I decided on cleaning my laptop fans today, which I’ve been procrastinating for about a year now because of this one screw. But I just can’t seem to open this with my screwdriver, since whatever I did back when I last opened it it’s nearly circular now. Is there a way to unscrew this?

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    So if you have a dremel and steady hands, a cut off wheel can make your own slot for a straight Phillips.

    Just be careful to not knick anything else. This is more of a last resort thing, but I’ve never had it not work.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Ooof. Not something I’d have thought of myself…

        Benefit of your hindsight it’s obvious… lol. How bad were the sparks?

      • eRac@lemmings.world
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        2 months ago

        Flathead is a description of the head profile, like panhead. Slotted is the screwdriver type that is just a single slot.

        • ZeffSyde@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          It could be a regional thing. Where I’m from a screw with a single straight slot can be called a flathead whether the actual head of the screw is flat or domed.

          • eRac@lemmings.world
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            2 months ago

            It gets called that everywhere. Most people never need to know the actual specs for a screw, so language diverges from the classification system.

            I usually keep the corrections to myself, but when somebody else is already correcting someone and they say the wrong thing too it becomes hard.