Something Odd about iMac - Any insight?

[hconatser]

I've a late 2006 17" iMac & I recently had a problem and was forced to open the monster up, as opposed to paying Apple to repair an out-of-warranty machine.
So I open it up and unhook the monitor from the logic board. And then I go to remove the SATA connection to the board. The whole f%^&ing 7-pin SATA connection to the board lifted off. The only thing left standing were 7 hair-thin pins that were damned impossible to fit back into the holster for it.
After a solid night's work I was able to install OSX10.5 onto an external HDD using another Mac.
I know this may seem like a rant, but could anyone maybe add some insight as to why this piece lifted off of my logic board?? I do not believe this should have happened at all.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/SATA_ports.jpg/672px-SATA_ports.jpg

^The red L-shaped piece is what came off of my board. It was and still is firmly attached to my 3.0Gbit/s SATA cable. The only difference is that the Apple piece is black, not red.

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

That happens, by any chance did you gradually wiggle the SATA cable as you pulled it loose?

Also -why were you unhooking the SATA from the mainboard in the first place, instead of removing it from the drive, itself?

 

[nicroma]

I've seen that exact problem happen with Dell computers I've worked on. I would suspect the plastic became brittle from heat over time or cheap manufacturing.

 

[hconatser]

That happens, by any chance did you gradually wiggle the SATA cable as you pulled it loose?

Also -why were you unhooking the SATA from the mainboard in the first place, instead of removing it from the drive, itself?

Didn't know if Apple had attached the cord to the monitor on the back or not. Wanted to be safe, ironically.

Yeah I tried wiggling, nothing. Even now that the piece is off I can't remove it and I've used a considerable amount of force trying to do so.

 

[hconatser]

I've seen that exact problem happen with Dell computers I've worked on. I would suspect the plastic became brittle from heat over time or cheap manufacturing.

Cheap manufacturing...Gah. That is very sad considering I had to shell out a good deal of money for a "superior" computer. I'd expect superior manufacturing. Ugh.