Hynix Gold P31 2TB

That’s an interesting method. I don’t quite understand how soldering a screw would help it come out.

Seems a lot of people have had problems with those miniscule stripped screw heads

one possible method

says he got these out with it

Hazel123 said:

That’s an interesting method. I don’t quite understand how soldering a screw would help it come out.

Click to expand...

I think those particular screws in the video had some of glue on them which was the problem. Why would they have glue on them, doesnt make sense to me.

Thanks. Yes I read about screw repair kits. Read some reviews - some say great others say didn’t work. I saw a few people turning it into a flat head screw though. Drilling doesn’t appeal!

I was thinking of this maybe

If those screws on that other guy’s thread had glue in them that might be because someone tried to get the screw out before. One of the methods I saw was put superglue on it to fill up the thread then make a new thread by pushing the screwdriver in - it didn’t seem a popular option or to be very successful.

dremel will spread miniscule slivers of metal all over the mobo. Unless you mask it off somehow

Hmm yes that’s an issue. The guy on the video covered the motherboard with a sort of cling film then just made a small hole in it over the screw he was working on. But I would think some bits would go under the cling film.

Seen one person do it with a hacksaw but don’t fancy that either. I’m intrigued by the soldering iron video - how would heating it get it out?

Here’s the culprit. It looked pretty bad to start with but I made it worse trying to screw it out- and it’s in very tight.

Hazel123 said:

Hmm yes that’s an issue. The guy on the video covered the motherboard with a sort of cling film then just made a small hole in it over the screw he was working on. But I would think some bits would go under the cling film.

Seen one person do it with a hacksaw but don’t fancy that either. I’m intrigued by the soldering iron video - how would heating it get it out?

Here’s the culprit. It looked pretty bad to start with but I made it worse trying to screw it out- and it’s in very tight.

View attachment 90728

Click to expand...

I have the solution.

Get a small pair of Vise-Grips (see the link). I recommend the top link.
I've done this probably a thousand times. It works like a charm.




Just set them to the right size and grip the "edge" of the screw. Then you can slowly turn the screw out.
Be careful... Vise-Grips can crush a screw. Don't over do it.
Lefty loosey, righty tighty.


Counter-clockwise to loosen, clockwise to tighten, the screw.

Depending on what's under that sticker... you may have to release then re-grab the screw and only do half turns.

For example (these are 10" Vise-Grips, the ones I linked are 6" Vise-Grips
This screw is the same size as the one you're dealing with...





As someone probably mentioned... a screw extractor would work also... but that would involve metal filings.
Metal filings and computers, do NOT go together.



The best Vise-Grips are made by IRWIN. They are the original, and the most accurate...
These are a 4" pair...

IRWIN Vise-Grips









You use the thumb screw on the end of the handle to adjust the opening of the jaws.
With the pliers closed... set the jaws to about 1mm smaller than the diameter of the screw head.
Use the little "lever" on the handle end to open the pliers.
Then just gently squeeze the pliers closed on the screw head.
Now you will be able to gently turn the screw... out.

need to be very careful about damaging the gold things near the screw head.

Ghot said:

I have the solution.

Get a small pair of Vise-Grips (see the link). I recommend the top link.
I've done this probably a thousand times. It works like a charm.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-6-in-Locking-Pliers-STHT84403/311348365

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-6-1-2-in-Locking-Pliers-STHT84404/311349174

Just set them to the right size and grip the "edge" of the screw. Then you can slowly turn the screw out.
Be careful... Vise-Grips can crush a screw. Don't over do it.
Lefty loosey, righty tighty.


Counter-clockwise to loosen, clockwise to tighten, the screw.

Depending on what's under that sticker... you may have to release then re-grab the screw and only do half turns.

For example (these are 10" Vise-Grips, the ones I linked are 6" Vise-Grips
This screw is the same size as the one you're dealing with...

View attachment 90730



As someone probably mentioned... a screw extractor would work also... but that would involve metal filings.
Metal filings and computers, do NOT go together.



The best Vise-Grips are made by IRWIN. They are the original, and the most accurate...
These are a 4" pair...

IRWIN Vise-Grips

You use the thumb screw on the end of the handle to adjust the opening of the jaws.
With the pliers closed... set the jaws to about 1mm smaller than the diameter of the screw head.
Then just gently squeeze the pliers closed on the screw head.
The little "lever" on the handle end is to open the pliers.

Click to expand...

Thanks . Do you have another link to those - the home depot site always comes up as access denied when you’re in the Uk - very antisocial of them

SIW2 said:

need to be very careful about damaging the gold things near the screw head.

