In our short time in business, we have encountered multiple HP Pavilion Laptops with the same problem: broken hinges, or more specifically, broken hinge mounts. These issues have ranged from cracking the case and blocking the power jack, to causing a floppy screen and broken case, to barely hanging on and working. All of these laptops have been Model 17 laptops, ranging in age from one to five years old. This is a serious design flaw that you should be aware of.
The hinges are attached using brass (or a brass-like metal) inserts that are embedded in the plastic of the case. However, the plastic is not reinforced sufficiently, and these inserts can rip out of the plastic or cause the plastic to break entirely, making it impossible to just glue them back into place. On the case side, there are three of these mounts and screws. This design makes little sense, as there is already a piece of sheet metal and one of the screws on each side does go through the metal and into the insert. If the other two screws did the same, the problem may not exist.
If you own an HP Pavilion laptop from the past few years, be careful when opening and closing your laptop. If you can, pinch the area above the keyboard by the hinges when opening and closing the screen. The hinges are fairly stiff, which causes a lot of flex in the plastic of the case, leading to the tear-out and subsequent cracking of the top (keyboard) side of the case. Once all three screws on a hinge are gone, there is nothing really holding the screen to the case, which puts a lot of strain on either the wires for your Wi-Fi (whose antenna is actually in the screen surround) or the display cable that powers the screen – both of which you don’t want to break.
Unfortunately, the repair for this issue is to replace the top part of the case, which is expensive compared to the value of the computer a lot of the time. The cost can range from about $150 to $200, as you have to remove every component from your old case and reassemble the computer in the new one, which takes about an hour or so. The parts also vary in price, model to model and color to color, if you want to keep the same color match.
If you already own one of these laptops, take care of it. If you’re in the market for a new laptop, there are many options now that utilize aluminum and magnesium alloy chassis, which are more resistant to this type of issue. These metal chassis are generally more durable overall, although they can be dented and bent out of shape if you are too rough with them. Plastic will usually resist these kinds of things – to a certain degree – but it can snap, crack, and chip. Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, MSI, and others all have metal chassis laptops that are worth checking out.
If you need help choosing a laptop that meets your needs, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We can help you find a laptop that will work for you.