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Blobs of glue fixing components to the motherboard on pre built PC.

Widjaja

Widjaja

Joined
Jun 12, 2007
Messages
4,815 (0.74/day)
Location
Wangas, New Zealand
System Specs
System Name Darth Obsidious
Processor Intel i5 2500K
Motherboard ASUS P8Z68-V/Gen3
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper 212+ in Push Pull
Memory 2X4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600
Video Card(s) ASUS R9 270x TOP
Storage 128GB Samsung 830 SSD, 1TB WD Black, 2TB WD Green
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Case Corsair Obsidian 650D
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Power Supply Corsair HX650w
Software Windows 7 64bit and Windows XP Home
Benchmark Scores 2cm mark on bench with a razor blade.
I was helping my mate upgrade his PC when we found his components were glued to the slots.

Every single component which was installed by the PC store has been fixed to the slot with a blob of glue.:wtf:

e.g.
Graphics card, ram, and sata cable.

The glue looks like selley's all clear.
If I pry the glue off I think I'd rip off something on the graphics card.

Is this normal practise for PC stores as part of thier warranty?
 
We had a local shop here that did that sort of stuff to its customers. I went in and asked him whyhe did it, he claimed it was to reduce faulty waranty claims. It keeps customers from removing and installing new components minimizing chances of rma's for his stuff. Well long story short.... Alot of his customers come to me now anyway!! You can get it to break free, very carefully use a hair dryer or heat gun on low. The glues have a pretty low melting temp, but dont overheat the boards and mobo.
 
Wow at first I was thinking it was gonna be another "toothpaste in my computer" thread.
 
Wow...what a lame-o.
 
Wouldn't glue on parts void a warranty anyways?
 
You can kind of understand the reasoning from his point of view, but it's very bad practice, and if you don't know what you are doing, can leave you with no upgrade path, which for the consumer is a bad thing.

I'd have taken it back straight a way and demanded my money back if I'd found that...
 
I knew there had to be some way of getting the stuff off.
I'll use a hairdryer on the stuff tomorrow.

May have been the reason why the the PC shutdown once and thePSU gave out a cloud of smoke.
May have been glue around the PSU somewhere too.
The PC was taken back to the store to get the PSU replaced with a generic POS which is making a clicking noise coming from the fan which doesn't have any PCI-E cabnle or 24-pin motherboard cable which is below the specs of the previous one.

Also my mate was given an email saying they had blownup a stick of ram, so they had replaced the blown up ram with another stick which had different timings.

None the less for some reason my mate has some sort of loyalty to them and is going to get another prebuilt PC from them.

He's buying a GTX from them for 800.00USD which is real expensive over here for that card.
 
Widjaja said:
He's buying a GTX from them for 800.00USD which is real expensive over here for that card.
Click to expand...

wow, thats over double of what we pay here. Next time have one of us send you one.

Another tip if you use heat, make sure its upside down so the glue drips AWAY from the socket or you may get glue on the inside.
 
MKmods said:
wow, thats over double of what we pay here. Next time have one of us send you one.

Another tip if you use heat, make sure its upside down so the glue drips AWAY from the socket or you may get glue on the inside.
Click to expand...


Very good point!! Thanks for adding that. Some glues have a much higher melting point so be carefull. If its Gorillia glue or something like that your in for a fight. Good luck!!
 
I'm guessing its hot glue gun glue, that would make the most sense. You could probably just rip that stuff off without damage, but I wouldn't risk it.
 
MKmods said:
Another tip if you use heat, make sure its upside down so the glue drips AWAY from the socket or you may get glue on the inside.
Click to expand...
No need. The guy's in New Zealand. He's already upside down. LOL ;)
 
Man talk about being over the top. I can understand a customer not wanting to get ripped off but what would the shop gain from doing this?? If any of the components are no good they just send them back for replacement anyway wtf?? Should superglue the shops front door closed lol.
 
I have tried convincing my mate to go to another PC store, hopefully this will make him do it.
I was not impressed with the generic options he was given from this company.
And anything which is high end is very very expensive.

I'll see if he has emailed the company but I doubt he has.

I think the stuff on the components is hot glue come to think of it.
It's sort of soft but still too stuck to rip off without the chance of hardware damage without a hairdryer or heatgun.
 
Put glue in the stores locks:D if you get booked tell them it was to prevent having to fix any more dodgy glued together machines:D
 
Heck, the crossfire cables I got with my cards had the connectors seemingly glued to the ribbons! Thankfully I have some "real" ones from AMD that were solderd through.:rolleyes:
 
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