Stripped screw... uhoh

Hi,

Let me just start by saying I am no handyman-- I was trying to remove the screws of my HP to add a RAM chip and I used too small of a bit, and now the screw head is stripped. I may have to resort to an electric drill to drill through it but does anyone have any other advice on how to remove it?

 

I would suggest opening other parts of the notebook till you can eventually see that screw, then keep tilting what its holding till the screw gets loose. This is a lot of work and well be careful.

This is what I would do, there probably is an easier way.

 

It's the compartment right under the keyboard.

I should have used a bigger screwdriver!

 

Moved to hardware components and aftermarket upgrades. I think you will get more help in here.

How bad did you strip it? I had trouble on my v4000t and believed I striped my screws. If you can take a pic and post that. If it isn't too bad get a pc tool kit. Then press very hard and slowly turn the screw. If this works don't screw them back in too tite.
Sorry about the tough luck,
Tim

 

The screw is small as it is, and it's not completely stripped, but it more resembles a hole than a criss-cross screw head should be. There's just a bit of the 4 edges left so it's very difficult for the screwdriver to grip it. They made these so tight!

 

If you even have any off the four corners left I would go and get a cheap pc tool kit. I was using normal screw drivers and they caused the stripping. When you use the PC toolkit screw driver make sure you push down very hard to make sure that you don't strip it anymore.

Yeah when this happend to me I almost cried. Bad HP.
Tim

 

this may be hard to believe but this happened once to my brother and he got it out with a wrench.

 

A PC toolkit? I'll look into that. Thank you all very much!

 

Did you get them out?
Tim

 

If you haven't got the the screw out yet then you could try using a sharp blade (stanley knife, scalpel etc) and draw it across the screw head repeatedly to create a channel. Then use a terminal screwdriver (small slot type) to remove the screw. One obvious point - be careful! Not sure where you can source a new screw though after you get this one out, sorry.

 

Ive used pliers to loosen it up then unscrewed it.

 

Here's a long-awaited update on my situation:

I planned to get a toolkit later this week so until then I grew impatient and tried a lot of different things. Some of the things were bad choices. I tried carving a little channel to use a screwdriver but that wasn't working well. Then I found a toolkit that had some screw-removing type screwdrivers and a hammer, so I tried hammering one into the screw to see if I could get it tight enough to twist, but nope. I felt like I could have damaged my PC this way, creating shocks and vibrations when it's so close to the hard drive. Then I took off all of the other screws, used a screwdriver to prop up the cover, and I twisted the cover around and around to eventually losen the damaged screw. And let me tell you, when I got a hold of that screw, all hell broke loose. So now everything's good! Thanks everyone for your help. Let this be a lesson to you all: ALWAYS USE THE RIGHT SIZE SCREWDRIVER ON A COMPUTER! I almost lost it today. I dedicated several hours into figuring out how to remove the screw, and it paid off. Now I'm enjoying my new dv5000z for real.