PCIe Screws stuck - how to upgrade?

I cracked open my Omnia to install an mSata, something I’ve never tried before and I’ve discovered two of the screws on the the PCI cards (one on the port nearest the cpu, and one on the vacant port) are too tight to undo. They would have shipped this way from the factory I guess as I haven’t previosuly touched them.

The metal seems pretty soft so I don’t want to risk stripping them. Also the gold socket below one of them is spinning with the screw (but not coming out) so I presume it’s stripped the socket on the board. Any tips on how to proceed? Anyone else had this problem?

I had the same issue some time ago, it‘s a known Issue. Carefully increase the force and use a pair of tongs to keep the golden socket in place (prevent rotating), also make sure your skrewdriver fits perfectly.

Well that was more exciting than I hoped. I managed to strip the centre screw holding the board in and this was the last one I had to take out.

By this point I’d already removed a couple of the feet for the pcie cards, which cannot be put back either where they were or in the new location without removing the board from the case. This meant I couldn’t simply put everything back and give up on it.

The solution in the end was to drill out the offending screw with my trusty Bosch and vacuum inside thoroughly. This is not a recommended approach and I’m pretty sure my warranty is well and truly void but it all seems to work still…