I’ve just finished getting my laptop set up the way I like it, including maximising the RAM and upgrading the screen. I opened it up to use it, and the screws on the hinge tore through the plastic.
To top it off, the plastic on the bottom of the laptop, the side that’s been removed here, has also broken.
My wife definitely didn’t drop the laptop while she was tidying up though…
EDIT: Apologies all, I’m having trouble with Lemmy today, and it’s not letting me reply.
I’ll try to reply tomorrow, but in the meantime;
It’s a Stonebook branded Clevo n751BU, a 7th gen i5. It’s held up respectably well until it appears to have been knocked in the corner where the hinge is. The plastics on both sides of the hinge have given out.
I’ve ordered a replacement base, but the palm rest which is pictured is not available anywhere that I can find. I’m going to dismantle the hinge to clean and oil it, then reassemble it slightly less tightly, and epoxy the screws into place. The reason for taking it apart in the first place was to add a third hard drive. It has an nvme drive, and I had two HDDs going spare that can hold my documents and music. They’re being synced now as I was having problems doing it remotely, but once they’re in they can be managed with Syncthing. The laptop shouldn’t need to come apart agin afterwards :)
I’ve been building and repairing computers and laptops for about 30 years, so I’m comfortable with completely stripping it, and can use it as an excuse to give everything a clean again. Short of replacing these HDDs with SSDs, there’s nothing else that can physically be upgraded, so I’m half tempted to glue it shut so that I don’t get tempted again :D
Yep, happens a lot, I’ve got a cute little pair of nuts that replaced the inserts in my thinkpad
Did you open it without the backplate on?
Anyways this is crappy anti consumer design by the manufacturer.
I don’t understand why you were downvoted for asking this question. I’ve literally watched techs cause this damage by trying to open the lid with the back cover screws removed.
Most laptops have at least one screw on each side that goes through both the back cover and the hinge. If the hinge is normally affixed with 3 screws and you open the lid with one missing, each mount is taking on that extra stress.
Best practice is to reinstall those screws before opening the lid with the back cover removed.
Yes and no. The backplate was attached but broken, and I didn’t realise that the broken piece was where the third screw for the hinge was.
In fairness to the manufacturer, this is a 7th gen i5, and it was doing great until my wife ‘definitely didn’t drop it’ on the corner >.<
You’ve gotta get those screws to the right torque after taking it apart. Too loose OR too tight and you’ve sealed your fate.
This is why if you need a budget laptop get something from a used business line like lenovo thinkpad dell latitude and hp elitebooks these will have far better quality and be (in some cases) more easy to repair
Laptop hinges are the worst, cant imagine how many laptops I’ve seen with cracked plastics where the hinges are.
