Annoying issue with motherboard.

Adster3000 · 8 Apr 2011 at 23:56

I have an ASRock M3A770DE motherboard.

I bought a new cooler to replace the stock AMD one and had to remove the mount that was screwed to the motherboard. After removing 3 of the screws, I had a lot of grief attempting to remove the fourth.

After trying to put pressure on the screw within the case, I found I was flexing the motherboard a lot more than I was comfortable with, so I removed the motherboard from the case and placed it on my floor with an anti-static bag underneath it.

So I carried on trying to remove it, putting more pressure on it. The screw wouldn't budge at all. It was so stuck in, I ended up rounding the screw completely attempting to get it out.

As you may imagine, this is incredibly frustrating as I cannot upgrade the cooler to what I want, a Hyper 212 Plus.

Does anyone have any recommendations for what I should do? Or should I just buy a new motherboard..?

Cheers.

RJC · 9 Apr 2011 at 09:20

This is not ideal but drill the screw out, as you do have someone holed a hoover over the top to suck up any debris and then carefully inspect the board.

Adster3000 · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:39

RJC said:
This is not ideal but drill the screw out, as you do have someone holed a hoover over the top to suck up any debris and then carefully inspect the board.

Even if I could do that myself, I wouldn't have the balls to. Fear of damaging the thing.

Cheers for the reply though.

Is there any other possible way that I could get this screw out? I know that the chances are slim, someone might have an idea out there though.

May as well start hunting for a new one..

RJC · 9 Apr 2011 at 14:33

Is the screw completely rounded, is there a possibility of fitting / wedging a slot screw driver in there.

Adster3000 · 9 Apr 2011 at 14:58

RJC said:
Is the screw completely rounded, is there a possibility of fitting / wedging a slot screw driver in there.

I don't think it is possible to do that now, no.

Plec · 9 Apr 2011 at 15:20

If you could carefully snip away the plastic from around the remainig screw the mount could be removed completely. You would then, hopefully, have enough room to get a decent purchase, on the screw, with some needle nose pliers?

I've had to do something like this before and the extra length gained by snipping off the plastic, surrounding the screw, enabled me to grip the top of the screw and just wind it out.

Adster3000 · 9 Apr 2011 at 17:32

Plec said:
If you could carefully snip away the plastic from around the remainig screw the mount could be removed completely. You would then, hopefully, have enough room to get a decent purchase, on the screw, with some needle nose pliers?

I've had to do something like this before and the extra length gained by snipping off the plastic, surrounding the screw, enabled me to grip the top of the screw and just wind it out.

I could do this. Are the mounts replaceable at all? I can see myself wanting to eventually upgrade and I don't want this board to be useless without an after market cooler.

Plec · 9 Apr 2011 at 18:16

Adster3000 said:
I could do this. Are the mounts replaceable at all? I can see myself wanting to eventually upgrade and I don't want this board to be useless without an after market cooler.

Probably (via second hand or ASRock), but given your predicament, my suggested method 'may' be your best hope of getting the last screw off (other than drilling it out).

You're the only one that will abe able to assess, whether or or not, removing the mount completely will enable you to unscrew the troublesome screw. In theory you shouldn't have a problem but you always have to allow for 'sod's law'!

Unfortunately, you have to decide whether it's worth the risk - as you have limited options. You either risk the above or keep the stock cooler. You can still get a respectable clock with the retailed cooler, if that was your intention, for the the third party cooler.

However, if you had no intention of clocking just cut your losses and stick with the stock/retail cooler.

Baldbloke · 9 Apr 2011 at 19:26

You may not have room to maneuver but when dealing with a rounded head on a screw, if drilling is not an option, I'll use a fretsaw to create a channel in the worn screw head. This often allows for a flat blade driver to get some purchase.

Adster3000 · 9 Apr 2011 at 19:55

Plec said:
Probably (via second hand or ASRock), but given your predicament, my suggested method 'may' be your best hope of getting the last screw off (other than drilling it out).

You're the only one that will abe able to assess, whether or or not, removing the mount completely will enable you to unscrew the troublesome screw. In theory you shouldn't have a problem but you always have to allow for 'sod's law'!

Unfortunately, you have to decide whether it's worth the risk - as you have limited options. You either risk the above or keep the stock cooler. You can still get a respectable clock with the retailed cooler, if that was your intention, for the the third party cooler.

However, if you had no intention of clocking just cut your losses and stick with the stock/retail cooler.

Overclocking was one of my reasons for the cooler upgrade.. And the fact that the Phenom 965 cooler runs at over 6000 RPM when playing games. Really quite loud..

Is there any place other than Ebay where I'll be able to sell it?

Baldbloke said:
You may not have room to maneuver but when dealing with a rounded head on a screw, if drilling is not an option, I'll use a fretsaw to create a channel in the worn screw head. This often allows for a flat blade driver to get some purchase.

I can't see any chance of getting a fretsaw to where the screw is to do that. Cheers for the suggestion though.

halleck · 10 Apr 2011 at 02:10

i would drill the head off the screw, which should be do-able slowly so as not to slip off the job when drilling and damaging the board. little bit at a time and then nip down the **** shop and buy a small pair of vice grips to remove the threaded bit. always turn anti umm clockwise when removing asrock screws.