I decided on cleaning my laptop fans today, which I've been procrastinating for about a year now because of this one screw. But I just can't seem to open this with my screwdriver, since whatever I did back when I last opened it it's nearly circular now. Is there a way to unscrew this?
The same thing happened to me..... Luckily it was one of screws on the outer edges of the thermal housing. HP's screws are such dogshit that they get easily stripped. I tried everything from rubber band to superglue. Eventually I had to drilled the screw head away.
Yep, I replaced the fan after 1,5 (or 1.5) years with a cheap aliexpress one and this one works way better than the original, but it's still very loud and could actually be used as a heater for a small room. Plus I forgot, the DVD drive died last year and I won't be replacing it.