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Boise, ID

I have a direly stripped screw in the top left spot of my gameboy's front pcb. I have already tried numerous methods of getting it out, and at this point, I'm ready to just go in and carve it out with a razor or other sharp object... I'm not going to sever or damage anything in the PCB here, am I?

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Michigan

You need one of these.

It's called an easy out. You should be able to get it in there and extract the screw.

Edit: you might have to drill a tiny hole, but that's if the screw head is really hit.

Last edited by lucasnoah (Jun 13, 2014 12:49 am)

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Taichung, Taiwan

Use a small flat tip screw driver to torque through the cross section you stripped out.

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Boise, ID

I've been trying to do so, I can't get any grip on it.

It was shipped to me this way, generally I am very careful not to strip screws.

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Taichung, Taiwan

Have you tried various needle nose pliers? There are some with curved tips and angled tips that help.

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Santa Cruz, California

Dremel the head off that little bastard, and then extract the stump with a pair of pliers.

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Boise, ID

I have tried needle-nose pliers too. Unfortunately I don't have a dremel at my disposal. hmm

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Florida

Using a dremel is your best bet if you ask me. I used the drill bit method that Lucas mention and cracked the little headphone jack board in half (if you decide to do it this way, get an extra pair of hands to hold down the gameboy while you do it.)

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Taichung, Taiwan

You need an angled pair of needle nose pliers, preferably the 90 degree variety. Do you have a harbor freight near your or any mechanic friends?

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Boise, ID

Yeah, I could probably borrow or find an angled pair. If that fails I'll try to drill it. Thanks for the responses so far everyone.

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USA

I've had a similar problem on a car and I just applied super strong two-part epoxy to a screwdriver and stuck it on the screw. I had to sacrifice a screwdriver but it worked.

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USA

(Sorry, Accidental double post)

Last edited by SurfaceDragon (Jun 13, 2014 3:58 am)

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Boise, ID
SurfaceDragon wrote:

I've had a similar problem on a car and I just applied super strong two-part epoxy to a screwdriver and stuck it on the screw. I had to sacrifice a screwdriver but it worked.

Oh dang. xD That would work.

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perth, WA

if i had a dremel at my disposal, i would probably try cutting a new groove into the screw head, rather than cutting the head clean off

(just my 2 cents)

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ShintarouMusic wrote:
SurfaceDragon wrote:

I've had a similar problem on a car and I just applied super strong two-part epoxy to a screwdriver and stuck it on the screw. I had to sacrifice a screwdriver but it worked.

Oh dang. xD That would work.

Would super glue work?  I have tried it with other things and had some success, but it probably depends on how tight the screw is in there.

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I used a cutter to get mine out, they were pretty soft so it was a perfect tool for the job!