Fixing a Broken Laptop Hinge 

Hey, this is my territory of fixing. Did a lot of those and similar ones. Lots of times they are so bad that the only thing to fix them is to replace a whole back cover and hinges with new ones. The hinges are too stiff in most of these laptops, as the manufacturers want them to break it after some time, so the customer would be responsible and not them (even if they break under warranty). There is a way to loosen them, just undo the nut a quarter or half a turn on the hinge itself and the tension would be much lower and the strain on the plastics would be much less. I do this almost every time as this means the customer wouldn't be back again after few years. Heck, I sometimes do it even on good laptops if I have them apart if I know they're the series that gets broken hinges/plastics around them. Of course, don't loosen them too much or your screen will not hold the position. Btw, the hinge on your laptop will break soon as there is a visible crack just above the part where you did the repairs. I wouldn't trust it, get a new one from ebay or aliexpress. :)

Put a throug hole in the back frame in the position of the metal insert. Using a long thin flat head screw and a nut secure the hinge in position. The nut must be in the outside position of the back cover. (Use washers for more durability) cut the excess screw carefully. It's not a beautiful work to see. But it's more lasting.

I've been repairing my laptop screen recently, and these considerations about laptop repair are so relatable. The laptop ended up having a bit of exoskeleton of a binder clip glued to the side of the screen, as the only intact part of it was the display, and there where no hope to properly fix the rest of them.

Cyanoacrylate or "super glue" works well with baking soda. The soda triggers a chemical reaction in the glue that makes it cure nearly instantly. You can build layers of glue/soda and see the impressive result.

Your repair videos are my favorite

Super glue + baking soda or thin paper strips really works well, fixed few hinges and area close to it even on old 90s laptops with really brittle plastic (lookning at you, Toshiba).

I love this kind of video from you

My dad use super glue and Styrofoam and sometimes spider net.... Those works well.. Now I'm gonna try baking soda... Thank you :) ...BTW waiting eagerly for your next video on that doorbell phone.. 🖤

Love your screw collection 😂

i used the original jb weld epoxy in laptop hinges, its hard as a rock. i never failed using it. and my customer is happy with it. one more trick is to loosen the hinge screw so that it is not tight to open the laptop cover, too tight hinges causes the plastic to broke up.

I have one where I replaced the whole hinge because that thin metal frame also broke. This one in the video is also on its last leg. My recommendation would be to fill any empy space in the frame with epoxy.

I had the metal bar on the side of the screen break on me once. The baking soda/superglue combo fix ended up lasting longer than the original part.

Good work. Something like that can never happen with my (expensive) laptop, it has been stationary on my desk for 4 years.

Note LocTite or other thread-lockers can damage plastics overtime, causing screws to come loose. With the (expensive) brass inserts on that HP laptop, I don't see that same risk. Dell used blue LocTite on my laptop and some of the plastic threads are somewhat compromised.

7:18 Even my ASUS Zenbook UX430UN from 2018 can limit charge to 60 or 80 %. I use 100 % only when travelling and I actually managed to retain 92 % battery capacity after 4 years of mostly office / domestic use mostly plugged in. By the way this notebook does not support USB-C PD charging, so I grabbed USB-C to DC jack adapter with 20V PD trigger and I can use now any USB-C PD power supply with 65W or greater output like my 87/96W Apple ones I bought for fraction of price from flea market during our office cleanup

U are exactly my type my man ,like you from Indi

Business laptops are way better built than consumer ones. They are a lot more expensive of course, but you can still get a used one for a reasonable price.

I can agree on that 60% limit, I sadly don't have that functionality on my Acer swift 3 laptop which is a shame. But my Dell laptop at work has it's battery management really configurable, I set mine to never go above 90% and never charge until it drops under 60 or 70%. I have my work laptop also on charger most of the time.

Nice work.

If only you had posted this video sooner... I had a cheap Lenovo laptop that had developed this exact problem. But it had gotten to the point where the metal strip snapped off of the hinge and later took a bite out of the LCD panel.

Those hinge covers just normally need a bit of pressure on the top and bottom to remove. Others need the bezel above the keyboard removed to access screws.

I loved the box of old screws… I have one too 😂

You could use a drop or two of oil on those hinges to lower the forces on the screws

My laptop has the same damage how much will it cost to get it repaired with the battery callibration?

Looks like a HP 250 G7 (or similar). They're decent laptops. Trouble is, the hinges on all modern laptops are really weak, and tend to break. I watch videos from a PC repair shop and the number of broken hinges they have had to deal with is surprisingly high.

The metal hinge on my Dell XPS broke inside the case. I roughed up the metal and plastic parts with sandpaper and cleaned. LocTite Extreme Glue has held up fine for over a year; epoxy might be better but I didn't have any handy. Risk with unidentified materials is that the adhesives cause more damage, don't adhere, or fail in a short time. For hinge repair, It is best to disassemble the laptop but this solution seemed to work fine.

