Broken display hinges.

[Thirdman01]

I can see I'm not the first nor the last to report this issue.  Broken LHS display hinge after very light use and virtually all within one room of the house therefor, no 'wear and tear'.  Perfect condition otherwise, not a scratch but HP won't entertain the idea that these hinges are 'NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE'.  Hinge failed after 15 months.  I have seen post from others where HP have admitted the reason for failure and the part has been redesigned.

I have tried support who just put you through to sales to buy a repair for over £200.  I have even tried to find the parts to replace myself but no luck there.

I can't even find a way to speak or message anyone at HP to ask if I cold buy parts from them.  Talking to a human outside of warranty is nigh on impossible unless you want to buy a repair.

Any advice that doesn't cost £200 plus would be much appreciated!

[praveenbv]

Hi@Thirdman01,

Thank you for posting on the HP Support Community.

Apologies for all the inconvenience

Don't worry as I'll be glad to help, 

I appreciate your efforts to try and resolve the issue. This sounds like hardware related issue with the hinge assembly and in order to fix this issue,  your computer needs to be serviced.  As we have limited support boundaries in the support community as of now. 

I would request you to reach out to our Support and our Support Engineers should be able to check the available service options in order to diagnose the computer physically.  HP Support can be reached by clicking on the following link:  www.hp.com/contacthp/

Please feel free to contact us here anytime you need any further assistance. Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution

[Thirdman01]

As stated, support have no interest and if you ever get to speak to a 'human' you get stuck in the 'out of warranty / buy a repair' loop!

[Huffer]

Parts can usually be located and it can be repaired but first it needs to be disassembled and triaged. I have done this repair several times but when most users find out what is involved in the repair very few go through with it. Post back if you are really interested in following through. It can be done for less than 200 pounds but unfortunately it can wind up being not much less than that even if you do the labor. Depends on what is broken. If its just the hinges it can be pretty cheap. If the big chassis parts are damaged it can be pricey and parts are hard to find.  

[Thirdman01]

Yes I'd be interested to have a look.  Can't understand why HP won't look at this problem as is an obvious design fault?

[Huffer]

I am not going to comment on that. Most laptop brands have problems with hinges. It is a very difficult engineering problem to make a thin and light laptop with durable hinges.

Here is the Manual:

Manual 

First thing is maybe post a couple pictures. Second thing is to turn to p. 46 of the Manual and get to where you can see where the hinges bolt into the lower chassis. Need to check and see if the mounting points for the screws are still in good shape so a new set of hinges can be fastened down. Then we need to open the screen assembly and check where the hinges bolt into the screen housing to check the same thing. Is any plastic cracked or damaged? If the mounting points and the plastics are good, then we only need to replace the screen hinges themselves. People misunderstand what causes this problem. The hinges seize to where they give too much resistance to being opened and closed and they damage the mounting points. New hinges will keep any more damage from happening but we can't install new hinges if the mounting points are damaged. Most of the time, they are. 

[Thirdman01]

Understood.  I can however assure anyone that this device has had very light use, I had a 'cheap' HP laptop myself for around 10 years until the MB finally died.  This one was not cheap and hasn't lasted.  There are dozens of threads here and elsewhere that point to an issue with this model.

Thanks for your help and advice, I'll update when I get the courage to open it up!

[Huffer]

Read my post again. I added to it. Again, I am willing to show you how to fix it but am not going to get into a debate about the design. I will acknowledge this problem is not uncommon but I am not an engineer and without specific knowledge how to design, as opposed to fix a laptop it is above my pay grade. 

[Thirdman01]

opened up which wasn’t easy as the good side hinge screws wouldn’t release, mountings shattered by the action of removing the screws against the lock nut glue!  All the screw mountings on the plastic chassis are gone…..