weird and VERY frustrating but maybe just maybe I've got this thing working now.


Update: ARGHHH....I take it all back Have 1 board of 3 booting (the conformaled one is one of the non-booting ones). Think I may go Witchy's "throw an inch deep of eraser across the entire board" rather than lose a couple days conformaling the working board.

Very sorry to hear about your hardware issues funsoul, that can be SO frustrating!

For what it's worth, this is why I prefer my pain-in-the-rear-but-worth-it foam method. Hmm...I don't have this in public, and it needs to be in public. I'll parse the thread later. For now, you're a benching team member, so click this link for photos on my tried-and-true method. That board has been through at least five different CPUs, taken a trip to Ohio and back and still kicks serious rear-end for AMD clocking.

hiya hokie!

Thanks...driving me a little crazy :/

Wow! Your pita method looks a lot easier than what I've been doing. Once I figure out what's what am going to give that a try...gotta think about it a bit, though. Since I'd be doing longer sessions, may be worth throwing a quick (thin) layer of eraser down across the board.

Thanks again...hopefully will get things straightened out shortly.