Screw Stuck in Standoff

[dhanson10]

Hello,

One of the standoffs that came with my case appears to be threaded incorrectly. I torqued the screwdriver a little too much hoping it was just a metal burr that I needed to break through and now the screw and the standoff are turning together. So, I can't back out the screw without the standoff coming along, the other 8 screws fit perfectly and while this one is in there tightly, the washer portion of the screw is not contacting the motherboard.

Can I leave it this way?

Do I need to figure out a way to get the screw out?

If I do get the screw out, am I alright with only 8 instead of 9, and do I need to take the motherboard all the way off and remove the standoff altogether?

 

[clonazepam]

I was in a rush once putting a system together about 8 years ago. I ran out of standoffs and was one short. I went without it. I just made sure it wasn't in a really important area. An important area would be anywhere on the motherboard where you will be applying pressure to the board like when installing RAM modules, plugging in the 20/24 pin mobo power, or seating a graphics card.

Since the standoff is in place, you don't have to worry about the board warping when installing components due to the pressure needed for installation. The board's still quite secure enough with the remaining screws and standoffs you have in place. If you lucked out and the standoff and screw in question are along the edge of the motherboard, you might be able to find a tiny wrench that will fit in the gap between the motherboard and the motherboard tray and use it to secure the standoff from spinning while you try to remove the screw.

If you want to leave the screw as it is, then you want to fill the gap between the screw head, and the motherboard. A simple solution might be to take a long piece of string, tie a loop at one end, lasso the screw, and then start wrapping the string around the portion of the screw exposed, and keep wrapping 'round and 'round until you build up enough layers of string to "fill in" the gap and act as a washer.

Edited typo.

 

[dhanson10]

The standoff is in the top left, right next to the 8 pin power connector. I am not worried about pressure in this area, especially considering the screw is stuck in the standoff and I have resecured the standoff by screwing it back in, my concern is with any danger to my system by having the screw halfway in.

Do you know what the possible issue would be, if any?

 

[treefrog07]

Hello,

One of the standoffs that came with my case appears to be threaded incorrectly. I torqued the screwdriver a little too much hoping it was just a metal burr that I needed to break through and now the screw and the standoff are turning together. So, I can't back out the screw without the standoff coming along, the other 8 screws fit perfectly and while this one is in there tightly, the washer portion of the screw is not contacting the motherboard.

Can I leave it this way?
Yes.

Do I need to figure out a way to get the screw out?
If it annoys you. It sounds like you stripped the stand-off threads, so you will have to remove the motherboard, and use a screwdriver and needle-nosed pliers to remove the screw from the standoff. Then you could find another standoff and attach it to the motherboard tray, or leave it out, using only 8 stand-offs and screws to hold the board and cards. If you have all the PCIe/PCI slots filled, you might want to add a replacement stand-off and screw.

If I do get the screw out, am I alright with only 8 instead of 9, and do I need to take the motherboard all the way off and remove the standoff altogether?
See above and yes, you should remove it from the case altogether because it is metal and could fall in a way that would short-circuit the board and cause a catastrophic failure.

See above in red font.

 

[dhanson10]

Alright great, thanks for the help. It doesn't annoy me at all, and it is quite secure as is so I'll leave it that way. This is my first build and my understanding of even the purpose of the standoffs/screws outside of securing the motherboard to the case is elementary at best. Just wanted to make sure this wasn't going to short out my computer when I fired it up for the first time.

Thanks again.

 

[dhanson10]

Best answer selected by dhanson10.

 

[treefrog07]

You are welcome. I usually test the screws into the stand-offs before I attach the stand-offs to the board, the stand-offs are usually brass which is softer than the steel screws.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr