My A button has been becoming insensitive so I bought a replacement sticker with the metal connectors. Opening up the console now, after the back plate was removed it's time to remove the 8 screws holding the back cover. Every single one of them is stuck. A weird kind of stuck. They sometimes rotate very little in the direction and then stop dead. My hands are red from attempting to unscrew them. All of them are like this. I made sure the screwdriver rotation direction is correct. Left to right, just like the back cover was. I put in some WD-40 in the depression and left it for a bit and tried again. They still will not budge. Used several screwdrivers, some with the cross head, some with a regular bar head. Tried pushing in at an angle while rotating, with the head's corner in the center of the screw. Nothing.
At this point the screw heads still hold the shape but a bit of wear is showing. Attempting with more persistence and aggression risks stripping them. Haven't tried glue to the head of the screwdriver yet. I have none and I'm afraid it will get pushed out of the cross by the pressure and potentially leak out to the sides and maybe even under, sealing the screw forever. I'd like to know what kind of places would be deemed appropriate to professionally deal with this kind of matter. I don't want to cause damage.
Years back the screws on an Old 3DS I had were pretty stuck and although the methods used above eventually loosened all but one, that final one refused under any circumstances. This lead to a stripped head, a screw remover, and a damaged shell. The entire ordeal took a long time, as did replacing the damaged case. According to the videos I saw online the N3DS XL looks far less hellish on the inside, but the stuck screws are back to haunt me. My head is swirling with PTSD from the past experience and bitterness as to the difficulty of disassembly. I'm starting to think it's planned obsolescence on Nintendo's part.
At this point the screw heads still hold the shape but a bit of wear is showing. Attempting with more persistence and aggression risks stripping them. Haven't tried glue to the head of the screwdriver yet. I have none and I'm afraid it will get pushed out of the cross by the pressure and potentially leak out to the sides and maybe even under, sealing the screw forever. I'd like to know what kind of places would be deemed appropriate to professionally deal with this kind of matter. I don't want to cause damage.
Years back the screws on an Old 3DS I had were pretty stuck and although the methods used above eventually loosened all but one, that final one refused under any circumstances. This lead to a stripped head, a screw remover, and a damaged shell. The entire ordeal took a long time, as did replacing the damaged case. According to the videos I saw online the N3DS XL looks far less hellish on the inside, but the stuck screws are back to haunt me. My head is swirling with PTSD from the past experience and bitterness as to the difficulty of disassembly. I'm starting to think it's planned obsolescence on Nintendo's part.