I have to do this once a month with both of my laptops, use and abuse of Work and school rattles the screws loose and I have already had to replace some. for some reason dell screens get wobly when the screws come out.

imrcly

And how would Apple's warrantee feel about that?
I have no problem opening up a computer, and if I can do this with my mac when it gets here, that'd be great. But, I don't want to void the warrantee. (at least not for a little while)

The Amazing Ant

when I replaced the back casing on my macbook, a good number of screws would not go back in because the actual screw housing and threading came off the casing. for now, only two or three screws are holding my screen in place, including only one hinge that's screwed in.

I wanted to order more online, but each tiny little one was three dollars each.

zikman

good to know, thanks

...reaches for screwdriver set

peetah

Not a bad idea but scrapping a laptop because of a stuck screw is ridiculous. I'm all for making a company replace defective merchandise but a little effort can get a stuck screw out. You can drill it out entirely, glue an allen wrench to the stripped center, or try using needle-nose pliers. Hell, if you get desperate you can use a dremel tool to cut off the screw head, or cut around the screw on the cover, and leaving the stubborn thing in there.

robotnixon

Having just did a fairly involved repair on my iBook recently...

1. Use exactly the right sized screwdrivers... it's hard to tell the difference between Torx 10 and Torx 8 until you've stripped the screw.
2. Invest in an electronics screwdriver kit, seems to treat the heads a little more gently. I think I paid $10 for a kit that had every tip I needed for the ibook (there were at least 6 different screws inside)

I wound up having to cut out one of the screws with a dremel... it worked, but it was not fun.

pbartleby

@pbartleby: this is some of the best advice here. The guy in the article was a wuss that gave up too quickly -- there's nothing a dremel can't fix.

steve w.

My fan sounds like a freight train and when I tried opening the case to resolve it I couldn't find what I guessed were the missing screws that I needed to undo to completely remove the case. I'll try again at a future date when it finally becomes an annoyance I want to resolve.

Woodsyx

Great idea. I'm going to start my ownership of everything I buy by removing all the screws first. Just incase :)

chris-mcc

Boltdepot.com has VERY cheap hardware down to the smallest size of metric screws I've come across. No TORX there, as far as I can tell, but you can just switch to Panhead Phillips I guess.

All those chislers on ebay can stuff their $7 bags of screws!

pdok

I'm glad we have people like Michael Horowitz in the world to help us.
My mechanic stripped a lug nut on my car a few years ago. Lucky for me, he took the whole car off my hands. I only had to pay him a couple hundred bucks.
Then there was the dry cleaner who lost a button off my new suit.
The batteries in my remote just went out. Anyone want a TV?

adam51172

@adam51172: Haha!

That was my exact thought when I read this originally on CNET's page (actually, the commenters on the CNET story had much the same things to say as the Lifehacker readers here have said - IIRC, the CNET comments were universally disdainful of this story.)

Binks

Just put some LocTite on those screws that tend to undo themselves on their own. Problem solved.

infmom

Along the lines of similar yet different...it is also a good idea to loosen and re-tighten the lug nuts on your car to make sure they have not seized. If you have to change a tire on a rainy night, it will make getting that tire off a lot easier.

MiddleGeek