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?

  • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
    802·
    6 months ago

    Carefully dremel a slot in the screw head and use a flat head screwdriver.

    Make sure you don’t get any dust into the electronics.

    • aaaaace@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      Also, G Flex is an epoxy formulated for plastics and West Systems has tutorials on their site.

      In this case, I’d drill a small hole in the center, put CA or epoxy in it, then screw another screw into the epoxied hole and let it set up.

      • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
        2·
        6 months ago

        There’s no need for all that work. Just a dab of epoxy or glue right on top, the any appropriate sized nut on top of that.

        Any drilling/dremel work just creates dust and metal shavings.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    622·
    6 months ago

    So if you have a dremel and steady hands, a cut off wheel can make your own slot for a straight Phillips.

    Just be careful to not knick anything else. This is more of a last resort thing, but I’ve never had it not work.

      • eRac@lemmings.world
        12·
        6 months ago

        Flathead is a description of the head profile, like panhead. Slotted is the screwdriver type that is just a single slot.

        • ZeffSyde@lemmy.world
          8·
          6 months ago

          It could be a regional thing. Where I’m from a screw with a single straight slot can be called a flathead whether the actual head of the screw is flat or domed.

          • eRac@lemmings.world
            1·
            6 months ago

            It gets called that everywhere. Most people never need to know the actual specs for a screw, so language diverges from the classification system.

            I usually keep the corrections to myself, but when somebody else is already correcting someone and they say the wrong thing too it becomes hard.

  • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    6 months ago

    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.

  • quixotic120@lemmy.world
    22·
    6 months ago

    Put a rubber band between screwdriver and screw, otherwise the other things already stated like CA glue, filing a flathead groove, or drilling the cap off

    in the future use the appropriate sized driver and retire drivers when they become stripped

    • j4k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      6 months ago

      This. The rubber band trick works well for the first step. I came to say this.

    • prime_number_314159@lemmy.world
      2·
      6 months ago

      The rubber band trick is great, and very low effort/cost. I want to say, though, that it can take substantially more force than it looks like it should on small screws like this. You also don’t have to use something shaped for the original driver of the screw. With the rubber to help it, a round cylinder a little smaller than the head of the screw can work very well.

    • tomcatt360@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      Just so you know, OP, CA glue is a generic term for CyanoAcrylate glue, like Super Glue or Krazy Glue.

      Bring out the KraGle!

    • iconic_admin@lemmy.world
      5·
      6 months ago

      This was my first thought also. The defcon 2 solution. If that doesn’t work, the next step is to drill it out.

  • RattlerSix@lemmy.world
    1·
    6 months ago

    If you didn’t have a Dremel, try channel lock pliers or vise grips. It’s not going to be in there right and rusted or anything, you just need something to grip it.

  • piecat@lemmy.world
    6·
    6 months ago

    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

    • fernlike3923@sh.itjust.worksOP
      4·
      6 months ago

      I don’t really have superglue right now, and the screw looks like this far up, not sure it can be called tight or not.

      (Screwdriver for comparison, couldn’t really find something better.)

      • cooljimy84@lemmy.world
        1·
        6 months ago

        You could also padding out the screwdriver tip or the screw hole. I’ve used sticky tape before, but again if its tight your pretty much out of luck…

    • Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world
      1·
      6 months ago

      Pretty much this - depending how much surface area and how good the glue is you might get it or you might snap that right off too. If it fails the next step is to carefully drill the screw out. A somewhat riskier operation but itll get it open

  • MTK@lemmy.world
    34·
    6 months ago

    Try addinv a rubber band between the screw and the screwdriver, it adds friction which sometimes (usually not) helps

  • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    6 months ago

    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