The article doesn't mention the other ribbon cable connected to the MLB board, which sits on the opposite side and can be seen in the photo in the gap between the board and the case.

This long ribbon cable runs down the side of the case and connects to the AMP board. The cable is held in place with a light adhesive so it's less likely to be disconnected in a fall, but it was disconnected on my Echo, possibly during the disassembly process.

To get at it, I had to pull that ribbon cable away from the side of the case, a process made easy by a slide-away cover on that side of the case.

This disconnected cable, as well as a disconnected cable on the MIC board, turned out to be the only thing wrong with my Echo, which showed no signs of life after falling off a table.

The cable latches are pretty weak on the Echo, so disconnected cables are likely the cause of many dead Echos. I added hot glue to the sides of the cables to anchor them to the boards.

You don’t do teardowns on desktops or tower PCs very often, but have there been any (other than the previous Mac Pro) with lower repairability ratings? I thought this modular design was standard on all but the smallest form factor PCs. The repairability of this box is arguably a 9 by notebook standards, but seems average by tower PC standards.