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Comment by jandrese | Hacker News Reader

The security versions have a raised part in the middle that makes it impossible to use the regular Torx bit.

I don’t think we are getting to the bottom of what the parent’s parent comment is talking about.

Apple decided to use T7 security screws instead of just normal T7 torx. Why!? I am not looking for answers to the differences and what makes a security bit different. I am asking a more abstract rhetorical question - Why make it harder for the consumer to take the laptop apart? Especially, if it’s not impossible - just a little bit harder.

the more surface area that’s contacted between the driver and the fastener, the more friction and the better they hold on to the automatic drivers used to assemble the devices. On such a tiny screw the center pin probably adds an extra 20% or more surface area.

I don’t know if that’s absolutely the reason but if they wanted to keep people out they could easily make a custom head that looked like the Apple logo or something. Nintendo has used tri-wing screws for decades because they expressly do want to keep people out of their devices. You can stop get a tri-wing driver but you have to special order it.

The security torx bits are much weaker, I've actually snapped quite a few of them which has never happened to me with any other type.

I've only ever worked with screws that small on older macbooks that had user-replaceable hard drives and RAM and never had any problems, but I don't doubt it could be an issue. The factories that assemble this stuff surely have screwdrivers with torque-limiting clutches though.

Not sure what I snapped them on. They weren't great bits either, I used to pick up terrible security bit sets on Ebay before I realised every Canadian Tire carries a fantastic Mastercraft set with most precision-sized security bits for ~$30 CAD. I've worked on other stuff with security torx just can't remember what. HDD sleds for servers at least, definitely some other stuff over the years.

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