Skip to content
Station in the Metro
Menu
  • Voiceover & Voice Acting
  • CV
  • The Optical Podcast
  • Apps and Scripts
    • Django Internal Links
    • Django MultiRangeField
    • FeedPress Subscribers Status Board Graph Panel
    • Post Atomic Horror Unofficial Episode Guide
    • Markdown Cheat Sheet
    • Proper English Title Caps 2 for iTunes
    • Clean Ripped TV Episodes for iTunes
    • Track Name Clean Parts for iTunes
  • Casio PT-7
    • Photo Galleries
    • Operation Manual
    • Keyboard ribbon cable repair
  • Colophon
Menu

Broken Mac Pro Latch

Posted on 2011-06-182015-08-15 by Mark Boszko
This post was published more than a few years ago (on 2011-06-18) and may contain inaccurate technical information, outmoded thoughts, or cringe takes. Proceed at your own risk.

I just bought a used Mac Pro yesterday, and the latch that releases the side panel opened just great when I was looking it over. However, this morning, when I gave it a go to pop in a video card, instead of the satisfying thunk of the latch's usual opening, I heard scrunch, and the panel was still firmly attached.

So, something in my latch mechanism inside the case was busted. Yay.

Thankfully, there is a way to force it to unlatch if you have something stiff enough, yet small enough to fit through the perforations on the front of the case. I used a thin hex wrench from the now-defunct Marathon Computer (they used to make rack mounts for G4 and G5 Macs); a paperclip won't do.

The place to push is about 1 3/8” below the edge of the bottom optical drive slot, on the right hand side; just above the internal drive bays:

broken-mac-pro-latch

Some text here was lost in a blog host transfer.

[…]this thread in Apple's Support Discussions for the nudge in the right direction.

Mark Boszko

Film & Video Editor, Voiceover Artist, macOS IT Engineer, and Maker

© 2025 Mark Boszko | find Mark elsewhere on the internet