Adafruit: From Ultimate Driving Machine to Ultimate Rent-Seeking Machine: The BMW Logo Screw Patent.

If you haven’t already heard, BMW’s R&D teams have been busy “innovating.” Unfortunately, they aren’t focusing on the things that actually matter—like stellar engine performance or the legendary driving dynamics that gearheads love. Instead, the C-suite execs decided that the best use of their engineering budget was to design a proprietary security screw specifically intended to prevent BMW drivers from fixing their own cars.

    • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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      30 days ago

      It’s always torx. I don’t need them for anything else. And yeah I own a couple of torx bits but I have a really nice selection of Philips I keep right at hand. But like I said, that’s just one of many reasons.

        • frongt@lemmy.zip
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          29 days ago

          Yup, torx are great. Nearly impossible to strip. Philips heads strip if you look at them wrong.

          • dial_pootis@lemmy.world
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            29 days ago

            I can say this is 100% true, I think it’s a combination with it’s mechanism, cheaping out on materials and the screwdriver itself.

        • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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          30 days ago

          Ok but they were selling shitty laptops with 4g of soldered RAM very recently. I also had to deal with a 64gb soldered SSD, that piece of shit wasn’t even that old, it was a Windows 11 PC . The torx still annoy me, but they’re a garbage company. Don’t even start on their printers.

          • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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            29 days ago

            Everything is going to be soldered except on some mid and high-end corporate laptops within a couple generations. Those, and desktops will use CAMM. My prediction.

            Torx is a superior screw though. On low-torque applications, sure, Phillips is a bit more convenient.

            Reason being, it’s very difficult to cam-out or round a torx head if you are using the right size driver.

            Torx are absolutely my go-to for general construction screw, when I’m using an impact driver and can zoom zoom zoom. Quite satisfying.

            I think the reason torx wins in laptops and pre-built PCs is probably because they are much better for assembly-line or automated assembly. The right tools are always there and will always securely grab the screw.

            If you slip with a screwdriver on a main board, you can easily destroy the main board. Making torx superior for large-scale assembly.

            My dad wrecked his Abit BH6 back in the day, trying to secure the slotket for an upgrade (to a Malay Celeron 300A), due to the screwdriver slipping out. Managed to slice an SMD capacitor right in half. Good for him, even at like 55 he was able to hand-solder a replacement in and revive the board.