[SOLVED] IO Shield not lined up, motherboard won't come off, what do I do?

Feb 14, 2019
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Okay, I have a two-for-one here.
I've been seriously taking my time putting a new PC together. After I got the motherboard, CPU, and memory in on Monday, I've just been waiting for the next few parts to be shipped before I even try to POST it. (I'm reusing my PSU from my current PC, anyway, so to POST it requires a lot of plugging and unplugging, and I've had work in the morning, you know?) But today while eating breakfast and staring at the back of my build, I noticed that the LAN and HDMI ports had the I/O shield tabs sticking into the ports.
So I immediately went to pull the motherboard out and re-set it correctly around the shield, like I know I'm supposed to do, when the second problem hits: the top screw closest to the I/O shield appears to be stripped into the standoff. (If looking at the board flat on the table from the side of the I/O ports, it would be the closest left one.) The standoff itself JUST BARELY stays in the board when I turn it counter-clockwise. It seemingly sits perfectly when I screw it back in. (My case has a wide open section behind the CPU so I can see this is true.)
I can and have pried the offending tabs back from the shield, out of the ports. (I have not cut them off at this time, though. Actually I might be missing anything you CAN cut with.) And the LAN jack has four side tabs making contact with the port in question, so the big one potentially blocking the port is kind of redundant? The HDMI port on the other hand just has the one tab that I pried back.
So CAN I just cut the tabs off? I know I'm never going to use the HDMI port for anything, especially after I get my video card in the mail, and if I do POST it first it'll be connected to my monitor with a DVI cable. What is the actual risk here?
Failing that, has anyone got any experience with just bending the tabs back through? Or making alternate connections with the shield?
Or do I really, REALLY need to just try and get that sucker out of the case? My tool kit is somehow lacking the right sized forceps or needle-nose pliers at the moment to manipulate the standoff around that final two or three turns (like most standoffs I've seen it's hexagonal), but I may be able to borrow them from someone. Having said that, I of course have no idea how easily I can then separate the screw from the standoff. (I don't have a drill or a dremel.)

The motherboard -- MSI B450-Pro-M2
The case -- Thermaltake Versa H15
The processor and memory -- probably irrelevant but Ryzen 3 2200G and 1 stick of 8GB of RAM
 
Solution
You can cut the offending tabs off the IO shield or bend them out of the way. No biggie, as long as the tabs don't make contact with things they shouldn't (short-out)

More than likely the mobo screw is tightened into the standoff tigher than the standoff is in the case, so you actually are turning the standoff out of the case. I've had this happen a few times. Now when I install standoffs, I use a pliers to tighten them, and a little loc-tite is good too. Anyway, back to your problem, you'll need to remove the other mobo screws, then pry with your fingers under the mobo around the bad standoff to get it to come off the case. Should work.
You can cut the offending tabs off the IO shield or bend them out of the way. No biggie, as long as the tabs don't make contact with things they shouldn't (short-out)

More than likely the mobo screw is tightened into the standoff tigher than the standoff is in the case, so you actually are turning the standoff out of the case. I've had this happen a few times. Now when I install standoffs, I use a pliers to tighten them, and a little loc-tite is good too. Anyway, back to your problem, you'll need to remove the other mobo screws, then pry with your fingers under the mobo around the bad standoff to get it to come off the case. Should work.
 
Solution