Solved Anyone familiar with older IBM tower cases?

I'm helping setup a computer training lab for a local school. There are some older IBM tower PCs donated by the local government (used).

I thought I was familiar with most PC cases, but these are really unusual. I'm trying to remove the hard drive & have noticed that the hard drive mount tilts from inside the case & the drive must slide out of the front of the case! Strange.

Anyway, I cannot get the front panel completely off. The top part refuses to budge & I'm afraid I will break it if I try any more. The front cover is not flush with the top of the case. It extends about an inch above & seems to serve as a "handle" to pick it up.

I currently don't have the exact model, but it is along the A51 style of cabinet. I have been unable to find directions how to completely remove this front panel through online searches.

Any IBM techs out there? This is really embarrassing!

Take the side panel off and look around for a latch of some kind to release it. The old HP I have has one and two other pieces to push aside too. There also may be screws holding it from the inside which may be hard to see.

Can you post some pictures? even phone camera ones should jog the memory of us older techs.

kodi said:

Can you post some pictures? even phone camera ones should jog the memory of us older techs.

Click to expand...

Good idea...

I should have thought of that! I'll see if I can post some pics sometime later today.

Try this



or try downloading the manual from here:
Lenovo Support - User Guides and Manuals (US)?

Thanks, theog, but the HD is mounted vertically - directly behind the front of the case. I'll get some pics later.

The picture is from one of the A51 manuals, from Lenovo Support.

I finally got it off without breaking it. I apologize for no pictures in the beginning, but not necessary now. Sometimes you've just got to leave a problem alone after several attempts & come back the next day with a different approach!

This reminds me of when I had issues figuring out the case of my old Dell Optiplex GX280. I ended up looking up a PDF manual for it which allowed me to get it open.

That is good news.