I opened my HP Envy 15, and discovered that all of the risers had crumbled, leaving the screw inserts floating around in the chassis. Not enough left to do anything with. Here's what I did: I disassembled the laptop, and I cleaned it out really thoroughly. Then, I put GOOP/E6000 in the places where the hinges laid flat. Then, I put the small screws into the holes that they originally were in, and added more E6000 on top of the screws. Then, I attached the bottom, and I pushed the screws into the glob of adhesive. Basically, glued that area of the bottom to the chassis. Tried to avoid the moving areas, and left it, closed, lid down, to dry for 24 hours. 72 hours is even better, but I have a lot of experience with E6000, and I could feel that it was set enough to handle. This repair WORKED! But, you have to use some common sense while doing it.

A few years ago, I read that sodium bicarbonate catalyses the polymerization of cyanoacrylate glue. I rarely use super glue without it these days, it sets like concrete. It does get very hot though

I have had a very unpleasant experience related to this problem. The bracket was basically lifting up while opening and closing the laptop screen, and somehow the display cable got under it. After a while, a sharp edge managed to damage the cable, which also shorted. I got a burned hinge cover (cable caught on Fire and melted the plastic) and a dead motherboard too. Il literally fried the built-in GPU of the processor. I ended up replacing the PC entirely.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiceeee! Thank you for the video.

Thanks!

the super glue a soda is very real and strong, i used a lot

What is the size of the brass inserts and screws needed for the hinges? They are like M.1 - M.4 notation

I saw a lot of broken hingers around here and when I asked how they open and close everyone said by the corner of the screen, my Clevo rebranded laptop from 2011 that I'm using to comment this, I have already replaced many things to made it better, but the hingers I never had to replace or fix because I always open and close it by the center of the screen. Open and close by the corners just not only twist the screen but causas an unequal force to the oposite hinge and this cause its break.

very good

I have a 15 year-old dell and it never failed, the battery can be turned off at command, even tho it failed after 7 years regardless of this, i replaced the hard drive for an advanced format one, which enhanced performance and is still my daily driver, the body is full metal and I ocassionally have to tight the screws again as it wiggles a little when they get loose, hinges never wore out. They are making them more and more disposable Deffinitely worth the extra weight if you ask me

awesome, i also keep my laptop lid open and cover it with a cloth for years now for the same reason.. i don't want to wear the hinges down..

@DiodeGoneWild - Especially a problem in modern style laptops (since ~2007) with those intentionally wrong desinged hinges that just open ~120° instead of 180° like 20 years ago ...

Isn't the problem also worsened by the fact that the grease inside these hinges gets harder over time? This way there is more stress generated on the plastic. Isn't there a way to loosen it up by unscrewing a screw or nut on the hinge a bit?

laptops these days should come with a physical battery switch, basically a switch that physically unplugs the battery so it never gets any cycles though it, potentially unless it's unplugged, and combine that with the 60% limiter

:47 your left hinge rod going has a crack and it is going to break? how will you fix it then

What is the maximum limit battery should charge

Ok, I see what the issue here is. It's a very classic and straightforward problem. The hinge screws/nuts are screwed directly into plastic, which is never a good idea, and the strut bars (going up the sides of the laptop) are very thin, and not designed to take the full force. Over time, the hinge screws become loose and the brass inserts pull out, by this time all of the strength in the hinge has gone and the hinge feels very loose/weak. At this stage, it is only a matter of time before the metal strut bar (on the side of the laptop) completely breaks, as it cannot support the load. In your case, the plastic bezel has also slightly broken, which can happen. If left untreated, you need a new top lid, a new set of hinges and a new bezel - and possibly even a new palmrest assembly if the damage becomes so bad that the inserts going through the case just snap, causing it to be weak there too. You're then looking at a £80+ repair bill (or equivalent) to get the laptop fixed at a PC repair shop.

I like to use epoxy glue for these hinges. I've never had much success witch cyanoacrylates.

Ik someone had the same laptop as this with the same problem, replaced the top part that holds the keyboard then it was good

I still use a laptop from 2006, it is a compaq nx6310 still works great, but upgrading it to windows 10 is too much for the core2duo. another laptop I still use is the HP550, it is not as good as the other one since it only has a celeron M but is still usable for diagnostics and bios flashing.

those hinges have a spring and tensioning screw which are rarely set correctly at the factory

Love your accent by the way. It's very soothing

I have that laptop but it stopped working after I tried to take it apart to get the hdd

Damn HP hinges!

hp ceo be having a cardiac arrest seeing this

im so glad i dont need to own/use a laptop any longer. one less stupid expense every couple of years.

