Risc PC network card slot

Before fitting a network card to a Risc PC, you have to remove a thin metal blanking plate covering a slot in the rear panel.

First time I did this, it just pinged out; but now, on another Risc PC, the plate is quite rigid since the lower edge is flanged.

Is there a clever trick to removing this second type of plate?

Surely you’re not expected to excavate the machine’s entire contents, including the motherboard, just to get at it? :o

Usually you just push hard on the middle of the blanking plate from the inside and one end will pop out. Grab that with pliers and pull to get the other end out! The alternative is to remove the motherboard and ‘unhook’ the blanking plate carefully!

Usually you just push hard on the middle of the blanking plate from the inside and one end will pop out

In engineering terms dislodge using a drift.

Or in laymans terms take a broken pencil or similar and place the flat end against the plate at one end then tap gently on the pointy/broken end to dislodge.

tap gently on the pointy/broken end

would that be using an engineers precision adjustment instrument ?

Nah! That’s a manually-operated, reciprocating tolerance adjuster.

That’s a manually-operated, reciprocating tolerance adjuster

With idiots I have no tolerance, do I still have to use it gently?

Steve, there is another tool more suitable for that. It’s in my amazon wishlist
Also used for people who don’t put end-caps on fibre.

bq.With idiots I have no tolerance, do I still have to use it gently?

No! Impact you can hit them as hard as like.

Hope I got the block quotation right.

Ah, I didn’t. Better look at the Tests pages.

Ah, I didn’t. Better look at the Tests pages.

That’s better.

Usually you just push hard on the middle of the blanking plate from the inside and one end will pop out. Grab that with pliers and pull to get the other end out! The alternative is to remove the motherboard and ‘unhook’ the blanking plate carefully!

Andrew, unless I’ve misunderstood, that’s what I did.

First time I did this, the blanking plate just pinged out.

But now, on another Risc PC, the plate is quite rigid since the lower edge is flanged, and I want to know how to remove it without taking the motherboard out.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an NIC blanking plate that’s flanged! The blanking plate usually sits between the motherboard metalwork and the case, just ‘hooked into’ the metalwork by two small lugs, one either end, which doesn’t really leave much room for flanges. If it’s refusing to budge then your only option may be to remove the motherboard.

Yeah, “hooked into the metalwork by two small lugs” is what the first type of NIC blanking plate was like.

But now with this second type, I can’t believe we’re expected to excavate the machine’s entire contents (including the motherboard), just to get at it.

Sounds like a manufacturing defect to me – as if the plate hasn’t been properly stamped out.

Stuart: If you want to remove the Motherboard it is much much easier to do if you remove the PSU first.

Thanks, but I don’t want to remove the motherboard – though I do want to get the blanking plate out, so I can buy a network card from you. :)

 
Which reminds me, I actually bought the machine (brand new) from you, in fact I bought a pair of them since one was for a friend.

I’m wondering if the NIC blanking plate is different because these two Risc PCs were manufactured in Germany – do your records (or memory) go back that far?

Any chance of a jpeg – to see what the problem is?

I do recall the batch of ‘German’ RiscPCs. I don’t remember anything special about their NIC covers. Why not Send me a photo viewed from the inside.

It is a very firm push needed to get one end out (they push from the inside out) getting the other end out normally requires being yanked out with a pair of pliers.