I completely stripped out screws on the hard drive bracket.

Hi All,

well while attempting to replace my hard drive I like many other people I completely stripped out the two screws on the hard drive bracket on my 15" PowerBook G4. They are very small screws, and I thought I had the correct size philips but apparently not.

I tried to cut a slot in one of them with a Dremel but that only destroyed the entire head of the screw and sent bits of shavings everywhere.

What can I do to get these screws out? Should I drill them out? I just can't think of any other way to get them out when one's stripped and one is worse than stripped. Is it possible to get replacements?

Thanks,

Sean

They are torx screws. Go to a Mac/PC shop and buy some more. Getting them will be the problem but drilling CAREFULLY will be the only way to go as they are too fine for an ezy-out.

Get a new MBP. Its time. That was an omen. Time to upgrade. If not, drill them out and find replacement screws. No big deal. Not sure what size they are, but take one into a hardware store and I'm sure they can find the right ones. Be careful drilling though, you don't want to strip the holes.

Can u get to them with vice grips? the small needle nose ones often work on something like that. Good luck

Do as harry suggested. The only way you're going to remove stripped torx screws is by drilling them out. A high speed Dremel tool works well but be careful not to get small shavings inside of the machine or you'll have a lot more trouble than stripped screws. After drilling them out, you'll need to replace them with a slightly oversized torx screw - or you can use flat head phillips screws instead.

Regards.