Click to expand...

Yep!

Are they something like this @Ghot ? I tried a small pair of pliers but the screw is too flat for that.

Hazel123 said:

Thanks . Do you have another link to those - the home depot site always comes up as access denied when you’re in the Uk - very antisocial of them

Click to expand...

Yep... the size is the total length of the pliers.

Vise-Grips - UK <---- 4" long

Vise-Grips - UK <---- 6" long <---- This one is probably the one to get. These should be strong enough.

Vise-Grips - UK <---- 9" long (I would get these, but I've been using tools since before I was born)
(My mother was not happy about that)

I’m probably not going to rush into this. I’ve just clean installed onto the existing 500gb drive. That wasn’t straightforward. The drive was encrypted so used parted magic to format it a couple of times and delete the mbr. I was going to secure erase it but it wouldn’t do it - a message cane up with something like - dell has set something in the bios to encrypt it. No idea why Dell as it’s an HP laptop (maybe the drive came from a dell machine).

Anyway I think it’s unencrypted now but then it wouldn’t install Windows 11 saying there was no tpm. So went back into bios - reset to default and flushed tpm and it was ok after that. So it’s running nicely with the 16gb ram. Don’t need the laptop just yet so will think carefully about the screw removal options!

It’s just annoying when I wanted to install onto the Hynix!

Hazel123 said:

That’s an interesting method. I don’t quite understand how soldering a screw would help it come out.

Click to expand...

In that case, the heat from a soldering iron is used to break the grip of a thread locking compound.

It shouldn't be necessary if an equivalent to blue loctite was used. Red loctite, on the other hand, needs 260° C to break its hold. Only an incompetent would use red loctite in a PC, though.

The locking grip pliers seem like a good idea. Be extremely careful, though. They are not really intended for delicate work, I believe.

I'm glad that my newer use little cam locks to hold down an M.2 drive, rather than those tiny screws.

Hazel123 said:

It’s just annoying when I wanted to install onto the Hynix!

Click to expand...

The Vise-Grips will work perfectly. AND... you'll use them for a million other things around the house.
As I mentioned up above... with those 10" Vise-Grips in the pic I took... I could literally "crush" that screw.

Vise-Grips use "lever action". A small squeeze on the handles end... creates huge clamping power on the jaws end.


IRWIN Vise-Grips are one of the best tools you can buy. They work for thousands of tasks. ^^
I have about 6-7 different pairs of them.

Heck... with a pair of Vise-Grips, you could pull the bone right out of a chicken leg, or a rib-eye steak.


Use can use Vise-Grips to...

Crimp things
Hold very, very hot things
Bend really stiff metal and brackets
Crush pipes to seal them off
Crack walnuts
Extract screws
Take out tamper-proof bolts
Pull nails
Open beer bottles
Remove fish hooks from your finger
Unlike regular pliers you can use them on nuts and bolts, without damaging the nut or the bolt (cause they won't slip).
Etc., etc.

And no matter how tired your hand gets... Vise-Grips stay locked until you release them with the little "lever".

I’ll try and get some then . Any particular size?

Hazel123 said:

I’ll try and get some then . Any particular size?

Click to expand...

Depends. The longer the Vise-Grips, the stronger they will grip.
I would start with a 6" pair... then once you're addicted, get all different kinds.
Just make sure you get... IRWIN Vise-Grips (accept no substitute)






These are the ones in the pic I took, up above. But the jaws are too "wide" for that SSD screw.

10" Vise-Grips - UK <---- very, very strong (these are the original type)



For most computer or other small work... the 6" Needle nose kind are the best. (post #133)

WARNING: You WILL become addicted to Vise-Grips

These are the ones I used in the pic in post #128.
They are 10" (254mm), long





I also have little 6" (152.4mm) ones as well. These are the size I suggest you get.
The thickness of the jaws is only about 1/3rd as thick as the jaws on the 10" version.

SIW2 said:

I think those particular screws in the video had some of glue on them which was the problem. Why would they have glue on them, doesnt make sense to me.

Click to expand...

Well, it's kinda glue but, it's called thread lock which is normally used on Cars to lock screws and bolts in place
like on an intake manifold or the rear end where there is allot of vibration which will loosen up bolts eventually if
not torqued down once in a while. But, to use it on a MB well, that's just plain stupid. We don't use it on a fan
assembly so why on a drive.

SIW2 said:

I think those particular screws in the video had some of glue on them which was the problem. Why would they have glue on them, doesnt make sense to me.

Click to expand...

Locktite is like Super Glue for bolts and screws.