Screen cracked, touch screen not working, HP ENVY TouchSmart 15-j004sa Notebook

[Deltoid]

Well, it was bound to happen. After 20 plus years in corporate tech support, unpacking, configuring, and shipping laptops all over the world for the first time I cracked a laptop screen. Unfortunately, this laptop screen was attached to my personal HP Envy Touch Smart 15 Notebook PC.

I have always believed that “stuff happens”. We live by the luck of the draw. When it’s time it is time. You never know. When I picked up my laptop one morning last week on the way to an offsite there was no mistaking that muffled pop of a cracked screen. Stuff happens.

My screen still worked but no longer with touch screen functionality and I immediately jump on the web to determine the cost of and the degree of difficulty to replace the broken screen. In this site and others, I was surprised by the number of Envy owners who’s broken screen story mirrored my own and whose uploaded photos look uncomfortably familiar.

In almost every uploaded image the impact area was nearly identical, roughly 1.5 cm from the top bevel and nearly perfectly in line with the center of the touchpad.

Many generations of the Envy are designed with a Touchpad that sits in a shallow trough. That trough, the width of the Touchpad, extends out and forms a depression along the outer edge of the laptop.  When closed, the top or lid, with the fragile display, is supported by the stiffer bottom “half” of the laptop. But a depression on the edge of the keyboard half of the laptop, where the touchpad is located forms a break in the support for the display when the laptop is closed.

When closed the bottom half supports and protects the screen from impact and bending except where that Touchpad trough forms the depression along the front edge of the laptop and where the screen, while in the closed position, must bridge the trough with no support.

So, what happened? How could the simple act of picking up my laptop snap the glass and will cost me, at the very least, the price of a new digitizer glass repair.

It is simply a very poor design.

When I compared the damage to my laptop with other picture posted to this site it was more than a coincidence that the damage on most of the HP Envy was nearly identical. The cracks radiated from a point exactly at the mid-point above the touch pad depression, the point where the base half of the laptop provides the least amount of support and the greatest potential for the lid to flex.

In the picture, the black line “tee” marks “ground zero”, where the visible genesis of the crack starts and it radiates from there. It is the same, or close, in every other picture posted on this site from other sufferers of this design flaw.

Let this be a warning to owners of all these HP laptops…..

• HP ENVY 15-q008TX Notebook PC
• HP ENVY 15-q011TX Notebook PC
• HP ENVY 15T-J100 QUAD NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY 15T-J100 QUAD REFURB NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY 15T-J100 SELECT NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY 15T-J100 SELECT REFURB NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY 15T-Q100 NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY 15T-Q100 REFURB NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY 15Z-J000 NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY 15Z-J000 NOTEBOOK REFURB PC
• HP ENVY 15Z-J100 NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY 15Z-J100 REFURB NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY M6-N012DX NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY QUAD 15 REFURB NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY QUAD 15T-J000 NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY QUAD 15T-J000 NOTEBOOK REFURB PC
• HP ENVY QUAD 15T-J100 NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY QUAD 15T-J100 REFURB NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY SELECT 15T-J000 NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY SELECT 15T-J000 NOTEBOOK REFURB PC
• HP ENVY SELECT 15T-J100 NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY SELECT 15T-J100 REFURB NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TOUCHSMART 15-J003XX NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TOUCHSMART 15-J051NR NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TOUCHSMART 15-J053XX NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TOUCHSMART 15-J063CL NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TOUCHSMART 15-J150US NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TOUCHSMART 15-J151NR NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TOUCHSMART 15-J153NR NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TOUCHSMART 15-J173CL NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TOUCHSMART 15-J178CA NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TS 15-J002AX NB PC
• HP ENVY TS 15-J003AX NB PC
• HP ENVY TS 15-J152NR NOTEBOOK PC
• HP ENVY TS 15-j002TX NB PC
• HP ENVY TS 15-j004TU NB PC
• HP ENVY TS 15-j005AX NB PC

…..they share the same flawed design.

Interestingly, HP no longer manufactures a laptop with this failing. The touch pad depression has been eliminated thanks, in part (I am sure) to everyone that has reported this obvious oversight that should have been seen and corrected during the design of these laptops.

Too late, apparently, for a lot of us.

[Chimney_83]

Greetings @Deltoid, 

I have escalated your concern to HP’s Support Team in your region to have it reviewed for available options, if any. 

You should be contacted within 4 business days (Excluding holidays & Weekends). 

Response times may vary by region. 

Please send a Private Message, if you aren’t contacted within 4-5 business days.

[Deltoid]

I have filled out the standard HP form each of the 3 times it was sent to me, sent Chimney_3  private email, as requested. Yet, since I posted my original comments back in April on the poor design of the HP Envy, I have not received a single email addressing my issues or anything other than a form letter from HP. 

The issues within HP seem to be deeper than ill-designed laptops.

[Omar-E]

@Deltoid

  Hello Thank you for posting your concerns on the HP Support Forums. I have brought your matters to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They may request for some additional information from you in order to look up your case or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Please keep in mind not to post any personal information publicly (serial numbers, phone numbers, and etc.). If you have any additional questions please send me a private message. Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forum.