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Mid 2010 Model A1278 / 2.4 or 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo processor

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How to get my stripped battery screw out?

Hello, I have a mid 2010 MacBook unibody. The battery on it was bad. It would work when I plugged the charger in, but one day I noticed the computer was wobbly and the casing was popping off. I opened it up and noticed the battery had expanded. Thank God it didn't explode. I ordered a new one online and it came with the necessary screw drivers to remove it. When I began to uninstall the battery, I stripped the last screw I needed to remove to get the battery out. It was a triwing screw. I researched how to remove the screws and have found answers saying to use a Dremel, cut a slot and then use a flat head. I am very uncomfortable doing that as I have unsteady hands and the screw is right near the logic board where you disconnect the battery and it's the side where the battery began expanding. I tried to see if pliers would work. I thought if I was able to get a grip around the head, I might be able to turn it, but because the screw is too small and I can't seem to get a grip. I've tried larger drivers, different drivers, pliers, just to try and get some kind of grip, Nothing worked so far (obviously) I don't know what else to do. I thought about a computer repair shop but I cannot even get to one right now. Any help on how to get this thing out without harming my logic board (or my life lol) would be appreciated. Thank you!

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Don’t worry about the battery exploding, it won’t. It might release stinky fumes though which may be a bit unhealthy, thus the earlier you can dispose of it, the better. There are two screws keeping that battery in place.. the one closer to the connector is the longer one and that makes things more troublesome. It seems it is stripped quite heavily from what i can see and being so small cutting a slot with dremel would need a surgical precision. There are two things left..one would be to try to hammer a bit the scredriver and see it that helps but I doubt you’ll succeed..the other would be to cut off the plastic tab with the dremel..that would be much easier. Keep as close to the screw as you feel confortable to avoid damaging the battery cells, but you have quite some room to do it safely. Once you have removed the battery gently hammer the plastic left, maybe with the help of a small flat head screwdriver, it should break quite easily. Without the plastic it should be then relatively easy to remove the screw with pliers.

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4 Comments:

@arbaman it worked. Thank you so much

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You're welcome, happy you made it :)

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The same thing happened to me and I was able to use your solution to remove the stripped screw.

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@thefist Thanks for letting me know, I'm happy it helped !

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Michael will be eternally grateful.
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