Drive rails too long in Mini P180?

fwiffo · Post by **fwiffo** » Thu May 13, 2010 8:28 am

OK, maybe I'm on crack... I was installing my optical drive in my new Mini P180 build last night and it seems that the drive rails are molded like half a mm too long. When I try to slide it in they run into the back-stops just before they "click". This isn't the issue with the big fan and the top bay - I'm installing in one of the lower bays. The rails themselves are running into the metal tabs at the back of the bay (the drive isn't hitting anything). I even tried sliding one in without it being attached to the drive and it didn't quite click into place unless I applied enough force for it to actually bend.

They would fit fine if I shaved a little bit of plastic off the end of the rails, but I want to make sure I'm not missing something before I do that. Has anyone else had this issue with the P series cases from Antec? Am I missing something like removing a shipping retainer widget or some such?

No, I don't have the rails attached backwards.

da_foz · Post by **da_foz** » Sun May 23, 2010 11:50 am

I just ran into the exact same issue. I just spend way too much time playing with them trying to figure out what the issue was and it is that the rails are too long.

Anyone else? Anyone have a decent solution for this? I tried all 3 sets of drive rails that the case came with and they all have the same issue.

Thanks.

fwiffo · Post by **fwiffo** » Sun May 23, 2010 2:09 pm

I did end up just shaving a bit of plastic off the end with my swiss army knife. Worked fine then.

Antec_Rep · Post by **Antec_Rep** » Tue May 25, 2010 10:30 am

Hi Fwiffo!

It's a little difficult to explain but if you look at the drive rails, there should be different position to adjust to. I would suggest to play around with the drive rail and adjust properly.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or reply to this thread.

Antec

fwiffo · Post by **fwiffo** » Tue May 25, 2010 10:35 am

Do you mean the different screw-holes? That's not the issue, as they don't quite fit with or without a drive attached. Do you mean the metal clip portion adjustable relative to the plastic portion of the rail? I'll take another look when I get home.

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Tue May 25, 2010 3:59 pm

I'm using one for the SSD that's mounted in the lower 5.25" bay and it fits fine. At work, I have a CD drive mounted and don't remember any problems with it. Maybe something changed in the newer ones they're shipping out or something? They got a bad batch of rails from their distributor?

fwiffo · Post by **fwiffo** » Tue May 25, 2010 6:43 pm

I looked at the rails when I got home. There are different screw holes that let you change the depth at which the drive is mounted, but no way to change the length of the rail.

Antec_Rep · Post by **Antec_Rep** » Wed May 26, 2010 9:16 am

fwiffo wrote:I looked at the rails when I got home. There are different screw holes that let you change the depth at which the drive is mounted, but no way to change the length of the rail.

Fwiffo,

When you get a chance, could you maybe take a picture of this drive rail problem and post it on this thread? I spoke with customer support and they are telling me the same thing I have suggested to you. I think there might be a drive rail issue but I'm not 100% sure.

Antec

fwiffo · Post by **fwiffo** » Wed May 26, 2010 7:42 pm

Alright, it was a pretty challenging subject. Black on black in low light in a cramped space with a cell-phone camera, but hopefully this illustrates the problem. As you can see, the rail doesn't even fit right even when not attached to a drive:

The rail has a number 7 on it - I don't know if that is a particular size, or just the mold number. I've labeled two points - the distance between the end and the metal tab is just a bit too long, by about 1 mm.

It's hard to see, but you can see the end of the rail is up against the metal-tab backstop, but the clip hasn't quite clicked into place. This occurs with all six of the rails that came with the case in all three bays, so it's not just one tab not bent right or something. I'm holding it in as far as it will go with my hand here.

OK, this is peering in the drive bay (you can see my PSU in the back). I've applied enough force to the rail to allow it to click into place, and you can see it actually bows out, and obviously I can't have a drive attached to it like that.

It's probably not worth making a fuss about. It took less time to file a bit of plastic off the end of the rail than it did to take these pictures.