P180 Door Bulge - possible solution

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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Shadowknight
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P180 Door Bulge - possible solution

Post by Shadowknight » Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:34 pm

For those having issues with the door not sitting completely flush with the case when closed, I found the following advice on Anandtech which you might want to try:

" I had the same problem - all you need to do is LOCK the case door every once in while.

When you lock it with the key it forces the door to be flush and eventually stays that way the more you lock it.

Just try it at night when you aren't using the PC. I did it for a week straight at night and now it sits almost perfect by itself!"

lenny
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Post by lenny » Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:48 pm

I've given some thought about this. I think a better solution would be to add an extra magnet and steel plate to the bottom of the case. I'm not sure why it's not there - it looks like the door is meant to have 3 magnets, but only one is installed.

Another possibility is to find a flat rigid length of steel and glue it to the inside of the door diagonally to give it more structural strength.

MikeDeuce
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Post by MikeDeuce » Fri Aug 12, 2005 2:11 pm

lenny wrote:I'm not sure why it's not there - it looks like the door is meant to have 3 magnets, but only one is installed.
Cost-cutting measures after it was designed? :?

Freelancer77
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Post by Freelancer77 » Fri Aug 12, 2005 5:00 pm

lenny wrote:I've given some thought about this. I think a better solution would be to add an extra magnet and steel plate to the bottom of the case. I'm not sure why it's not there - it looks like the door is meant to have 3 magnets, but only one is installed.

Another possibility is to find a flat rigid length of steel and glue it to the inside of the door diagonally to give it more structural strength.
There is certainly a production quality issue there. My case has a second set of magnets at the IO panel area. When I pulled the front bezel to paint the steel facade black, I looked at how the connectors/lamps/lock were mounted and glued in place, and there was the magnet, twin to the one at that position on the door. And yet I hear from so many others that the only magnet is the tiny one at the top of the door. Antec, why the inconsistency?

Aside from the maker assuming responsibility for a fix, hot gluing a magnet in place in that position wouldn't be a difficult prospect, all you need do is get the bezel off, and that isn't terribly hard.

Image

The rectangular holes visible here (6 of them) are the clip mounts for the plastic bezel. The catch clips are quite stout, I had little fear of damaging them while pressing them out of place. I managed it with finger pressure, but at the worst a little convincing with a flat screwdriver will do the trick. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the backside of the lock area.

SoopahMan
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Post by SoopahMan » Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:43 am

I solved this problem.

I ripped the door clean off. It was already flimsy from shipping, I finished the job. I highly recommend it, it's better for airflow - and thus silence - anyway. Isn't that what you bought it for?

ashtray_head
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Re: P180 Door Bulge - possible solution

Post by ashtray_head » Wed Aug 24, 2005 2:23 pm

Shadowknight wrote:For those having issues with the door not sitting completely flush with the case when closed, I found the following advice on Anandtech which you might want to try:

" I had the same problem - all you need to do is LOCK the case door every once in while.

When you lock it with the key it forces the door to be flush and eventually stays that way the more you lock it.

Just try it at night when you aren't using the PC. I did it for a week straight at night and now it sits almost perfect by itself!"

cheers for that will try it on mine (although I dont really notice the bulge which is about 3-4 m on mine)

blunden
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Re: P180 Door Bulge - possible solution

Post by blunden » Thu Aug 25, 2005 3:34 am

ashtray_head wrote:cheers for that will try it on mine (although I dont really notice the bulge which is about 3-4 m on mine)
I hope you forgot an "m" or you have a bad case of bulgeing. :D I didn't notice mine either but my have to be no more than 1-2 mm at most.

garts
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Post by garts » Tue Aug 30, 2005 1:12 pm

i have about 5-6mm of bulge on my door.

i tried locking the door at night with no appreciable difference.

i've also tried heating the door with a hairdryer and bending it the other way. this does work, but after cooling down, it reverts to its original shape.

any other ideas?

Bluefront
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Post by Bluefront » Tue Aug 30, 2005 1:41 pm

I still think the heating with a hair-drier and bending the other way should work. You are letting the door cool with it bent in? Maybe you need to heat longer/bend further.

I know it sounds scary....but I've done similar operations plenty of times. (not on an Antec case door however :lol: )

Lubb
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Post by Lubb » Tue Aug 30, 2005 2:11 pm

...I solved this problem.... I ripped the door clean off. It was already flimsy from shipping, I finished the job. I highly recommend it, it's better for airflow - and thus silence - anyway. Isn't that what you bought it for?...
-I was kind-of wondering about just taking it off too. Except maybe more peaceably-like.

