Broken screw on a heatsink (XPS M1530)... Help!

I've been recently applying Arctic Silver 5 paste to my CPU/GPU according to the guide found on this forum. After that the temperatures not only did not drop they actually are slighlty higher. The problem may be that I haven't use the lint free cloth tough I did took care not to leave any lint on the surfaces. Anyway, I decided to redo a whole operation with much more care. Unfortunately as I opened my XPS M1530 one of the screws heads was broken in a way that I could not use any of my phillips screwdrivers on it. How can I remove it now & more importantly what are the dimensions/sizes of the screws that are used to attach the heatsing to the GPU/CPU as I may have to buy one to replace it & don't seem to be able to find that info anywhere?

Any help appreciated!
Btw. Shall I replace the heatpad from the north bridge with AS5 also or leave it (as I previously did) untouched & just apply the paste to CPU/GPU?

 

A picture would be helpful so we know which screw and where. Is the head broken off or stripped?If broken off, you should be able to remove the thermal assembly and then get the screw with a pair of needle nose pliers.

Looks like all the screws in that area are M2.5 x 5-mm screws

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1530/en/SM/index.htm

 

The screw is slightly stripped but enough not to respond to Phillips screwdriver. I didn't try to force it more as I still hope I'd be able to unscrew it if turn the laptop off & let it cool down. Do you think it will help?

 

Try super glue, it usually works.
Unless the screw was inserted incorrectly at an angle and thats why the head was torn off, in that case superglue probably won't be strong enough and as gerryf said, you're going to need a pliers.

 

do not replace the heat pad...the heatpad is thicker then the AS5 paint - so there will be a space betweem heatsink and chipset chip

And U can order heatsink from ebay and replace the screw easy - I dit it ( I have replaced the fan as well - one is much silent) and replace screws that are used to attach the heatsing = here I still have some spare screw ( just in case U dont believe that it is possible) - u just need to push them out



and if u will decide to order heatsink then u can order the bettter one - there are 3 types -2 of them are with copper transfer surfaces and one is with alluminium t.s.
I sended first this photo to seller and ask him if he has the correct one ( I realy needed the copper one cause I was applying not a AS5 but Coollaboratory Liquid Pro, which cant be applying on alluminium surface)

so I had one allum and one copper heatsink - one with quiet and one with noisy fan - and I completely open each one and builded the best one...copper with quiet fan

here 3 types of heatsinks:



I hope I have helped

 

So I should just glue the hole and try unscrewing it then?

 

First of all - thank you Blazom & everyone else!
Secondly, is the copper or alluminium one better? & I'm hoping for one with the most powerfull fan - don't care about the noise much. Although I gotta say that replacing a whole thing would be the last option I'd like to try. Not because I think I'm not capable of doing it but since it's theoreticaly the most risky one.

 

The most important thing when opening aluinum screws is to use the proper sized screwdriver, otherwise you will always strip the head.

Firstly get the proper screwdriver, apply a small drop of high quality superglue to the top of the screw and clamp the screwdriver in place, let it set properly then gingerly try and un-screw it. If that doesn't work then more dangerous methods are going to have to be considered.

Edit: Copper is the better of the two, the aluminium was introduced to cut costs by dell.

 

Yomamasfavourite sums it up nicely; copper has superior thermal conductivity, but aluminum is cheaper.

 

I have broken my screws too, can anybody find some genuine screws on ebay that can replace them? Thank you.

 

PM me your email address i can probably help you. (my friend have a Laptop workshop and sometimes I work there for him, there is lots of screws, et c.)

 

Well it seems like I am a complete idiot since I can't find the PM button.

EDIT: I had to have 5 posts, PM sent