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| How to remove security plate from G4 Cube? | |
| Posted by: trigf on 2017-08-26 17:41:32 I recently added a G4 Cube to my collection, and it has a security plate on it. Seems pretty well ot there, as soaking it in hot water for a few hours hasn't been able to get it off. Any thoughts on the best way to remove this thing?  | |
| Posted by: TheWhiteFalcon on 2017-08-26 18:46:07 The odds of being able to do it without fracturing the outer shell are slim, if I'm honest. You could try squirting some Goo Gone on the 'top' of it and letting it soak, then try to slide something thin inside to start breaking off the sticky gunk. | |
| Posted by: Byrd on 2017-08-26 23:39:02 I've found Goo Gone to be too aggressive in removing marks of plastics, I'd squirt WD40 down the sides, repeat daily to allow to penetrate. If it shows signs of movement, heating it from the other side with low heat might help. If it doesn't budge though I'd leave it be. | |
| Posted by: joethezombie on 2017-08-27 00:30:30 I’d try sawing it with dental floss and wd40. i’ve successfully done this on other adhesives, but not on a cube. | |
| Posted by: MikeatOSX on 2017-08-27 06:49:33 Did you try a hair dryer? | |
| Posted by: mode11 on 2017-08-27 12:12:42 I've done exactly this, with a plate that was superglued on to a Cube I bought. What makes it kind of ridiculous is that 1) the shell detaches easily, leaving the expensive core free to be removed, and 2) there's a Kensington slot on the core's handle anyway, which would secure the whole lot! Anyway, it's easy enough to remove without leaving a trace. I took a long, thin kitchen knife and sawed away at the join between the plate and the acrylic shell. The knife won't scratch the shell, as you're sawing parallel to it. Once the edge of the plate had been lifted slightly, I used a cleaver to get in there and apply pressure. It then let go almost immediately. Some hard superglue residue was left on the shell. I used a paint scraper (a Stanley knife blade perpendicular to a handle) to carefully remove most of this. Again, this shouldn't dig in to the acrylic, it'll just catch on the glue. To fully remove traces of the glue, I used Meguiar's Plast-Rx plastic polish. It's designed for headlights, helmet visors and so on. With a microfibre pad and a bit of elbow grease it came up virtually as good as new. The Meguiar's is great for cleaning up scratches on a Cube generally. It'd probably remove any depth of scratch, but obviously very deep ones will require a lot of polishing, and you'd start buffing dips into the surface. Good luck! | |
| Posted by: trigf on 2017-08-28 08:51:29 Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I will try WD-40 and some continual prying to see if I can get it free. I am very wary of Goo Gone, as I've had previous bad experiences with using it on plastic. | |
| Posted by: reallyrandy on 2017-08-31 14:38:48 The dental floss is a great way to remove it. I've used it to remove the reflectors on the front forks of my motorcycle, and that's some tough glue. | |
| Posted by: sstaylor on 2017-09-02 06:00:33 Goo-Gone is pretty agressive; Goof-Off is gentler and still does a good job. For a G4 cube I'd test it first though. | |
| Posted by: Alex on 2017-09-02 14:44:14 I only skimmed the responses so I apologize if this has been repeated. If it were my machine, I would be tempted to heat up a spatula not to 100s of degrees but hot to the touch but not hot enough to cause any melting. Of course first I would try to get a sense of the glue used. It also looks like some of that adhesive is also around the locking system you described. Perhaps a spatula may be able to fit underneath and then keep pushing it until the item adhered to the housing begins to, hopefully lift off the casing. If the G4 case becomes scratched as a result you will be able to polish it back up but to avoid deep scratching, as it may happen I don't know, you could bend the edges of the spatula up so that they face away from the computer casing. I hope this lends itself to your efforts. Kind regards —Alex | |
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