Unstuck?

[Stringent]

Now let me ask, have any of your components that you have put together on a PC just for no apparent reason popped out? I mean they think "I have had enough of this crap hole, I am going to dislodge myself".

I never have figured out WHY people use glue in building PC's. Especially THIS much!

[MadduckUK]

i always thought it was to make it less "user serviceable" rather than provide any additional support. hmm

[moogle]

Never, even when moving the PC about. That glue stuff just isn't needed! I always hated how the heatsinks were glued (epoxy) onto the CPU's in the older computers.

[watforddude]

I think that person liked there computer a little too much

[MadduckUK]

I think that person liked there computer a little too much

baaaad

[Clunk]

It's man glue.

[directhex]

It's for shipping. Consider how much it gets chucked about when being ParcelFarced

[kalniel]

Hard drive cables do dislodge very easily, especially sata ones. But the rest.. no comment.

[Stringent]

This was an old CD server. 15GB hard drive woo. Took up one heck of a lot of bandwidth though! I've seen a little glue, but never that much.

I also have not had anything come dislodged in transit!

[Spud1]

I think that person liked there computer a little too much

I'm still 12 inside really, so thanks lol

I too always thought it was to make a system less user serviceable..not seen it recently mind, but some old Dell and HP systems i've pulled apart were full of glue, usually round the IDE ports and heatsink.

[menthel]

My brother's gfx card popped out once. I didn't glue it back in though!

[Mike Fishcake]

That wasn't a Tiny branded PC was it? Tiny (and Opus) used to put that sort of stuff inside their PCs.

[watforddude]

Comeeee on lads you all know what it really is...

[Agent]

I don't know if it's still the case, but in the 90's it was a requirement that all government computers had this glue over removable parts for two reasons:
Transportation
It's easy to see if the part has been tampered with

I also think the glue was a red colour, so not really available in the shops. It's been ages since I spoke to the bloke who told me this though, so my memory of what he said may not be exactly right

[Saracen]

As directhex said, partly it's for shipping. I have had components dislodge during shipping. One machine arrived for a review with processor and heatsink flapping around loose inside the machine, attached only by the fan power lead. Even after reseating, that machine wouldn't run a benchmark suite reliably and the manufacturer (Elonex) ended up replacing it, with their technical Director at the time delivering it personally, and muttering under his breath about couriers.

I've also had cables work loose, and both graphics and sound cards work loose. It seems (though I can't prove it) to be something to do with vibration from fans, and probably to do with installation tolerances. In any event, several times I've had machines just stop working. After taking out and reseating cards, they work again just fine.

But, as has also been mentioned, it could well also be about detecting when consumers have been fiddling with the insides of machines. And if so, it could raise warranty concerns. Unless, of course, like me, the consumer has a glue-gun.

And finally, I rather suspect it's about service costs. If a company's service log system highlights a percentage of machines that develop problems due to even small movements in cards (or cables, with that machine) and experimentation shows that a few blobs of glue can reduce or eliminate that, then it's a no-brainer. Think about it. If a cable comes loose, most people using a site like this will simply check things like that, push cards down, check cables, etc. But I've got several friends that wouldn't know how to take the case of a PC and wouldn't dare if they did know how. So, a cable comes loose, they either call me or, if they've got a maintenance contract, call the manufacturer. How often they have to send and engineer out to site makes a huge difference to the profitability of those contracts. You don't need to have to do much work on a given contract to turn it from a profit to a loss. One callout might be enough to do it. So if they can make 15 OR 2% reduction in callouts by adding a few drops of glue in manufacturing, it's a no-brain decision. It's costs next to nothing per unit, takes moments to do and could make significant savings. Such decisions are typical of what makes companies profitable, or not, in these highly competitive days.