Disassembling The Apple IIgs

Of course, the Apple IIgs always has to be different from the regular Apple
II, and so its disassembly procedures differ significantly.

For starters, while the top cover of the Apple II simply lifts up if you pull
on the back, the cover of the Apple IIgs is secured with two tabs at the back
of the machine. These two tabs must be pushed in; once they are both pushed
in, the back of the cover can be lifted off, followed by the front.

If you have any expansion cards installed in your Apple IIgs, I recommend you
unplug them and place them aside at this point, before you continue
disassembling the rest of the computer.

The power supply of the Apple IIgs covers much of the left side of the
motherboard. However, it is remarkably easily removed: All you need to do is
unplug the power cable, then release the single locking tab holding the power
supply in place, which is at the front of the machine.

The other piece you need to remove to really get at everything is the small
plastic panel at the front. This is the panel which has a plastic lens
covering the power LED on the right-hand side of the machine. This small
panel is removed with three (3) locking tabs, accessed from the bottom of the
machine. The two on the sides must be pushed toward the front of the machine,
while the one in the middle must be pushed toward the rear of the machine.

Once all this is removed, there's really not much left except the motherboard
in the base (and the speaker). The motherboard is held in place by several
small locking tabs, all of which must be pushed toward the front of the
machine before the motherboard can be removed.

If you wish to remove the speaker, it is secured by a single locking tab at
the front of the speaker, which can be pulled toward the front of the
computer, at which point the speaker can be lifted up and out.

Once the motherboard and speaker are removed, there's nothing else that
mounts onto the base of the computer except the sheet-metal EMI shield. This
shield should not need to be removed (it is considered part of the base), and
therefore is not made to be field-replaceable; it is held in place with
several small plastic rivets. These rivets can be easily pulled off with
needle-nosed pliers, but once the rivets are pulled off, you can't put them
back on. You should never need to do this unless the shield warps for some
reason; I once had to fix an Apple IIgs by removing this shield because it
had become bent, and was shorting some pins on the bottom of the motherboard.
If the shield is removed, you're left with the actual base, which is a single
piece of plastic.