Can someone positively ID this case screw ?

[Seeker47]

Snapshot attached. Hope you can also be specific on the name and exact size (?)

They are very round, smooth, and seemingly featureless. Looks like a torx driver head (or whatever) would have very little to grab on to.

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

[aedipuss]

sorry too blurry to make them out

[jman98]

Home Depot and Lowes sell Torx sets with multiple sizes. You may just have to get one of those and try various ones until you find the one that fits.

[aedipuss]

torx are 6 pointed, are the star indents 6 pointed?

[Seeker47]

torx are 6 pointed, are the star indents 6 pointed?

Star indents ? In looking at them previously, there appeared (to me) to be only one circular indent in each. So, NO "catchpoints", and therefore what I said about 'no apparent way to grip.' Now I'm thinking you may be right, but in that case any star indents must be extremely tiny. I'm going to have to look at these again with a strong magnifier . . . .

[Noahtuck]

Yeah they look star or hex shaped.

It almost looks like a pin in the center also, which would be some kind of security bit.
You can buy security bit sets for pretty cheap from places like harbor freight,
http://www.harborfreight.com/100-piece-security-bit-set-68457.html

Hope you can also be specific on the name and exact size

Seriously ?!?!
Better get out that mic and take a clearer photo with it on the screws!!

But when you check them with a strong magnifier, make sure you can see it better than that photo you posted!!

Or were you trying to mimic your eyesight ?

[sanlyn]

They look like "prevent unauthorize4d thieves from tampering with this proprietary hardware" devices, or some such. I'd say someone is asking for trouble. Just IMHO. As Mark Twain said, "It ain't that there's too many fools, but that lightnin' ain't distributed right."

[Noahtuck]

They look like "prevent unauthorize4d thieves from tampering with this proprietary hardware" devices, or some such. I'd say someone is asking for trouble. Just IMHO. As Mark Twain said, "It ain't that there's too many fools, but that lightnin' ain't distributed right."

BAHH!!!!!

Since the first NES/SNES carts & consoles, etc. and such that had security screws that used bits like this to take them apart,


Cable boxes, etc.

If I bought it and wanted to take them apart I would and will!!

The photos almost look like they are this type of screw,


But it is a pretty blurry/crappy photo so......

I still have the custom bit I made to take apart SNES carts and consoles back in the day, before the internet and you could not find the special bit to buy!!

I used a piece of small brass tubing slightly larger than the screw, heated it up with a blow torch, filled it with solder, pressed it onto the security screw and let it cool to form itself to the security screw and soldered on a small square bar piece of brass for a T handle and used that for years to take apart SNES carts and consoles.
Then later bought a real bit because they used the same security screw for the GameCube

[Noahtuck]

At times WAAAAY back in the day i even used my dremel tool to cut notches in security screws/bolts so I could remove them with a standard flat head screwdriver!
LOL!!

If someone wants to take it apart, they will, one way or another!!

They don't want us taking it apart!!!
Just like they don't want us to be able to backup or make portable copies in different formats of Bluray & DVD's!!

Better shut the whole internet down!!
Go back to living in caves and using campfires for light and heat!!
LOL!!

[aedipuss]

there is also a security torx with a pin in the middle. need different drivers for those. t8 and t10 security bits are widely used.

[Seeker47]

]Seriously ?!?!
Better get out that mic and take a clearer photo with it on the screws!!

But when you check them with a strong magnifier, make sure you can see it better than that photo you posted!!

Or were you trying to mimic your eyesight ?

Nah, the camera in my phone is not very good. No flash, gotta hold it dead still for a shot (which I'm obviously not very good at). I like this 3-year-old phone well enough, just gotta get a better camera.

[Seeker47]

They look like "prevent unauthorize4d thieves from tampering with this proprietary hardware" devices, or some such. I'd say someone is asking for trouble. Just IMHO. As Mark Twain said, "It ain't that there's too many fools, but that lightnin' ain't distributed right."

That hardware was leased, but it is thoroughly FRIED. (But not the HDD, though . . . I hope.) It has a lot of very-hard-to-replace content on it, and I'm extremely reluctant to give it up. If the HDD still works, I'd be glad to pay them for it ! Then I would take my chances.

According to friends who were former fellow subscribers, in some cases the provider might go to the trouble of refurbing a unit like this. (But it's no longer one of their current models.) In many other cases, they just go for scrap, along with a truck full of other dead units. One friend was told that they did not even want the dead box sent back.

I think Noahtuck and I are more on the same wavelength. But that indent looks round to me, definitely not hexagonal or Allen-wrench-y.

[sanlyn]

AH. You know, you might have mentioned all this. Could have saved you and us a lot of time and trouble. We have too many of these "Hi, there. Please read my mind" posts.

[Seeker47]

AH. You know, you might have mentioned all this. Could have saved you and us a lot of time and trouble. We have too many of these "Hi, there. Please read my mind" posts.

The added details change very little about the stated issue. The rest of it was just a (later) side-argument about the legalities and justification for proceeding. And I described the screw pretty well in the initial post.

[sanlyn]

I had to disassemble a dining room table whose legs were fastened with much larger versions of those screws. Found the tools at Sears. Pain in the neck. Good luck with the HDD.

[Seeker47]

Update:

I just had an HVAC tech here to do some long pending work,
and he sold me a multi-driver (from extra parts carried on his
truck) that has at least 15 different security bits stored in the
handle. One of these is apparently the right one for the job.

Now I just need to see if that hard drive is soldered in or otherwise
locked down.

I had to disassemble a dining room table whose legs were fastened with much larger versions of those screws. Found the tools at Sears. Pain in the neck. Good luck with the HDD.

Security screws for a dining table ?!?
Yeah, the HDD is apt to be the major challenge. Thanx.

[sanlyn]

Not security screws. Bolts. You can make those weird bolt heads tight as hell, much moreso than phillips head, hex, etc., and they fit flush with the wood. But $25 for a pack of three bits.

[wingnut2003]

it is a security bolt/screw. you need the security bit tool. http://www.harborfreight.com/100-piece-security-bit-set-68457.html

[jagabo]

Snapshot attached.

Do you have a magnifying glass sitting around? A pair of reading glasses? Hold it over your camera's lens to make a poor man's macro lens. You'll be able to get closer and get a clearer image.

[Nelson37]

See if you can find a really blurry Allen wrench.

Picture nowhere good enough for intended purpose.

Identifying the hardware might have been a better clue.

[jagabo]

see if you can find a really blurry allen wrench.

lol

[Noahtuck]

it is a security bolt/screw. you need the security bit tool. http://www.harborfreight.com/100-piece-security-bit-set-68457.html

Yeah, that's the same set I linked to like 13 post's before yours....
LOL!!