Hinge on right side of HP Notebook snapped, screen made defective by it - colourful lines of sadness

[nothingpersonal]

Unfortunately, and it's a huge stress and upset for me, I opened the laptop last night - after having some other personal problems in my life, to do with will and unconscious sabotage, addiction to be honest, and I feel like this happened for a reason, although I know, with all the same problems here, that it really didn't - and the side of the display, the screen casing, snapped and jutted outwards; the hinge and the bezel, I see people calling it. It had already been working itself loose in recent weeks and had to be somewhat eased into place when closed, but I didn't know this was coming. A metal screw popped loose when it snapped and some bits of black plastic, and the screen, either because of damage to the display wires or because of damage to the screen itself, started to warp, like a calculator (it's gone calcu-laters!); I see some people here describing this as 'pixels dying', but anyway, it got worse with trying to open the lid, the bezel must have done something to damage the screen, colourful lines and bars and boxes appeared all over the screen.

Behind that is the login screen, of course, but there's nothing that can be seen or done. I desperately need this laptop, it's my world, my work; it has all of my files and creative expression on, all of my accounts, my logins, my musical learning.... 

Warranty ended, I believe, some months ago, as I know I was recently being threatened by HP pop-ups and notifications, being procured.

Question is, parts? Do I need to purchase a new display? Screen? Hinges?

Or do I have to send it in for repairs?

Would it make more sense, financially, to purchase a new laptop, new notebook, and have the hard drive swapped over? Is that possible, is it safe?

But, fact is, I absolutely mustn't lose my work, my progress, my activity, my logins, and I need to get back to my learning soon! Multiple diplomas and my own creative projects!  😞

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or help!

[nothingpersonal · Accepted solution]

Alternatively, can anyone confirm to me where the WiFi cables are in this model of HP Notebook? Are they likely to be in the screen casing? An option I'm looking at is connecting laptop to an external monitor via HDMI cable (or, alternately, VGA) and salvaging what I need or continuing for the time being to use it like this, as a desktop w/ its keyboard and touch pad mouse (connected to external monitor, be it projector or PC monitor or other device...)

If this is risky, because, say, the WiFi cables are housed around the screen, then I will leave the screen and display attached to the palm rest and connect to an external monitor left as it is.