I'm fucking pissed now!

easy fix. get a drill and use a small enough bit that fits right on the top of the screw, drill the top off and gently pull the back cover off. had to do this to 4 3ds systems, 6 nintendo switches and one of my old android game handhelds. asa long as you're careful, you wont break anything

Do you even understand how screws work? If I drill the flat part of the screw off then pull the cover with the rest of the screw still in the turns will break, not the screw's the plastic cover's... Sure it might work sometimes, but not willing to risk the turns getting ruined forcing me to superglue it together or some shit. I'm just gonna have to go the "old screwdriver superglued on the screw top to force it to turn" method which is safer in the long run.

Totally get you! The screws are very tight. One needs to apply some force to open them; and then the screws are f…ed up. Searching for "3DS" and "stripped screws" shows that you're not the only one with that problem.

I had that wonderful experience a few weeks ago on a N3DS (but thankfully managed to get that shitty screw out). What kind of soft metal did they use for the screws?

Do you have some Stabilos at home ?
Heat up the end plastic part until it's melting, then push it on the screw until it cools down and try to unscrew it.... worked for me for some fucked up screws.

@ThoD Sounds like your solution is similar what yours truly did along with help from an older brother with a GC who's disc drive still failed to function even after taking the whole system apart and turning a particular screw in just the right way. We took a fucking pen and a candle and set the blunt end of the pen aflame, and stuck it into one of the GC case screws and let the shape of the screw fill in on the blunt end, let it dry out and harden to where we could get in and get into the real nitty gritty.

Thankfully, Dolphin exists these days so you don't have to go through shit like the above anymore. Now where are those Zelda and Super Mario Sunshine ports to Switch, Nintendo!?

Spray a contact cleaner on the damn thing and it should work like new again.

Basically for VERY badly damaged screws what you need to do is make something "stick" to them to give you enough leverage to make the screw turn. Most often people working on electronics just use the simple "use some solder with a screwdriver" since solder is easy to remove from the screwdriver after and all (put more hot solder on the now dried solder and it comes right off), but since there's no room to do that (top 4 screws are pretty damn deep in on the 2DS) I just went with superglue (put some on a P0 screwdriver and let it stickt then turn), thankfully I had a solvent for it so it was easy to clean up after. For whatever reason Nintendo put both SHIT quality screws AND made them ridiculously tight, so you are almost guaranteed to ruin them just by trying to unscrew them once if you put the slightest amount of force on them...

@ertaboy356b Except that it's impossible to spray that on a hole that's 3mm wide and a full centimeter deep without making a mess of the whole thing, plus it doesn't really work for worn screws that much.

Okay, instead of complaining when you are offered advice that works, go but another 2DS then. They’re dirt cheap for new ones. And yes I do understand how screws work. I’ve done my method several times with no issues what so ever. Oh and you don’t leave the screws in after drilling the tops off, get a pair of needle nose pliers and GENTLY twist them out. Seems like you have a problem with gently and carefully removing screws from your stuff.

nero99 said:

Seems like you have a problem with gently and carefully removing screws from your stuff.

Click to expand...

I've opened multiple 2|3DS systems. Most of the time it worked. And sometimes the screws are so tight that it is impossible to turn them without a good amount of force → Baaam screw f…ed up before you know it. I was very careful the last time… and the picture above is the result. Those screws are incredibly easy to damage and there is just no excuse for that.

Why not search for "3DS stripped screws" yourself? It happens often. I don't think all those people are to clumsy to turn a small screw.

@nero99 Advice that only sometimes "works" but having considerable risk isn't good advice. Like I've said, I've been tinkering/building/repairing electronics since I was 6 years old, that's basically 18 years of doing that stuff and this is literally the first time I ever encountered SUCH bad quality screws, it's like they are made out of goo rather than metal, it's absurd! I was as gentle as I could, still the screws got completely ruined instantly (3 became useless and one badly messed up in the process), I've worked on EXTREMELY sensitive devices with tiny screws (even smaller than Phillips 000 for reference which are half the 2DS's) and never had the slightest issue. It's like Kleines said, screws on 3DSs are either gonna unscrew with no issue or they'll get messed up and you can't use a drill on a O2DS because it has weird depth for the top screws making easy to ruin the cover if you go with a drill.

Also, here's how a screw looks like:

You twist top part and the screw slids into place on BOTH parts you are screwing together, if you drill the top off, you are left with a screw with NOTHING TO PUT LEVERAGE ON TO TURN IT and if you try to pull apart the pieces it's holding together the "turns" on the plastic will break on at least one side! I honestly don't know what the fuck you are smoking, but you can't tell me you can actually drill the top off of a screw that has a 2mm wide top with .8mm wide body that's only 2.5mm long that's also inside a 1cm deep hole and SOMEHOW be able to fit freaking pliers in the hole and grab the remaining screw body properly enough to twist out of the hole, all while NOT DAMAGING THE CASE AT ALL! Either you are some freaking wizard or just full of shit and don't know what you are talking about because I've handled INDUSTRIAL machines meant for such things like when there are mistakes in mass production in factories and even those can't do that shit.

Jesus ThoD, take a chill pill. Sounds like you SHOULD be on something, might take the edge off your attitude and temper your sarcastic and narcky responses to people offering you advice.

Maybe shit screws suit Nintendo's purpose, after all I doubt they want you poking round in the console.

Or maybe most people are just better at screwing than you...

I don't know if this is the case for the O2DS, but I needed to take apart a N3DSXL to fix the right shoulder button and saw that the screw I was trying to open was getting stripped by the screwdriver. I stopped immediately and looked up if that was a thing, and found out that Nintendo doesn't use standard philips head screws for the N3DSXL: they use JIS (Japanese Industry Standard) screws, which are similar, but get stripped if you try to use a philips screwdriver to work it.

The back cover uses standard philips screws, which is why I never had a problem taking that off, but the rest of the screws are JIS. You will find similar cases of stripped screws in some Japanese motorcycles as they also use JIS. I was going to purchase a JIS-001 screwdriver online, but it's really expensive for whatever reason. For now I just use my 2DS XL.

I literally drilled some screws out of my old 3ds.

haha ur mad...

AGAIN, do NOT confuse O3DS with O2DS, the screws on the O3DS are all SURFACE screws, the O2DS has screws like a full centimeter inside the hole before you reach the screw head, literally impossible to drill out and use pliers on WITHOUT damaging the case whatsoever.

PS: Also, idiots should learn to read, this is a ranting post, I never asked for advice, let alone badly-thought advice, I already know how to deal with stripped screws, like I've said I've been working on electronics for EIGHTEEN FUCKING YEARS! It's just the ONLY time I've encountered screws that stripped on the first try, for example, I've taken apart my Sony PSP WELL OVER 300 times and screws don't have so much as a scratch on them, despite being even smaller (P000 instead of P00). I can't stand it when people make up shit or don't understand yet act like they are better.