I decided on cleaning my laptop fans today, which I’ve been procrastinating for about a year now because of this one screw. But I just can’t seem to open this with my screwdriver, since whatever I did back when I last opened it it’s nearly circular now. Is there a way to unscrew this?
Drill in it, put fitting torx in hole, unscrew.
That usually works, however you need too much force to press the torx bit into the hole to do that on sensitive electronics. That screw is probably only threaded into plastic.
Looks like sheet metal to me.
edit: right, laptop.
Looks like it sticks out a bit. Cut a slot in it and use a flathead.
Ask Frieren to do it for you
I believe I have become a skilled enough mage, so I’d prefer solving this on my own.
Oooh man - you’re screwed!
I’ve had good success tapping stripped the screws loose with sometring sharp and a hammer
Not sure if you can get something small and strong enough, small punch or sacrificial screwdriver might work
Here is a video of what i mean
I prefer the rubber band trick first but usually when I get them down to this point I’ll use a smaller flathead from a jeweler set, see if you can find something that fits in between the two opposing tines of the Philips
Looks like a screwdriver with a slit and the right size might still be able to grab it.
I think the answer is no.
A dab of super glue in the screw hole, find a screw driver you don’t really care about, add a drop of superglue accelerator
They make screw extractor bits with thread that winds the opposite way from the screw itself so that the bit drills into the screw while turning counterclockwise, but I don’t think that’s worth bothering with here (and I’ve never seen an extractor small enough). Just drill the head off with a normal drill bit. The body will stay stuck in the hole, but you’ll be able to take the cover off and laptops are usually held together by so many screws that a missing one won’t cause problems.
If its big enough, try the rubber band trick to get some grip.
If its a tiny electronic screw, you’ll have to very carefully coax it out with either some needle nose pliers by gripping the outside, or by using a slightly larger screwdriver head and ensuring it doesn’t spin (very tricky, easy to strip screw further, using rubber band here might also help).
If the case can handle it, you can use the larger head and give it some decent amount of pressure to make sure it doesn’t spin when you turn. Again be careful, because pushing too hard could break the case.
You might have to inch it fractions of a turn at a time to make sure it doesn’t break, so it’ll take a while before it becomes loose enough to spin out by hand.
Vampliers!
I work(ed) with old machines, and it was an absolute godsend. Prefer it after using penetrating spray on stuck screws.
Those look very interesting. Thank you!
The same thing happened to me… Luckily it was one of screws on the outer edges of the thermal housing. HP’s screws are such dogshit that they get easily stripped. I tried everything from rubber band to superglue. Eventually I had to drilled the screw head away.
It’s easier not to clean them. I throw down tin foil before I make paninis in my hp laptop, because THAT’S ALL THEY’RE FUCKING GOOD FOR.
Well my HP 250 G5 still somewhat works. The touchpad has serious ghost-touch problems and the housing is falling apart from just 2 disassemblies.
Keeps your house warm in the winter too.
Yep, I replaced the fan after 1,5 (or 1.5) years with a cheap aliexpress one and this one works way better than the original, but it’s still very loud and could be actually used as a heater. Plus I forgot, the DVD drive died last year.
I once had a screw on a laptop that wouldn’t unscrew and eventually somewhat lost its shape. I had asked my uncle for help, who gave me the solution. I think it was slightly less bad than this, but it might help:
- Apply WD40 around the edges of the screw, such that it could enter the hole
- Apply it to the screw head
- Hold your screwdriver in the hole and gently tap it with a hammer a couple of times
- Slowly attempt to screw it out, whilst applying firm downward pressure on the screw
Note that the amounts of WD40 you have to apply are tiny. We’re talking drops of the stuff. It might be best to attempt to spray something else, and use the residue on the nozzle to apply it
Use a piece of leather or some multiple sheets of masking tape
It looks like you probably don’t have enough edge for this, but a simple vise grip could work.
This was my first thought also. The defcon 2 solution. If that doesn’t work, the next step is to drill it out.
