T60 hard drive cover screw won't catch

[Muse]

I've had this problem before. In fact, one time the screw holding the HD cover in place fell out (it's on the bottom, gravity is the enemy here), and I purchased a new HD hardware kit in order to get another screw. I just swapped HDs in one of my T60s and again, the screw will not catch. Yesterday I noticed that the screw had sure enough fallen out, but I noticed it and put it aside. I have the same problem today. Why in blazes did they make it so hard to get that screw to catch??? Surely they could have worked out a solution to this! My jury rig for the time being is to not use the screw at all (what good can it do if it will just fall out and get lost?), and tape the cover on with electrician's tape.

[Neil]

As far as I can tell, there are only two possibilities here as to why the screw won't catch.
1) The screw is not long enough. But since you bought a replacement, that shouldn't be the issue.
2) The threads are stripped out of the socket in the roll cage (most likely), in which case you might try a thicker screw that will only have to bite into the plastic of the cover, and not go all the way through to the roll cage. Maybe a drive caddy screw would work for that.

[Norway Pad]

It screws into the magnesium frame above the HDD bay. If you remove the HDD cover, you will see the threaded hole it goes into. Do you have the correct screw? Try without the HDD cover in place and see if the screw is long enough to actually reach through all the way to screw into it's hole. If it does, you might have stripped the threads out of hole or off of the screw.

Edit: Neil beat me to it.

[Muse]

It screws into the magnesium frame above the HDD bay. If you remove the HDD cover, you will see the threaded hole it goes into. Do you have the correct screw? Try without the HDD cover in place and see if the screw is long enough to actually reach through all the way to screw into it's hole. If it does, you might have stripped the threads out of hole or off of the screw.

Edit: Neil beat me to it.

The screw appears to be fine, not stripped. The shaft of the screw is approximately 14mm long, perhaps only 13.7mm. Without the cover in place the screw does catch in the hole. I had the cover on this morning, it caught, I loosened it, and then could not get the screw to catch, and haven't succeeded in getting to catch since.

[Norway Pad]

If you are able to make it work on some occations, and you are certain that there are threads catching and you can tighten the screw, I would think you simply miss the hole. The HDD cover can be slightly off or something, so it doesn't put the end of the screw exactly where it should be.

[Muse]

If you are able to make it work on some occations, and you are certain that there are threads catching and you can tighten the screw, I would think you simply miss the hole. The HDD cover can be slightly off or something, so it doesn't put the end of the screw exactly where it should be.

My exact thinking, yes precisely... so, I tried and tried and still couldn't get the screw to catch. Now, I remembered that I had another screw somewhere and found a little ziplock bag that came with my T60 nearly 10 years ago. The bag says: P/N 42W2143. It contained 2 screws, one of them looking almost exactly like the screw I'm having trouble with, however instead of a combination slot/phillips head, it requires a hex driver. Driven by the smallest of my Allen wrenches the screw seems to have caught. The screw appears to be of the same length as the one I've had problems with. Hopefully, the hex driven screw will hold. Anyway, I think I'll leave a little piece of black electricians tape on top of the screw head in case the screw tries to escape, can't hurt, and it's right in front of me. Yes, I have that tape on top, don't want to lose the only screw I have that holds the cover in place. Why the other one won't catch, I don't know.