Trying to take apart my Colecovision...

[Mac-Abre]

I've searched and can't find any topics on this. I am trying to take apart a Colecovision to clean it. I have removed all the screws from the bottom, but it appears something near the front is preventing me from seperating the casing. What am I missing?

[omnedon]

Th 3 screws behind the nice foil label. Great care needs to be taken to not damage the label.

[FABombjoy]

Whoa! You can remove the top with out removing the foil, but it requires a little finesse.

What I do is remove the bottom screws, then turn the unit on it's side and begin to seperate the case halves. The front bezel is screwed into the upper case half, and because it is a tight fit to the bottom case half, it will not want to seperate.

OK, the more I think about it, the more I realize I don't know if I can verbalize it, but I'll try.

Slowly, gently seperate the upper and lower case halves from the back. When you reach a point where the cases won't come any further apart, you need to:

-push the bottom case half where it is connected to the front bezel and try to unhook the bottom case from the clips in the bezel

-keep the reset button pushed down, as it likes to stick in the top case and get hooked on the motherboard shielding

-open the expansion port cover and push the case halves around to unhook that part of the bezel from the lower case

Hopefully that makes sense. The bottom line is that I've cracked many Colecovisions apart and have yet to remove the decal / screws from the front bezel.

Reassembly is a bit easier, as you just need to hook the bezel into the lower half & pop everything back together, keeping an eye on the power switch/reset to make sure they don't get caught under the upper case.

[omnedon]

The label does peel off cleanly if done with care and patience, and can be re-applied so one can't tell it's been removed.

And that's way easier to type.

[FABombjoy]

Hey, I'm just providing a poorly worded alternative to those nervous about peeling off 22 year old stickers

The funny thing is, I didn't know about the screws behind the label until I'd taken my 1st Colecovision apart. I opened it up using the push-pull method, saw the screws attaching the bezel to the upper case half and thought "what kind of jerk buried those behind the front label?".

Now that I've got the no-label method down pat, I can crack a CV case open in about 3 minutes -- Tell me that peeling & reapplying a giant, somewhat fragile label is faster

[omnedon]

Those labels are a thick plastic backed foil, but there is risk involved.

So... :P