Rounded screw in 3DS, solutions?

Attempted to fix a 3DS for a friend, however the screw, one of them instantly rounded. I have a feeling, it's completely screwed now.

Some of the other screws turn, however the lower ones also don't turn at all. PH00 screwdriver is what I've been using, so I'm not sure why some of the screws don't turn. I've used 3 different PH00 screwdrivers and bits...

 

Put a rubber band between screw and screw driver.

 

Nope. It's one of the deep screws. That will not work.

 

Might be able to wedge a small flat screwdriver in there to get grip... depending on how rounded it actually is.

 

I also tried that, it's pretty rounded now.

 

You'll probably have to drill it. Use a handheld drillbit driver though, not an electric drill.

 

Drilling might be the only way now.
By the way, PH000 is the screwdriver you should be using for these screws.

 

I'd drill it out. Just so the head breaks off though. Once it pops apart take some vice grips on the threads to remove the rest of the screw.

 

yeah, the 3DS (i assume its an original not an XL) has bloody tight screws, its always best to make sure you use the right size screwdriver and apply a good amount of force from the start to prevent slipping as the screws are absolute crap too......once they have been removed the first time they are nice and easy then....but that first time is a bugger on some consoles

anyways as others have said probably the best bet is drilling the top off carefully, the heads are pretty small so shouldn't be too hard, once you get it open just note that there is ribbon cables for the L&R buttons, be sure to unattatch them before yanking the top off as im sure you will feel like doing

 

I should've bought this screwdriver in the first place Now I too am looking for a solution. But the new 3DS is coming out soon, so if I don't find a solution then, at least I'm getting that.

 

I’ve had success removing stripped heads with this method:

Use a nail about the size of your PH00 screw driver and a high strength epoxy; one that bonds metal. Clean the nail point – make sure there is no rust/dirt. You can also blunt the pointed end so that it sets in the screw head better.

Add a dab of epoxy to the pointed nail end and carefully set it into the stripped head of the screw (avoid getting glue on anything else but the nail and screw). Hold until it sets, then give it some time to cure based on the manufacturer’s recommendations.

Once the epoxy has cured, take pliers and grip the nail’s shaft and twist… hopefully that will loosen the screw and allow you to twist it out.

Ideally you would want to use a specialty bit/tool such as an extractor, but I doubt that they make them that small.

I'd be leery of drilling those out as small as they are... requires steady hands. Perhaps if you had access to a small drill press or rotary tool like the Dremel set up as a drill press.

 

I had a game gear that gave me similar problems a little while ago. What I did was I took a slotted bit that was the same width as the stripped screw head, pushed it hard into the screw head, and twisted it back and forth slightly for a few minutes. Eventually it ate into the screw head enough so that the slotted bit could grip the screw, and it came out.

Basically, digging a slot into the chewed up remains of the Philips head.

 

This is a great idea - I'm going to remember this, thanks!

 

Issue is if I did drill it, I wouldn't be able to grip it with pliers or anything since they're are super deep.

Eproxy seems like a pretty good method though, never used the stuff before though.

 

You drill the head off the screw and open the console up and use pliers to unscrew the remaining shaft

 

Ah right, ok. I'll see if I can get someone to do that. I don't trust myself with a drill.

 

At my old job, if we had a handset with a busted screw, we had an electric screwdriver with a steel ph00 head and it worked to drill out small screws, most small electronics use cheap soft metal for the screws so just about anything will drill them out..

 

Do you have an example, of what you'd use?

 

for the normal 3ds screws you would probably be fine with a little dremel with really small drill bit, just do it in short bursts to prevent you slipping and doing through the case possibly damaging the motherboard, or as someone else suggest a hand drill with a really small drill bit for greater control, the screws in the 3ds are crap anyway and the heads are pretty thin so you will be through it with very little effort