I just ordered one today, so I haven't seen one up close at all yet.
I would have preferred a case with no front door at all, but I couldn't find any "front-door-less" and that had good air flow, were built well and priced near $100. All the better Coolermasters had front doors too. A couple Lian-Li's I liked but they cost a bit much for me, near $200 empty.

The last PC case I bought was an Antec also, maybe 5 years ago--an SX830. I did see that Chenming seems to be using the older Antec tooling, many of their more-plain cases look identical to the older Antec stuff--but I could not find the exact same midtower I have, or else I might have just gotten another one from Chenming. What Chenming models I could find (on Newegg) all were either somewhat smaller, or were larger server towers with way more 5.25 bays than I'd want.
~

garts
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Post by garts » Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:21 pm

i like the front door look; more sleek.

i'm trying the hairdryer again for longer times. i'll let u know how it goes.

thanks.

Bluefront
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Post by Bluefront » Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:35 am

Well I saw two more of these cases at my local CompUSA store. Each had a door bulge of 5mm. And each had only one magnet holding the upper edge of the door tight against the case.....where it should rest.

I also tried out the hinge mechanism that allows the door to swing back against the side of the case. This part is extremely flimsy, IMHO. And I'll bet it will soon break if you actually use it very often. The front door on my Ahanix Black Knight case had a hinge that allowed the door to swing back against the side of the case.....much, much more sturdy than this Antec design.

The other thing here....if you actually remove the door assy somehow, you are left with a very unfinished look to the case, not a nice look at all. I'd probably leave the door in place and attempt to secure it better. Maybe Antec will provide a new door or at least a fix kit of some sort. An added magnet at the lower part of the door would do the trick.

And I'm not sure if heating/bending will fix anything. The two layer door may prevent this from being successful. The outer layer is metal, and will not soften/bend with a hair-drier. The inner plastic part would bend, but might be pulled back by the outer metal cover which will remain in it's original shape. If you try to bend it too much, it might crease. :cry:

Overall...that defective door detracts from the looks of the case, and seems to be a universal problem with these early versions. There may be an easy fix available in the future, but a DIY fix by the average owner seems unlikely. I'm not impressed. Even the doors of TT cases close properly. :lol:

josephclemente
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Post by josephclemente » Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:00 am

I replied to another thread which quickly got closed for being a duplicate thread.

My P180 has no bulge at all. When I unpacked the P180, it had a plastic film over the door. I removed the film by pulling it down instead of towards me. Also, whenever I open the door I do it from the upper-right corner, not at the spot you are supposed to.

I'm not sure if this means the difference between getting a door without bulge or if I was just lucky. But I have a feeling that the thin aluminum outside the door has something to do with it...

Every other P180 I've seen on display has a severe bulge problem.

nici
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Post by nici » Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:20 pm

bulge bulge, bulge. bulge? buldge!!

I tried bending it, locked it and taped it and put some USB memory sticks in the cirners so it was pretty much betnt in the opposite direction. Had it like that for a couple of days, nothing changed. all other times ive kept it locked. wont bother anymore, if its bent its bent..

So if its this hard to bend it straight, i cant imagine it being bent when removing the packaging.

vine-au
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Post by vine-au » Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:04 pm

shame about the bulging, the only blemish on an otherwise incredible (though fiddly) case. I'll try the locking technique, then maybe the hairdryer one if it doesnt work. thx for the tips

Lubb
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Post by Lubb » Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:56 pm

Mine bulges. Sometimes.
I have mine sitting on the edge of a desk that is about six inches from a wall. On the floor below the front edge of the desk is a AC/furnace vent. When the AC is running, the door bulges out perhaps 5mm. After the AC has not been running for a while, the door only bulges out maybe 1mm. It is not rattling so I don't really consider it a problem.
....
I don't think this is a mechanical issue so much as a thermal-expansion issue. The plastic door frame is simply expanding and contracting and bending at the non-hinge edge.

Antec could probably stamp one or more vertical ridges top-to-bottom into the door metal, near the edge opposite the hinge.
~

vine-au
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Post by vine-au » Thu Sep 08, 2005 3:19 pm

well ive been locking mine for 5 days now and it has made a noticable difference. bulge is down to about 1mm (from 5mm)
thx for the tip :)

Ackelind
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Post by Ackelind » Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:36 am

I've had mine locked for about two weeks now, no difference though. It really seems to be temperature dependable, this morning when I woke up my apartment was really cold and I had forgot to lock the door and it was bulging out even more than 5mm :/

nici
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Post by nici » Fri Sep 09, 2005 1:43 pm

It definately bulges more when its cold.

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