Screwdrivers to work on x41 basic model

[keithsketchley]

I have again confirmed the desirability of a P000 screwdriver for the side screws for the display rear cover, and other screws inside the LCD assembly, on a standard x41’s display assembly containing a Samsung LCD panel.

The primary reason is that the screws have a very shallow head, thus the cross-recess in the head is very shallow (it also has small parallel flutes).

These are listed in the HMM as M2, I think they may be M1.8 or JIS equivalent (though I don’t see the dot that JIS should have on the head, the slot characteristics look like JIS – read on herein).
(The same small screws are used to hold the hinge-attachment sheet metal strips and WiFi antennas to the sides of the LCD. A shorter version is used to hold the digitizer board.)

The alternative LCD panel is “ID Tech, the only difference I see in the HMM is the right WiFi antenna has to be padded away from the Samsung LCD.)

A similar screw with thicker head is used to hold the display inverter, the connector hold-down for the display cable motherboard end, and the cover over memory and radio cards - P00 can be used there.

The HMM lists M2.5 for the two screws at the bottom front corners of the bezel, that seems correct.

[keithsketchley]

I uploaded a photo of the three types sizes with a P00 and a P000 beside them, http://www.keithsketchley.com/x41lcdsc.jpg. You can readily see that the LCD screws have much thinner recess slots than the screws of same diameter but thicker head, and the larger black screws used to hold bottom corners of the bezel.

(The P00 screwdriver is Vessel 9900, the P000 from Wiha (http://www.wihatools.com/200seri/273serie.htm, Vessel do not make a P000 yet), you can see that the larger screwdriver does not have the fine-ness at the point to properly engage the LCD screws. (There is a difference in point angle which also affects fit.) The Phillips system is designed to cam out to avoid breaking the fastener off in its hole. There are many cheap screwdrivers out there, I think that even precision ones like Wiha are made with straight flutes not the uneven shape of the Phillips spec, so they work on JIS.)

I’m unsure of the HMM’s callout such as M2x2.5, since an ISO M2 fine should have 0.25 mm pitch, it appears IBM has moved the decimal point. And the screws might be Japan Industrial Standard not ISO.

These screws have what is called a “wafer” head shape, flat on top and bottom. http://nejikouba.com/titan2.htm shows shape typical of the larger size in x41s, looks like it is made by “cold-heading” but the display side screws are much more precise.