Advice on removing a stripped screw from a MacBook Pro

[Yves Conan]

Hi guys and gals,

I'm not sure this is necessarily on-topic here, but I figured people on this list would definitely have experience with this.

A friend of mine is trying to open up her MacBook Pro (15 inch, late 2011) but can't get one of the screws out.  I took a look and the screw head is stripped to the point where no screwdriver will grip.

The screws are tiny, so I'm not sure what to do next.  I imagine it's either drilling the screw out, or cutting a notch in the screw head, but both approaches seem overly difficult considering how small the screw is.

Does anyone have experience with anything similar?

Thanks,

Yves

[James Harrison]

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Pillar drill with a small high speed bit, drill the top off the screw
and accept you'll never have a screw securing the case in that hole
ever again.

- --
Cheers,
James Harrison
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[Graham Stabler]

The heads of the screws are only slightly larger than the thread so with a drill bit that matches the thread size you should be able to drill the head off but this must be done with a pillar drill. Once apart you may be able to grab what remains of the thread with pliers/mole grips for removal or cut a slot for a screw driver but you may not.

I've done this sort of stuff before if you need any help and have the required tools, I'm in Osney mead.

Graham

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[David Owen]

Others have said about drilling it out. One last thing to try before that is to tap your screwdriver's head into the stripped screw head using a hammer. If you're very lucky, the screw head may be soft enough that you can make a new indentation that's large enough for the screwdriver to grip it.

 

(I've only ever managed to make this work once, though, so don't have high hopes. :P)

On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 11:17 AM, Yves Conan <yves...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Graham Stabler]

I might of suggested that (or the use of an impact driver which combines the hammering with turning) except that hammering a laptop makes me shiver :)

I've occasionally managed to make slots in a screw with a tiny milling cutter in a dremel but it sounds unlikely in this instance. Also you can sometimes knock them around into turning with a metal chisel (or for tiny screws a small flat screw driver) but it depends how tight they are, if you do try protect the laptop with some tape for the inevitable slips.

Cheers,

Graham

[Lauren Hutchinson]

On the upside, if you do want to try the dremel method, I've got mine at the hackspace at the moment for you to use if you'd like.  Not sure whether of the hundred or so bits there is an appropriate one though.  But then it mostly beats me what the majority of them are actually for as well :)  You guys are welcome to have a play.

[Lauren Hutchinson]

Also I've not got experience with this, but if you go the hammer route, possibly if you heat it with a hairdryer first your chances of that indentation working might go up about 10%.  Though what Graham says makes a lot of sense...;)

[Yves Conan]

Thanks for all the great responses!

My friend is a bit scared of taking tools to her laptop so she's going to try the apple store again to see if they can help her for free.  If that doesn't work, she's willing to try something a bit more hands on :)

Graham, that means I may take you up on your offer for help... But I'll try the hairdryer+hammer combo first.

Lauren, thanks for the offer.  If it were my laptop or I had experience with dremels I'd try it right away.  But, somehow, I don't think my friend will be up for it.  I'll ask her just in case though.

Thanks again!
Yves

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From: Lauren Hutchinson
Sent: ‎17/‎09/‎2013 13:19
To: oxford-h...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Oxhack] Advice on removing a stripped screw from a MacBook Pro

[Graham Stabler]

To put it more bluntly, don't take a hammer with or without hairdryer to the laptop!!!!! To make any impression in steel you will need to hit it very hard, you are more likely to damage the aluminum body of the laptop IMHO. Save that tip for your vintage car or motorcycle!

Graham

On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 3:27 PM, Yves Conan <yves...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for all the great responses!

My friend is a bit scared of taking tools to her laptop so she's going to try the apple store again to see if they can help her for free.  If that doesn't work, she's willing to try something a bit more hands on :)

Graham, that means I may take you up on your offer for help... But I'll try the hairdryer+hammer combo first.

Lauren, thanks for the offer.  If it were my laptop or I had experience with dremels I'd try it right away.  But, somehow, I don't think my friend will be up for it.  I'll ask her just in case though.

Thanks again!
Yves

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From: Lauren Hutchinson
Sent: 17/09/2013 13:19

[Yves Conan]

Point taken :)

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From: Graham Stabler
Sent: ‎17/‎09/‎2013 15:31

[Jamie Lokier]

Graham Stabler wrote:
> To put it more bluntly, don't take a hammer with or without hairdryer
> to the laptop!!!!! To make any impression in steel you will need to hit
> it very hard, you are more likely to damage the aluminum body of the
> laptop IMHO. Save that tip for your vintage car or motorcycle!

Even if you don't mind damaging the case, the sharp shock of striking
steel hard enough to dent has a chance of fracturing some weak
electronic cthing, as the boards and chunky parts are often mounted
close to or even in contact with case screws.

-- Jamie

[David Owen]

Yeah, don't listen to what I said; I didn't think it through. Hitting a laptop with a hammer is a bad idea, and my thanks to Graham for swiftly pointing this out.

[yves...@gmail.com]

Well, to be fair, I was going to approach it with a bit of a gentle touch 😉  But my preferred route is still drilling it out.

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