low quality screw prevent me from replacing ssd - solved

[darknyght]

Hello
well i have problem with one of the screw that doesn't accept to be taken off , the other three went off from the bay fine but the fourth one
is very low quality when i try to remove it , the shape of the screw gets eaten when i try to screw it off , very low quality , the problem now how the hell i can take it off

[ross_a_mcivor]

Id file the sides of the screw and then get some cable grips and try that way otherwise get a 2mm drill and slowly drill it out

[cl-Albert]

fyi. Not sure if this is happening for this case, but I've had problems removing screws from hard drive housings myself with small hand screwdrivers and usually need to find a mechanical screwdriver to help remove them or find a bigger screwdriver with a better grip and fit to the screw (for better torque).

Sorry that it's not going to help for this particular case, but just wanted to suggest for other people having trouble removing a screw and you're starting to strip the screw, try to find a better screwdriver with a better fit and grip or even an electric screwdriver (with the correct tip for the screw of course) if possible, but not everybody may have one of these lying around.

It appears many of the screws have been tightened with electrical screwdrivers that will not always be easy to untighten by hand if you don't have a 'good' screwdriver that provides a good fit and grip.

Anyway, just hoping this may help people avoid resorting to using a drill to remove stripped screws.


Also, if anybody does resort to a using a drill to remove stripped screws, please be very careful that all the metal debris has been removed since it could be disaster if any metal pieces found their way into the notebook.

[hmscott]

Guys, Asus has started using Blue Loctite on their HDD screws, which make it really tough to remove - make sure you have a good fitting screwdriver with a hefty handle that gives you good grip and plenty of leverage - and if it doesn't budge at first - don't strip the head - you are going to need to apply heat to the screw to loosen up the Blue Loctite before you can remove the screw.

G751JY, tried upgrading HDD to SSD, screws so tight, got worn out, what to do?
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?58507-G751JY-tried-upgrading-HDD-to-SSD-screws-so-tight-go...

Rounded off screws when trying to install an ssd, and advice to remove them?
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?58654-Rounded-off-screws-when-trying-to-install-an-ssd-and...

Remember, don't use a heat gun / hair dryer to heat up the screw, you will overheat your HDD/SSD as well!

Heat from a small soldering iron should be enough, applied directly to the screw for a minute or until the Blue Loctite releases.

Good luck!

[Darnassus]

hmscott wrote:
Guys, Asus has started using Blue Loctite on their HDD screws, which make it really tough to remove - make sure you have a good fitting screwdriver with a hefty handle that gives you good grip and plenty of leverage - and if it doesn't budge at first - don't strip the head - you are going to need to apply heat to the screw to loosen up the Blue Loctite before you can remove the screw.

G751JY, tried upgrading HDD to SSD, screws so tight, got worn out, what to do?
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?58507-G751JY-tried-upgrading-HDD-to-SSD-screws-so-tight-go...

Rounded off screws when trying to install an ssd, and advice to remove them?
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?58654-Rounded-off-screws-when-trying-to-install-an-ssd-and...

Remember, don't use a heat gun / hair dryer to heat up the screw, you will overheat your HDD/SSD as well!

Heat from a small soldering iron should be enough, applied directly to the screw for a minute or until the Blue Loctite releases.

Good luck!

Are you for real..? Why? They've always put loctite on their screws through some bits on the laptop. But why the HDD's? That's just stupid! Are they TRYING to force us into RMA'ing things just so they have more work?

[hmscott]

Darnassus wrote:
Are you for real..? Why? They've always put loctite on their screws through some bits on the laptop. But why the HDD's? That's just stupid! Are they TRYING to force us into RMA'ing things just so they have more work?

Darnassus, the good news is it seems to be only 1 screw. Others reported blue stuff on the threads, so there you go.

cl-albert thinks it is over-tightened screws, which it also might be, but a couple of reports of blue stuff on the screws, maybe it is an isolated production run or two? An overzealous new assembly line? 🙂

There were reports before this all happened of loose screws in the body of the laptop, people shaking their laptop and hearing a loose part. No one reported a missing caddy screw though... probably a dropped screw during insertion, and the assembly person just picked up another screw and finished the job.

There have only been a couple of reports of loose caddy screws, but it was all of them, so assembly wasn't applying enough force to set the screws.

[DevilsAdvocate6]

Thanks for the reply. At least now I have an idea what to do.

I have multiple screws that just won't come off - like the one on the SSD, and multiple screws that keeps the cooling system in place. I have been trying to take it off and do some dust cleaning and thermal paste applying, but is annoyingly immobile.

So basically soldering iron should get the job done, right?

By the way, is there any possibility of the screw head getting screwed over even more rendering it impossible to be screwed back in?

[ross_a_mcivor]

Or maybe just a little nail polish remover, if you are working with unpainted metals, Compaq did this many years ago, and with star ended screws it was a pain then, and a pain now I bet

[hmscott]

ross.a.mcivor wrote:
Or maybe just a little nail polish remover, if you are working with unpainted metals, Compaq did this many years ago, and with star ended screws it was a pain then, and a pain now I bet

Typically that would have been my first recommendation to loosen Loctite, but the caddy screws are counter sunk and have tight threads, the nail polish won't be able to reach the loctite - Asus put it on the bottom of the screw, not the neck, so you can't even tell it has loctite until the screw is removed.

[darknyght]

thanks for every one input
i have searched around, and found these is like global problem , asus really did great job tighten the screw more than doing more job on reducing the monitor
black light bleed to acceptable level , irony

well i try to get a full set of Philips / Cross screw drivers and try them all , it just bugs me so badly , why on earth asus would tighten a removable bay super duper hard
and if they would do it, they should have at least used a more solid screws that doesn't worn out
so easily i mean these specific one is more weak than the others and more hard tighten than the other three that went off without a problem
or even the second bay i removed the full four and wasn't like that , seems they do it with one screw on the system drive
i have never ever encounter anything like that in my entire life