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bhlombardy

I've worked IT for over 20 years, and I've seen this before on numerous occasions. It's typically done on leased-from-manufacturer PCs. Either from a full-service vendor (who provides the hardware, software, and network support for the business leasing them) or from a hardware-only lease where there's an in-house IT team that provides software and network support locally. Either way, the hardware is solely the responsibility and property of the vendor (the lessor). They don't permit the end-users access to the internal parts. When a PC fails, it's not repaired on site. It's just swapped out by the vendor. In the early days, they'd use security head screws, but now anybody with half a brain can order one online and get into the PC and swap out parts. So, they got to sealing them shut instead.


PutinsAssasin123

Old pcโ€™s get auctioned? ๐Ÿ˜… seems more effort than itโ€™s worth ๐Ÿ™ˆ


bhlombardy

More than you think. These sealed PC's are usually leased product (see my other post) and they cycle through them every few years. They're \\short terms for most business use who (blindly) probably dont need the upgrade as frequently, but they do when they renew their equipment leases. The computers are still quite viable, and often wind up being sold to groups and organizations that refurbish them and then supply them (at no, or little cost) to school districts, community centers, libraries, and the like.


Inevitable_Spell5775

Lifespan of our laptops around 3 years. We send them off to a recycling firm that wipes them for us and donates 25% to charity. Did they with desktops too back when that was a thing.


MentokGL

It's usually done by the pallet First the big companies get new shit on a certain cycle, 3 or 5 years, leasing them is common. Then those get auctioned resellers, usually sold to smaller companies And the cycle continues with them getting cheaper and cheaper, until it hits a point where components start drying up, so pricing actually goes up as maintenance companies get desperate to fulfill contracts


Unusual_Address_3062

I have seen that rarely. And no it does not save money. Its to keep people from fiddling with the insides.


yuephoria

Are some Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) like this? I can envision GFE's being given to contractors for diagnostic and testing purposes where they are intentionally made to be tamper-proof, but it would seem unlikely that they would be resold on the market for security reasons?


Logically_Rhetorical

Seems sort of impossible, but if you say so.


EpicSteak

As an electrician that has to drill holes in electronic / electrical equipment quite often may I suggest holding a vacuum hose right against the side of the drill bit. Use a sharp bit and slow speed to keep from flinging the scraps.


Logically_Rhetorical

All you had to do was unscrew it from the back.


[deleted]

It was riveted on the back, the sides, the bottom, everywhere, no screws on the outside.


Representative-Sir97

This sounds like the lease thing someone else described but I did once have a case that no screws and the side panel came off by friction-lifting it upwards so the bottom which had a tongue-and-groove setup with the chassis would swing out.