Longtime Thinkpad user/abuser here, planning on assembling my just-received kit over the holiday weekend.
A longlong time ago, I got into the habit of using purple loctite
on laptops/celphones as they were going back together, to reduce the general tendency of screw creep and creaking, and part of general belt-and-suspenders levels of caution. It hasn’t interfered with subsequent reassemblies, and that’s with phillips-head screws.
Is this a bad idea for the DIY assembly?
Don’t do it. The case screws are captive, and if you are anything like the rest of us, you will be in and out of the laptop all the time, either playing around with it, showing it off, or…
Other than just checking that the screws inside are all in place, I would leave it as designed.
But it’s your machine, and you get to repair or do as you wish… Not like that fruit machine.
I use thread locker on many fasteners. Though most are steel in steel or steel in cast iron.
If you lost a screw here the laptop is not going to fall apart unlike parts of my motorcycles or cars.
Devil’s advocate hat on.
Even though I don’t recommend doing Loctite in a laptop, interior screws should be checked on occasion.
If one of those puppies comes loose, it could short out something or get into the fan…
I check my internals on ALL of my mobile equipment (not just laptops) every New Years week, just for that reason. Screws, cables, springs, batteries.
I wish I had that discipline. Certainly an inspiration to aspire to.
It has saved my bacon many a time.
I learned to do it immediately that week from my Father who also depended on vital equipment for his and his clients safety.
I just have it in my phones calendar and don’t ignore the reminders. Now it is just built into my mindset.
…I know I don’t, which is why once I noticed that IBM used to do this when they built the machine(Why the FRU manuals reccomend replacing all the screws on the reassembly. Their screwkit comes precoated with their locktite), I started doing it when I put it back together:
The purple stuff is /really/ gentle - It just mainly provides a little drag.
It is good stuff for sure, I use it also, but only on metal to metal. And since so much is plastic these days…
… and here’s what the WIFI and SSD screws look like when removed for the install. No point in adding my own adhesive if they ship with some from the factory:
