KC Forums

Hi all, I'm having screwing problems.

[offtopic] Cool a forum; I like these and why were they taken from us? [/offtopic]

Anyhow I have recently purchased a Psion Series 5. Not sure how well known they are around the world but they were a fairly nifty palmtop computer made by a British firm in the 90s. The Series 5 runs EPOC, which is an OS that actually became Nokia's Symbian. The UI and the full size keyboard are quite intuitive and still a lot more pleasurable to use than Android today IMO.

That aside, mine has a problem. The touch screen does not work. So to disassemble it and clean out the ribbon cable, I need to unscrew a small screw... that's in the battery compartment (you can guess where this is going). The previous owner left in the old batteries for heaven knows how long, and the acid made a dash for it but in the process the screw head has rusted and its inserts aren't very visible, so it can't be unscrewed.

Any ideas what I might do? I might try something to clean/remove the rust, or if things get desperate, unscrew everything else and hope for the best. But if anyone has been here before I'd like to hear how it went.

I'll also share photos if you're interested.

Hmmmm that's a really tough one... letting the screw sit in vinegar overnight can help with removing the rust/corrosion, but whether it'll make the screw "screwable" again depends a lot on how destroyed it got...

Depending on how bad it is, you may have to resort to more destructive methods. A dremel can make a slit in a screw head that you could then turn with a flathead screwdriver. Alternatively, drilling right through a screw can often have success with dislodging it. But obviously all of these approaches carry severe risks, particularly if you care about the device itself, so it's up to you whether you think it's worth it or not.

Best of luck!

Thanks Matt, I'll give one of those a go to see how far I get. If there's any luck I'll update the thread.

Some photos, the Psion itself:

https://www.thran.uk/img/psion-series5.jpeg

The corroded screw:

https://www.thran.uk/img/badscrew.jpeg

Honestly, I'm in favour of making it illegal to leave leaky batteries in electronics. Inexcusable!