Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Project: eMachines T-3256 restoration (2)

The unit arrived in a few days and I happened to see the USPS guy stop the truck. I went out to get the box and as he handed it to me he said; "It's heavy". It wasn't, but it was in rough shape and I could tell the PC was loose in the box.When I opened it I my fears were confirmed. It had been packed poorly and in transit the paper packing had become compressed and the unit started to bang around inside the box. There was damage.
The side of the front panel had shattered and the panel had come loose, breaking all the connector pins in the process.It could not be reconnected.
And, from the dirt and dust on the outside of the case it was safe to assume this unit was "rough".
I knew from the condition of the outside that the inside would be pretty dirty and I wasn't wrong. I opened it up and yes, it was filthy with years of dust build up. While I know there was no HD, I was distressed to find out that the fan and heat sink had come off the CPU - either during shipment or some other time - and now I had real questions about the ability of this unit to start up and run.

I cleaned up the dirt and dust, being careful to not touch the exposed CPU and set everything aside for a couple of days to decide whether or not to continue with the project. I also sent the seller a message about the poor packaging job. He sent back a reply apologizing and saying he wasn't too careful because he thought all I wanted it for was "parts".



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