7mo ago

My laptop hinge just ripped its screws right out.

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

68 comments

Laptop repair guy here! This problem is common in consumer grade laptops. As far as I am concerned, it’s purposefully weakly designed, because these break a LOT.
Not the hinge is broken, but the mounting points for the screws that keep the hinge in place. Sometimes it breaks on the bottom case, sometimes it breaks on the screen side.
We fix these issues regularly with epoxy (and massive skillz, lol). With most hinges, you can adjust the force a little lighter to relieve the pressure on the mounting points. That way it doesn’t fail again, after repair.
- This is why I love the idea of framework laptops
  
  Indeed, different price point though, but shouldn't be more expensive in the long run. I like what they're doing and live my AMD 13
- Machinist guy here!
  Threads fail. Threads are generally the most likely thing to fail in any given mechanism. Generally, when the threads are expected to do more work than just sit there and not move, as in fastening a hinge for example, we try to make sure the threads are all the same kind of material.
  I would never expect plastic threads to hold up to repeated use with an iron bolt inside. Something is going to give up, and it's going to be the soft plastic threads, every single time.
  Think about cheap as fuck IKEA furniture, any time they have a bolt to screw in, you install an insert first. We do the same thing in plastic, aluminum, shit even steel sometimes if we want the bolt to fail first.
  
  I believe you misunderstood the problem, the threads are not usually the problem, the problem is the brass heat insert the hinge threads into, the insert just breaks off the plastic with the screw still threaded in, usually because the hinge is a bit too tight/rigid and puts a lot of force into the insert pulling it out
  this seems to be the case in this picture as well
- How can I adjust the force?
  
  by loosening the screws of the hinge.
  
  Let the hate flow through you!
- This is correct and good advice. I'd like to add that it's also an option to glue in a threaded metal insert in case a self - tapping plastic screw was used and the original thread is stripped.
  
  I just used the threaded metal inserts and seat them with the soldering iron to use orignal screws and have had great luck
  Edit/ I should clarify that it's been a few years since I've done one of these repairs and may not be the best option on a newer/slimmer model
- As far as I am concerned, it’s purposefully weakly designed, because these break a LOT.
  Could be sacrificial because the plastic case is cheaper/easier to replace than whatever else would break instead of it were stronger.
  
  Probably more so cheaper to mold the plastic case with weak threads than any other function.
  
  No I think its just cheaper, if it was stronger you normally would have a metal plate or the entire base would be metal. The only time I have seen those fail was actually the hinges themselves and not the attachment points. If the metal plate or base somehow got severely damaged I doubt it would cost much more to repair and its still unlikely to damage anything else.
- I very much hated working on hinge damage.
- Yep, it's the mounting point here. As someone pointed out below, the insert that holds the screw has ripped out of the plastic. The base of the laptop was already broken, so put extra pressure on this part.
  I'm going to strip everything out and epoxy the inserts back in place, then epoxy over the bottom part of the hinge once the screws are in. The laptop should never need to be opened again, so a bit of overkill won't hurt here.
  I'm going to try to loosen the hinge slightly too, but it looks like a pin design rather than a screw, so it might just be a case of cleaning and lubing it instead.

Oh I hate these shitty joints that are designed to fail eventually. It's just not made to last.
- Counterpoint, sometimes stuff is designed to break so something else more critical of expensive to replace does not.
  
  Sure, but in this case that's just not true

JB weld epoxy might be a good choice if you either don’t plan on replacing the screen again, or to recreate the holes and patch the cracks if you pull it all the way apart again. I did it to the back of a tv when the vesa screw mounts ripped and it held for another 5 years.
- I've been looking at replacing the mounts with brass ones, but as it's an old laptop, I should be able to get a replacement case for around £40. I don't really want to spend any more, but if I can get the case I'm going to go down that route :)
  
  For sure take the case if it’s affordable! It’ll look much nicer afterwards too

This happened on a decent spec'd HP laptop I bought my mom a couple years back. No easy way to repair without ordering new hinges that were impossible to find and the PC repair shop quoted over $500 repair on a $700 laptop when it was new.
Now she just leaves the laptop open in the 180 degree position with the laptop being held into a stand & bungie cord strapped to it to prevent it from falling foward. It is now a desktop PC and no longer a laptop.
- I assume she's using a separate keyboard/mouse, right? Though I'm enjoying the mental picture of someone trying to touch type on a vertical keyboard.
  
  I did not want to deal with the remote IT support of it all, so I plugged in a mouse/keyboard and a second monitor to make it more like a desktop PC setup, lol.
- I was debating doing something similar, and putting it behind the TV to replace the Fire Stick, but I've found what looks like compatible plastics on ebay. My base has broken quite badly too, so replacing both is going to be my best bet.
  Daft question, but have you tried ebay for the hinges, or a spares or repairs listing?
  
  You could also just keep it closed and set it to do nothing on screen close. Then enable WoL.
  My work laptop lives under my router, and I just remote into it daily.
  
  I gave it a very short search back when it broke last year. I went with the cheapest way to get it back up and running which was just convert it to a desktop. She never goes anywhere with a laptop in the first place so there was no need to make it portable again.
  She's retired and just used it to surf the web. A Chromebook would work perfectly for her if she was not dead set of having Excel for her recipes and bill tracking.

HP by chance? Had this happen to a 360 HP laptop (and I almost never used that functionality!), repaired by replacing the backside of screen where it screws in. This of course required disassembling the whole damn laptop. I was horrified by how cheap it was and now have a ThinkPad T480.
- My HP's hinge broke, too. I had to pack the entire back of the case with putty in order to fix it, and it's still not quite right.
- Stonebook branded Clevo laptop. It's been a rock solid workhorse in all fairness, but seems to have been dropped onto the corner.

