reuse nylon coated screws?

[frogger3d]

My touch pad cable is presumably decoupled after a repair as mentioned in
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 548#310548

During the repair they broke my ultrabay port as well (only noticed it after the warranty ran out...), a small metal sheet was bent downwards and is now bent backwards because the cd player was inserted forcefully. This causes the cd player not to fit correctly and it occasionally is not detected/disconnects. It also prevents my laptop from entering suspend.

I'm a bit hesitant to pull my computer apart for a loose cable and a bent metal sheet. The service manual mentions that nylon coated screws can only be used once and perchance every screw is nylon coated. Do you suggest I reuse the screws? A screwkit costs about $50...

Sorry for the double post, I only realised later that it was kind of off topic in the other post and would probably not get response.

[frogger3d]

Okay.. I just found this topic....
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ated+screw

I'm just kind of worried I'll destroy my laptop when I decide to open it..

[jdhurst]

I have removed the palm rest on my T41 to replace the wireless NIC and to replace the CPU. I work carefully and re-use the screws with no ill effect. The absolute correct way is to use new screws, but even techs re-use screws for simple repairs. ... JDH

[Robbyrobot]

I'm just kind of worried I'll destroy my laptop when I decide to open it..

Then you know what I felt like the first time I opened a computer (my desktop computer, to add a card) in 1986 or thereabouts

I was _sure_ I'd damage something beyond all repair, and kept the new card on my desk for over a month before finally getting up my courage to open the PC case.

As it turned out, I didn't damage anything, then or later. And found out computers are a good deal more robust than some descriptions might indicate, even robust enough to stand sometimes clumsy handling like mine.

Unless you have a really new, expensive computer, my advice would be to download the HMM, ignore all the admonitions to replace the motherboard if the backspace key on the keyboard hangs (and similar), ignore the pleas to use new screws unless you butch up the old ones taking them out, and just be careful and methodical. A lot of what they write in the HMMs is, in my humble opinion, great if you don't have to pay for the parts but unnecessary expense if you do.

I just finished taking two 770Es apart and reassembling them to make one working 770E out of two defective ones. I'd never even seen a 770E before I did this, and all the work was based on the HMM. Apart from the fact that it's very hard to keep the screws straight, since IBM in its wisdom frequently uses screws of the same size but different lengths, there were no problems.

So give it a try and don't be too worried... if you don't have two left hands you should be able to get your computer apart and back together without much difficulty.

[frogger3d]

Thanks for the replies

I have quite some experience pulling apart desktop computers, but laptops with their specifically crafted parts seem so fragile.

I took apart my laptop and reconnected my touchpad and bent the metal sheet blocking my ultrabay. I even reapplied thermal paste to my gpu (the chip was burnt on top..). Now I hope my laptop will continue to function . Only thing still frustrating me is the dvd writer interfering with standby state..