I manage a computer store that specialises in case mods for PCs and Consoles. I recently installed a custom clear case for a customer’s XBox. After I installed the new case, I put it back together the exact way I took it apart including the ugly RF interference shield. The customer came back and did not like that all you could see through the clear case was that ugly shield. HE asked us to remove it and I said we werent allowed to because of FCC regulations (I was just being lazy, BTW). What is the law about this, would my company be allowed to remove the RF shield of consoles and/or PCs?
BTW, I ended up renting out our workshop to the customer for an hour or so and he remove the shield himself. I charged almost as much as I would charge for us to do the mod
I’ve never seen an X-Box, but I’d imagine that it’s type approved under Part 15 of the FCC regulations. Most all devices that are not designed to transmit or receive RF are.
If that’s the case removing the shiled probably violates the units type acceptance. Will you or the guy get caught? Unlikley.
Will his X-Box now be more suseptable to RFI from any nearby Ham radio operators or microwave ovens and the like? Probably.
Will he be more likely to cause interfearence to other electronics? Possibly.
If all of the parts INSIDE the case pass FCC regulations then you can remove the shield. I guess the theory is if they don’t produce enough emissions on their own then it doesn’t matter what kind of box is around them. Typically most motherboards won’t pass FCC regulations on their own though.
Technically, once you alter any part of the system, you’ve voided the FCC certification for the computer. I think you might be able to get away with it because you are selling the service of modifying the computer, and it’s the user’s responsibility to insure that it still meets regulations. If they specifically tell you it’s for a home system though you might have some obligation to meet FCC requirements. I’m not sure.
Speaking a non-lawyer electronics person, I think the FCC part-15 is aimed more at manufacturers than at the public. After all, an individual person can build a radio transmitter under part-15. They only wreck their own radio reception. But if thousands of companies started building products which put out interference, radios would become useless in, say, a city (where huge of those unshielded products would be present.)
Computer circuitry puts out radio interference, and if you have hundreds of them in a building, they’d better be well shielded. If not, the individual contributions will add together and make radio reception impossible.
I think the OP did just the right thing: let the customer do their own mod. It’s one thing for a person to pursue individual freedoms, but it’s different for someone to go into business violating federal law.
PS
Try listening to the more distant FM stations with a computer turned on and with it turned off. Chances are it will drown out the weaker signals. But the weird whines and squeals it makes while running different programs can be interesting.
Back in the days of the Apple II, we used to call AM radios “computer detectors” because you could just walk down the hall with a portable radio in your hand and tell which rooms had computers running. Some creative folks even figured out that if you toggled I/O lines in the computer at certain frequencies, you could modulate the RF emissions of the computer in such a way as to make music on the AM radio.
Here’s another thing to consider when removing RF shielding or cutting big holes in your PC’s metal case. RF shielding works both ways - it can keep the PC from interfering with external objects but it also keeps external things from affecting the PC. The PC may look better without all the conductive shields but you might end up with a PC that locks up every time the phone rings or the garage door opener starts.
Once again, I have never come across this problem with PCs getting interfered with. My own PC has had the ENTIRE case off for most of its life. Not even my 400Mhz Wireless video and audio transmitter interferes with it. On the other hand, it does interfere with the Video/Audio receiver…And the radio. And the cordless phone…and the TV antenna…And thats with the case on.
