can't remove power distributor from Supermicro CSE-826 chassis

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mvmatch

New Member
May 30, 2021
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Nobody responded to my prior request, and Supermicro tech support was no help, claiming that it should work. So I decided to try changing out the power distributor. Mine has no tag, but the new one is a PDB-PT825-S8824.

But, for the life of me, I cannot get the old power distributor out. The manual for the chassis says to remove the 3 screws and lift it out of the chassis, but mine will come up a quarter inch easily and stops. It's not the wires, they're free. Whatever it is, it's some solid metal part in the chassis that interferes with the metal frame of the power distributor.

I thought that by removing the power supply tunnel I would be able to move the distributor back and free it, or at least be able to see what is causing the interference. But I can't get the tunnel out either. I've removed all the screws I can find, the tunnel rattles around like it's free, but won't come out.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 

mvmatch

New Member
May 30, 2021
7
0
1
Thanks for the note . . . I've tried prying until I fear that I'm bending the frame of the chassis. No joy.
 

l0rider

New Member
Jul 25, 2021
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1
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I just took the power distributor out of my CSE-826 chassis yesterday. Mine also moved freely for less than an inch and stopped. In my case, there was a short wire coming out of a slot in the bottom of the framework that surrounds the power distributor. That short wire has a Molex connector and plugs into the SAS backplane. I didn't notice that wire at first because it runs through a different path than all the others. Once I disconnected that connector the distributor was free. Hope that helps!
 

mvmatch

New Member
May 30, 2021
7
0
1
Thanks for the note, l0rider. In my case the power distributor moves freely for about a quarter of an inch then hits something solid. It's definitely metal-to-metal somewhere at that point because if I yank up on it I hear it "clank". But I will look for yet another wire that I might have missed.
I tried removing the power supply cage, but couldn't do that either. Removed all the screws and it's clearly "free" because I can wiggle it around a bit, but the power supply cage won't come out.
I'm tempted to hand carry this chassis to Supermicro headquarters and let them show me how to get it out.