bloated battery popped open back lid of Spectre X360

[Volker_Spectre]

Hi there,

I've bought my HP Spectre x360  for over 2.000 Euros some three years ago.  I do not recall when exactly I first noticed that the bottom keyboard/trackpad hull started to bent. I can date back my observation as far as the start of Covid-19 in early 2019. when my working environment changed  The bottom part of my laptop back then bent such that it was bulging in the middle with the middle touching the screen as it should when closed but the corners left and right showing a gap of 1 mm each at the beginning.  At the time of writing this post, each corner was 3 mm apart.  The bottom cover had popped open many months ago and the gap had grown to a hole meanwhile that I could stick in my thumb.  I kept wondering how come.  I was mainly working from home with external keyboard and mouse but then I took a train and during the ride I found the touchpad no longer working and a closer look revealed that one screw holding the back cover was broken out of its plastic fixture.  Time to really look at what is going on.  A Google search quickly showed lots of posts about bloated batteries and the expanded HP battery recall program.  OK, that's the culprit?  Sure enough when I unscrewed the back cover here it was a battery bloated to some 2 cm height/thickness. 

Alright, no problem so I thought.  I can replace the battery and the back cover with one plastic piece broken by the inside pressure of the battery.  So I called HP support to sent me the spare parts and that's when aggravation really kicked in.  I was told that my laptop had not been included in the battery recall and my laptop is beyond warranty anyway.  They suggested I have the laptop repaired for some 500 €.  Excuse me?  The damage started full well within the warranty period and HP knew full well of this material manufacturing flaw and now they mean to leave me with the damage at their fault?

I've made explicit photographs which I cannot post here but everyone seeing the pictures would agree that's an egregious manufacturing flaw beyond any doubt.  And yes, while it may not be a safety hazard, the bloating battery impaired the usability of the touchpad and it broke one plastic piece inside for holding a screw fixing the back cover. And it did so well within the warranty period but only that I did not make out the cause of which to ask for remedy earlier, especially as it seemed so far out that something in the inside is pressing the back cover apart.  Also there was no notification in the HP Assistant program about this widespread problem.

Is there anyone in this forum who can help or do I have to take my story and case elsewhere?  All I wish is a replacement battery and back cover be sent to me for free.  I'll do the replacement work myself. 

Looking forward to instrumental help.

Kind regards, Volker_Spectre

[Volker_Spectre]

unfortunately closed, no way to reply to add this case to the others

obviously there are plenty of cases

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/HP-Spectre-x360-Battery-Bloati...

when a swelling battery breaks the laptop case it is very well a warranty issue, I would say

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/HP-Spectre-x360-battery-expans...

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Bloated-battery/m-p/7971127#M6...

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/bloated-battery-spectre-x360-v...

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/HP-Spectre-bloated-battery/m-p...

(...stopping copying more cases here)