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Stripped Screw Advice

AndyR

AndyR

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hey,

Currently have a 2011 MBP which is out of warranty and I have a OWC Data Doubler installed in place of the optical drive. This has my 750Gb HDD in and I have a 128Gb SSD in the main bay.

I need to remove the Data Doubler and put the optical drive back in for now, so I can get Bootcamp installed (long story of bootcamp issues when optical drive removed). Anyway, when I put the data doubler in originally one of the screws in the recessed hole above the airport plastic part striped a little bit, but as I didn't think I would remove it for a long time I didn't worry. But today when I tried to remove it, it stripped straight away. I tried a couple more times but only made it worse and now its a nice round hole. I tried a larger screwdriver, different style etc and nothing is working.

So any ideas? I am thinking I may have to go and find some sort of screw extractor and/or drill the sucker out. Anyone had to do this before and any advice?

Thanks,

Andy
 
fskywalker said:
Can you post a picture?
Click to expand...

I cant today as am at work, but this is the screw I am having issues with - On the right -
UoJNEZIHEx44oIfD.medium
 
Thx. Yeah I meant to say I tried superglue last night, didn't budge and ended up snapping the superglue off too 🙁
 
mmm use a file and obtain a straight cut for a bigger screwdriver... otherwise I'm sorry but you have to cut away the black plate from screw side and with pliers remove that... I don't suggest to drill screw because you can risk to damage unibody... is the black part plastic?
 
You may drill the top enough the let the piece slide through, then with pliers remove it and install a new screw (if you have any). I would have to be done carefully, but think could be done.
 
srsub3 said:
mmm use a file and obtain a straight cut for a bigger screwdriver... otherwise I'm sorry but you have to cut away the black plate from screw side and with pliers remove that... I don't suggest to drill screw because you can risk to damage unibody... is the black part plastic?
Click to expand...

Yeah looks like its plastic. I think the part I have the screw problem with is just plastic and nothin in it. I hope anyway 🙂
 
srsub3 said:
mmm use a file and obtain a straight cut for a bigger screwdriver... otherwise I'm sorry but you have to cut away the black plate from screw side and with pliers remove that... I don't suggest to drill screw because you can risk to damage unibody... is the black part plastic?
Click to expand...

A Dremel tool with a cutting or grinding disc attached may be enough to make a groove big enough for a small flat head screwdriver to get in there. You'd need some pretty steady hands for it though. I'd try it on something unimportant as a test first.

Another option is getting some localized precision heat onto the screw, such as with a soldering iron or something, which might loosen up that blue Loctite stuff they put on the screws ... that might loosen it up enough to get it out. That's a last resort though, because if that black part is plastic, you risk melting that in the process.
 
Thanks everyone, I got the screw out last night 😀

I tried everything I could think of, bigger screwdriver, different type, trying to get a groove in, super glue, rubber band, screw extractor, removing the one screw and trying to twist the bracket like the post above... nothing worked. Eventually caved and brought a metal drill bit. Snapped the first one (1mm) but the second one (1.5mm) did the trick and out the head popped. I had to get some needle nose pliers on the thread which for such a small screw put up one hell of a fight. It was covered in loctite, no wonder it wouldn't budge and stripped the head! Once it was all out I wrapped a small screwdriver in some ducttape and fished out all the metal filings from the hole so should be all good touch wood.

Replaced it with a bigger screw and all good, got my optical drive back in, and will get a replacement 1TB drive to put in place of my 120GB SSD/750Gb HDD combo now and will just leave the optical drive in.

Thanks for all the advice guys, appreciated!
 
Thanks. Am picking up a 1TB WD Blue WD10JPVT later and will put that in the main bay, then clone my old SSD/HDD combo to that and then create a bootcamp partition on that as well.

Will be a bummer losing the SSD as a main drive but hey ho, would rather have the flexibility back now. Thought about partitioning the HDD and running Bootcamp on that alongside my Mac Data partition but seeing lots of threads and posts on the web that a partitioned bootcamp in the optibay doesn't work too well and I cant be bothered to faff anymore, so back to a single drive it is.
 
this is unrelated to your screw problem but i have a question.does having a second hard drive drain your battery?if it does is there is much noticeable difference?i already have the adapter but im not sure if i still want to do it
 
strange.. but I have the exact same problem and same situation...
So, did you use 1.5 mm drill bit and just break the top head of the screw?
If you can explain a little bit... more with an easy English, that would be greatly helpful 🙂 I need to try it for myself. Yes, I used the doubler too.
 
amit715 said:
this is unrelated to your screw problem but i have a question.does having a second hard drive drain your battery?if it does is there is much noticeable difference?i already have the adapter but im not sure if i still want to do it
Click to expand...

I would think it would affect it a little bit. I'm not sure how much power they use. I doubt it would be anything huge.
 
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