Broken Hinges on 17" HP Envy Laptop

[Pissedoff0071]

This is not a question, just feedback to other HP customers. I am a Chartered Engineer. I NEED good quality equipment for my work. Over the last 10-12 years I have bought several of the top of the range Envy & pavillion laptops. They are always in the £1300 to £1500 region. The current one has lasted less than 2 years. The internal plastic has become embrittled and the screws which hold the hinges internally no longer have the plastic matrix with the brass bushes to screw into. Now whenever the laptop is open or closed, the internal hinges pop the cover off. Also, the screen has gone, all I can see are lots of horizontal multi-coloured lines. I now can only use it if I plug another monitor and keyboard into it.

I wrote to HP last week. Their complaints dept phoned me today. It is out of warranty, they can repair it but I would have to pay, and yes, the repair would be carried out using the same plastic components which become heat embrittled after 12-18 months. The person who rang agreed with me that this was a very common complaint and that I was right to expect more than 2 years from a top end laptop.

I said it would cost more than the laptop is currently worth to strip out the internals to replace the plastic carcassing. I asked why they wasted my time by ringing me. They said they just wanted to be polite.

I have told them I will never buy HP anything again. I'll buy a new microsoft Surface Pro 7 next month.
VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH HP.
Save yourselves the hassle, don't pay the top prices for sub-standard equipment. Buy Microsoft or (and I hate to say this!) Apple.

[Huffer]

Do yourself a favor and google Surface Pro hinges and also MacBook Pro hinges. This is not solely an HP problem. It is not heat failure of the plastic, its seizure of the hinges that pulls on the mounting points. It could be repaired for much less than the cost of a new laptop. You are correct to say this should not be happening, however. Thanks for venting. 

[Pissedoff0071]

Surface Pro doesn't have hinges.......keyboard and screen separate. The ones I have seen are magnetic 'dock' together when you want to use them as a laptop instead of a tablet.

You are very wrong about the internal plastic of the HP laptops.....certainly in my Envy Model. I have removed the back and can clearly see the pieces of brittle plastic floating around loose inside. The brass bushes which WERE moulded into the plastic carcassing are now just floating around loose. If you pick the pieces up and try to glue them back together, they crumble in your hand. I'm an engineer and have studies materials to Master level. I didn't just make it up.
The material HP are using for the internals of their machines degrades with heat (like most plastics) and becomes brittle. It is not fit for purpose. They are using the wrong material. I don't like Apple and wouldn't buy one for myself, but I did buy one about 7 years ago for my daughter. She is rough with stuff. That MacPro is still going strong with no issues. Apple selected the correct material and the correct anchor points for their hinges.

Everything I've said there is indisputable.

HP should to the RIGHT thing and arrange recalls, or at the VERY least, repair those affected laptops.......instead of shafting and losing what were loyal customers

[Huffer]

No sense in arguing it but I have fixed an awful lot of these and base my opinion on a lot more than one laptop. Sometimes the hinges fail in a couple months and that's not enough time for heat to degrade anything. But really what difference does the exact failure mechanism make? None. 

[Pissedoff0071]

"What difference does exact failure mechanism make?"
Can't believe you said that!

It makes every difference in the world.
If you do not do a Root Cause Analysis (and there are many standard well known methods of doing this) you can not get to the root cause.
If you don't get to the root cause, anything you try to do to repair is merely putting a plaster on it. You would effectively be shooting in the dark.
No company I have ever worked for would take the approach of not establishing failure mechanism and root cause.

Surface Pro 7 for me next month. I'll spend a lot more money, but I'm confident based on what I've seen of colleagues Microsoft Surface Pro's that it will not let me down like HP have.
The most I've had out of my top end HP's has been 3 to 3.5 years. That's no good.

[Huffer]

But you have not done a root cause analysis. What plastic is HP using and what should it be using? Is the plastic HP uses any different than the plastic Toshiba or Lenovos uses? When you actually take one of these units that has failed apart and try to move the hinges they require much more torque to move than new ones. The plastic is literally torn apart and the brass screw mounts torn from the plastic by excessive force. It shatters into pieces. So the focus should be on the hinges, which are too flimsy and porly made. Still a problem that should be fixed, but hinge failure occurs across a wide range of models using different plastic. 

[Pissedoff0071]

You are correct, I have not done a root cause analysis on the plastics used in the laptops. That is not my job. Surely it is something HP should do?
What I can tell you is that the hinges on the Envy laptops I've had have all been good and strong. The hinges on my current laptop are the same. The PLASTIC that the hinges screw into and are mounted on has completely disintegrated, it is brittle, friable. I took the back off and looked.
Just out of interest, what would it cost me to send my laptop back to HP and have the plastic hinge mounts removed and replaced?
Ball parks?
£100?

£400?

£1000?

[Huffer]

I don't set their prices. You need to replace the hinges and any plastic components that have broken. That can be the base enclosure top cover, rear screen housing, whatever is broken on examination. Sending it to HP would be the way to maximize your outlay. Of the numbers you give, the middle one is likely closest. Even the sum of the cost of the parts is likely to be 150 or more. We can help you repair it if you wish. I make this offer a few times a month and very few have ever taken me up on it.