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
- In fairness to them, this is a Stonebook branded Clevo laptop, and it's a 7th gen i5, so it's been doing well :)

I used to work in a computer repair shop. Unfortunately this is a lot more common than you might think, and it's almost always due to poor quality plastic and nothing to do with the end user. Sadly I've yet to see a case where this is covered under the warranty either, but it's worth a shot if you want to go through the headache of their customer support.
You can try epoxy like someone else mention, but it comes with a few problems you might encounter. First you can't put too much epoxy or it'll spill over onto the computer components (which could damage them) and as a result it may not hold. Second, even if it does hold you're putting it over screws, which means you most likely won't be able to remove those screws down the road if you ever have to repair or upgrade it.
You could also just leave the laptop permanently open and never touch the hinge. Some people already this anyways with their devices so for them it's not worth the hassle. As long as nothing else is damaged and you're careful with it, this can work too.
Ultimately, the best solution is to just replace the plastic casing part where it ripped out of, which is usually either the housing around the keyboard and track-pad, or the one behind the LCD. Sadly because all the parts are likely made with poor quality plastic this is likely to happen again down the road. In your case it looks like the former, the housing around the keyboard. For some devices the keyboard isn't easily removable from this housing, so it's probably going to require you replace the keyboard as well, unless you like dealing with tiny rivets.
Oh, and you probably don't need to replace the hinge itself. like I said it's usually the brittle plastic in the housing that's at fault, not the hinge seizing and refusing to move.
- This is years out of warranty, it's a 7th gen i5 :)
  The photo is of the top part of the laptop base, so where the keyboard is, but from underneath. The base below it was already broken, which is what put the extra strain on the top.
  As you say, I should be able to put some epoxy on and hold it together, as none of this needs to be removed again. I've got a new base coming, so as long as the pictured piece doesn't move, it should be fine :)

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.

Laptop hinges are the worst, cant imagine how many laptops I've seen with cracked plastics where the hinges are.

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.
  
  I broke a hinge myself that way, learned it the hard way
- 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 >.<

HP?
- seems like everyone is immediately suspecting HP, rightfully so... my HP also did this exact same thing and I had to epoxy it to the frame to get it back together
  
  I’ve seen this issue on an MSI laptop. Looking into it I found the problem quite widespread. The hinge is way too tight and the mount point it weak
- Stonebook branded Clevo laptop

Cheap laptops don't hold up. I've seen so many broken devices which the screen just breaks off
- I've got to give them their dues, it's a Stonebook branded Clevo laptop, and it's a 7th gen i5, so it's lasted a long time. It seems to have been dropped onto its corner, which broke the base and weakened this part. Hopefully the epoxy will do it :)

Yeah this is not a fun one, I have done repairs and now do retail this issue is insanely common. Pretty much all budget laptops have this threaded into cheap plastic and I have had many customers devices hinges fail within 4 months in retail.
From what I can tell you also got quite lucky the hinge snapped on the base and not the screen. I've had a couple customers unlucky enough to have it snap on the screen and shatter the glass and or LCD.
The cases where it doesn't completely destroy the screen or base you can normally use epoxy glue, melting or something similar. But that still is normally a temporary solution it will probably break again. If that can't be done or a more permanent solution is needed, I've found that repairs with a metal plate and bolt seem to last I've also seen some people just use an L shaped metal bracket and not close the laptop again...
Regardless its a really annoying thing, I try to purchase and recommend devices with Metal frames (base and screen). Unfortunately even mid range laptops are now following this trend of plastic screwed hinges.
- It's a 7th gen i5, so I've definitely had my money's worth :)
  I'm hoping that epoxy will be enough. I'm going to strip everything out, clean and lube the hinge, then epoxy that in and rebuild the rest around it. I've got a replacement base, as that was also broken, and as the laptop shouldn't need to be opened again, I'm hoping that it will hold :)

At least it didn't crack the screen with the bad hinge. I think it happens when the screws get a little loose and the angles shift. I work k-12 edu and have seen hundreds of Chromebooks do this.
- Don't scare me, I haven't fixed it yet 😅
  
  You're already working on it so you're good. We've just had kids ignore it too long which causes more issues. Just don't force it lol.

Honestly, this looks like it would be repairable with the appropriate sized heat-press insert, and a longer screw. Granted, things are pretty tight in that area; but it looks like there is enough beef left on the underside to repair this 'properly'.
- It's hard to see from this photo, but the area below the insert is quite thin. It's a bit wider than the screw, but with some supports. I don't know if there's enough to take a new insert.
  My plan is to clean everything up, then epoxy the existing inserts in place, screw the hinge in, then put some epoxy around that too, leaving room for the other screws that come from the other side of the case.

ooh my old laptop had a problem like this too, but instead of ripping off it just got so rigid it would probably completely destroy the whole hull if i tried to force it open, to "fix" it, me and my cousin just opened the laptop and (carefully /s) completely removed the hinges (or at least the part of it that connects to the base of the laptop), now it is right beside me here hosting a jellyfin server with the screen being propped up only by a wi-fi router >:3
- That was going to be its fate if I couldn't get the parts :)

Yep, happens a lot, I've got a cute little pair of nuts that replaced the inserts in my thinkpad

Used to do laptop repair. It’s insane how often this happens with the crappy plastic shells.

That sucks.
Happened with my previous laptop and couldn't find replacement parts unfortunately.
- I've managed to find a replacement base, as that was broken too, but not this part. It looks like I should be able to fix it with some epoxy though :)

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