Remove stripped internal laptop screws?

HunterAP · October 31, 2016

Some backstory: I noticed my Asus G46VW had been performing worse than I thought in just typical browsing. It came with 2 x 4GB of RAM which I switched to 2 x 8GB, and a hard drive that corrupted which I replaced with a Samsung 850 Evo SSD. Everything was going fine until this summer where I noticed it would hiccup often and make a lot of heat than it ever used to. I looked into it now when I had the time and saw that the CPU and the dedicated GTX 660M GPU would both hit ~50C even though their utilization was less than 2%, and the GPU wasn't even being used.

I opened up the laptop and there are two screws that are stripped which are holding the screen to the motherboard and the casing. The screws are normally cross-headed, and are too deep inside for my to grab with pliers. I've also tried the rubber-band trick of stretching a rubber band across the screw head to give the screwdriver more grip, but to no avail.

I'm planning on doing another trick I saw where you use super-glue (or in my case, Gorilla Glue) to glue the screwdriver tip to the screw head, let it dry, and then unscrew it. The next thing I was going to try was using a friend's dremel with a circular head to cut a straight line on the screw heads, then use a flat head screwdriver tip, but I've scared that I'll damage the rest of the laptop.

I attached a picture with the two screws highlighted. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove these?

S1lent_5am · October 31, 2016

You can get a screw extractor or use a dremel tool to cut a wide enough notch in it to use a flat head screw driver to get it out.

SCHISCHKA · October 31, 2016

use vice grips

Shingouki · October 31, 2016

Before trying to cut the screw, try using a rubber band on it, it will give more friction.

Get a large rubber band, put it over the screw, and try to unscrew it, it will need more force, try not to damage the motherboard.

Using a dremel or a file also works, but you'll better cover the motherboard, if metal dust go over the electrical component, it can make damage. You make an incision on the screw so it can fit another flat screwdriver. Obviously you'll have to find a new screw after that.

Also, you can cut the side of the screw, making it look like a bolt, so you can use grips

You can also use resin to fix that, but it will take more time to cure.