Stupid Mistake trying to re-apply thermal paste

DispatchJack · Aug 14, 2008

Like many owners of Macbook Pro notebooks, the issue of heat reduction is a high priority. I looked into it, trying out software for fan control and cooling pads; but then i learned about apples horrendous application of thermal paste on the CPU and thermal tubes. I looked through the ifixit's instructions on disassembling the Macbook pro, it seemed simple enough...until i reached the torx 6 screws. I don't currently own a set of torx screw drivers, but i figured i could still remove them with the screw driver i used to remove the outside philips screws. Unfortunately, the screw driver wasnt quite the right fit; long story short, I ended up strippng two torx screws basically to just a round hole. I know, I know, I'm and idiot. I got anxious and got ahead of myself, and now im kicking myself because of it.

Anyway, I question is: Is there a safe way to remove these stripped screws?

Is there an equivalent to a normal sized screw-extractor? Like a micro-screw-extractor?

For a moment, a VERY short moment, I thought about finding a way to carefully file down a slot through the middle of the head, then using a flat head screw driver to remove it. Would this be incredibly stupid of me, seeing as there's the obvious risk of destroying fragile circuitry?

fyrman22 · Aug 14, 2008

How hot is it getting? It may not be as hot as you think. These notbooks have very fast processors that get pretty hot. Its not uncommon for mine to get to 170-180 degrees when i have a few apps running and even hotter when i'm encoding video or editing large photos in Photoshop.

cwa107 · Aug 14, 2008

DispatchJack said:
Like many owners of Macbook Pro notebooks, the issue of heat reduction is a high priority. I looked into it, trying out software for fan control and cooling pads; but then i learned about apples horrendous application of thermal paste on the CPU and thermal tubes. I looked through the ifixit's instructions on disassembling the Macbook pro, it seemed simple enough...until i reached the torx 6 screws. I don't currently own a set of torx screw drivers, but i figured i could still remove them with the screw driver i used to remove the outside philips screws. Unfortunately, the screw driver wasnt quite the right fit; long story short, I ended up strippng two torx screws basically to just a round hole. I know, I know, I'm and idiot. I got anxious and got ahead of myself, and now im kicking myself because of it.

Anyway, I question is: Is there a safe way to remove these stripped screws?

Is there an equivalent to a normal sized screw-extractor? Like a micro-screw-extractor?

For a moment, a VERY short moment, I thought about finding a way to carefully file down a slot through the middle of the head, then using a flat head screw driver to remove it. Would this be incredibly stupid of me, seeing as there's the obvious risk of destroying fragile circuitry?

I would pick up a set of micro screw drivers, Radio Shack sells them (link). Costco in my area also carries a screw driver set that contains the needed bits. I'm not sure to what extent they're stripped, but you might be surprised to find that they come out easily with the correct bit even if they appear to be stripped. I'm not familiar with any product that has a small enough bit to extract a stripped screw that's that tiny. Your only recourse would probably be to take a Dremel tool to it and drill it out with a very tiny bit - of course, that might do more damage to the threaded hole than it's worth.

blackadder · Aug 14, 2008

I'd go down the dremel route but instead of trying to drill it out i would use a fine cutting disk and score the head of the screw so you can get a flat bladed screwdriver on it that should work, good luck hope you get it sorted

mattogu · Aug 14, 2008

Wcs

worst case would need to be drilled and removed with an easy out.

Stupid Mistake trying to re-apply thermal paste

DispatchJack

fyrman22

cwa107

blackadder

mattogu

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