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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?
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
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.
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 it sticks out a bit. Cut a slot in it and use a flathead.
Looks like sheet metal to me.
edit: right, laptop.
Id probably try a pair of pliers
I don't know if any is small enough, but there is a tool for this if nothing else works. A damaged screw extractor.
The square shaped ones work best, common brand is Easy Out
Old life hack that occasionally works for this is to use a rubber band. Grab a rubber band wide enough to cover the screw head, push the screwdriver into the screw through the rubber band, and pray it has enough grip to twist the screw loose. Good luck with whatever method you use.
Old Nintendo security screws were easily overcome by melting the end of a pen tube (the clear plastic Bic's were always my preference), and jamming it in there holding it still while it cooled. Could work in this case.
I have successfully done this with a fuse box.
Never in the history has that worked for me of doing laptop repair professionally.
Thank you. This is always in the list of handyman hacks, and using a rubberband has never worked for me either. I'm convinced 90% of the people recommending it are just repeating what they've heard and haven't actually tried it.
I've tried it a dozen or so times, maybe worked 2-3 of them. I keep it in my arsenal of tricks because it's quick and easy to try with no negative repercussions if it doesn't work.
It's worked for me but with a couple layers of insulation tape rather than a rubber band.
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.
Use pliers and try not to break anything. It worked with my Lattitude, but the heatsink was still stuck on the CPU.
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:
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
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 actually be used as a heater for a small room. Plus I forgot, the DVD drive died last year and I won't be replacing it.
Use a piece of leather or some multiple sheets of masking tape
sometimes, you can weld something on and use that as a handle
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!
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