Pavilion G7 - seized left hinge, hinge therefore separated from base

[Bazzini]

Attention HP,

I am looking at a friends HP Pavilion G7-2277sa laptop (purchased April 2013 and which is now out of warranty), which some time ago developed a problem with the left hinge (it is the well known fault where the hinge 'dislocates' and starts pushing the casing on the bottom left of the screen apart).

I have the laptop apart and can see that the hinge is seized and the left hinge screws have ripped out from the screw retaining parts on the bottom enclosure, the bottom case screw has both ripped through it's end and pulled the brass insert out of the top cover.

As this is obviously a design fault, I would be grateful if someone from the appropriate team within HP could contact me so that we can discuss how the defect can be repaired.

Many thanks,

Ian

Belfast, United Kingdom

[kevin-t · Accepted solution]

@Bazzini

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Forum's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.
Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forum.

[Bazzini]

Thank you kevin-t

[ar444]

Hi Ian,

Did you receive a reasonable resolution to your issue? I am currently experiencing the same separation on my out of warranty HP Notebook Touchsmart. This is such a wide spread issue with HP laptops and a chat agent told me repair starts at $298 USD for out of warranty products. This is extremely frustrating.

[Bazzini]

No HP did not resolve the issue. After posting here I was contacted by someone at HP headquarters in the US who said they had passed my details on to the relevant local (UK) HP support group, who would contact me. After not hearing anything after about a week or so I went back to them and they said that they had escalated it with the UK support group. However I am still waiting to hear from them 5 months later, they simply never bothered contacting me! I had marked the response here from kevin-t as being a solution as he had put me in touch with HP and someone from their headquarters had contacted me, as this was the purpose of my initial posting, to get in contact with HP.

Basically having read of so many other peoples' experiences with HP over this issue I very quickly realised that HP were not going be of any help and I did not pursue the matter any further with them, as this was just going to be a waste of my time.

I ended up repairing the laptop myself by getting a new base for the laptop (I managed to get one for £25 of Ebay) and using JB Weld Original Cold Weld Formula Steel Reinforced Epoxy (£10 of Amazon UK) to reinsert a brass insert into it's housing in the top cover and to create a housing for another brass insert in the display enclosure. I also removed both hinges loosened them and applied high temperature grease and retightened them to an acceptable tension (I left them a bit loose as I wanted to prevent the problem reoccurring). The left hinge when I removed it was totally seized and immovable. So far the repair is fine and I don't expect any reoccurrence of the problem due to fact that the hinges are not tightened to the extent that they previously were (before the left one seized up), which is not perfect either as they are a little bit loose. But with the previous damage I felt it was better to leave the hinges a bit loose, than risk the damage reoccurring.

I share your frustration with HP!

HP failing to address the issue and then wanting to charge $298+ for a repair of a fault that is clearly a design/production fault (as evidenced by the scale of the problem) simply adds insult to injury and is an appalling way for HP to treat their customers.

If you don't feel confident in doing the repair yourself hopefully you can find someone competent to do the repair for you for a reasonable price. Beware though, as evidenced on YouTube, there are those repairing hinge problems in such a way that the laptop may work for a while before failing again, due to the way it has been repaired.

[Luckyme27]

I have the same problem with the left hinge seizing up now the screen will not light up the computer works but the screen will not come on I guess I'll have to do the repairs myself

[rick-s]

@Luckyme27

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Forum's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Community.

[69-sprite]

So, how do I find out what the actualy solution to this item was so I can find out how to fix my laptop!