I usually find the hinge cover is easy to rip off from the top and they just pop in and out

Thanks

It happened to my laptop too! The same thing unfortunately

I tried once to use superglue and baking soda but it didn't held so i tried using epoxy and after it cured it became rock solid

Hello Diode! I love your videos, but this one needs more saaaaaaaaaaaalt

Sorin of Electronicsrepairschool uses a slightly better method: Heat up the area and then pour a lot of hot melt glue on it. This makes a much stronger bond than just regular hot melt. Careful not to heat the LCD.

There made to break so you buy a new 1 but you can buy metal hinges if you wanna upgrade it

Sorin at Electronics repair school uses hotglue for this job. Strong and still a bit flexible is key to a long lasting hinge repair. Watch his videos. His repairs seems to last better than the OEM design anyway.

Lol. I remembered reading a design article years ago claiming the reason monitor bezel is huge bc it is to protect the LCD from damage either from bumping on the screen edges or general rough handling like Mr DGW did. Manufacturers build laptop so flimsy, we now have bezel-less laptop! Don't believe everything designers and manufacturers says.

same thing, and on the same left side happened on my HP 250 G6 laptop :/

That's a nice laptop. I want you to buy a game and play it hahaha

I use Duracryl plus

undeeeeer thee screiiiiws!!!!!!! laptoooooooooooooooooop IT WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORKsssss HeEEEaaaaaaarrrr Great video

That happens quite frequent with my devices :/

You almost destroy screen. surface with superglue vapours?

Now let's draw the schematic of Laptop Motherboard.. sounds but complex... Not for Diode guy 😏

I use an inspiron 700m like, all the time.

Hello, you should discover Hot Glue instead baking soda :) It's more easy!

I have a laptop, it lasted almost 4 years with it's own display. When the hinge broke, I turned it into a mighty desktop 💀💀

Faço este tipo de reparos, retiro toda a base plástica de fixação das buchas que prendem os parafusos da dobradiça. Refaço com resina acrílica toda a base. Depois da resina seca passo superbonder em cima da resina para deixa-la mais dura. Amoleço as dobradiças e entrego par o cliente. Dificilmente dá retorno do cliente. Espero ter ajudado

Missing screws probably unscrew themselves. It's nothing unusual in laptop's hinges and cause hinges braking if user don't tight them on time.

Two component epoxy glue! And lose a little bit hinge screws!

When I saw 'Broken laptop hinge' I immediately thought 'HP'...

My mum has an identical laptop and the hinge failed in the exact same way

I buy used business laptops or business laptop. Those are build better. Dell mades good laptops. I was working in Polish HP service when I was high school at it was shit XD We even dont have manual for screws so we often misplaced screws in laptop.

The best way to fix this is by using epoxy or drilling a hole in the plastic and using a screw with washers and a nut. Guaranteed not to fail again!

ey can i just use a screw and instert it in the plastic whole huh?

A cause of hinge stiffness and one thing you did not do was to lubricate the hinges

Its called hp for a reasno. ( hinge problem)

Sir, where is the alien tech door phone part 2??🙄🙄

Hey, anyone who has this problem where their laptop plastics are broken i want you to buy a 2 part epoxy resin and hardener and fix all the plastics back into the base or where ever they have come off of wait a day for it to cure and then i want you to get card board and measure how high the screw joint is basically take the height of the screw joint and cut the cardboard accordingly use this to build a barrier around the hinges but try to keep as snug as possible take abit of super glue and paste the cardboard onto the plastic creating that barrier and before you mix and pour the epoxy and pour it into the cavity you created out of cardboard make sure you can put all the parts back together to make sure nothing interferes and then pour the epoxy into the cavity like your pouring concrete into a ditch and wait another 24hrs. and then your all ready to use your laptop until it wears off into dust. But if you want to make sure you want to never open your laptop because of a hinge problem it would be best if you did this on all your 4 mounting points where your hinges attach to the plastic. Make sure its sitting evenly and trim any excess. BE SURE TO ALWAYS CHECK BEFORE YOU POUR THE EPOXY TO SEE IF EVERYTHING SEATS PROPERLY AND EVENLY CAUSE IF YOU DONT IT WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT PUTTING THE LAPTOP BACK TOGETHER EVEN IF IT IS POSSIBLE. Your last step would be to loosen the hinges if you find it difficult to lift the laptop lid with 1 hand without holding down the base. DONT PUT OIL IN YOUR HINGES IT JUST ATTRACTS DUST AND CLOGS IT EVEN FURTHER USE SOMETHING LIKE GRAPHITE IF YOU REALLY NEED TO BUT OTHERWISE ITS NOT NECESSARY. Dont cheap out on the epoxy get the best one possible cause this fix is going to last a lifetime. Just a guy who has been through this type of shit all the time. IF THIS IS TOO DIFFICULT FOR YOU I WOULD SUGGEST YOU TRY AND ASK SOMEONE YOU KNOW, WHO KNOWS ABOUT LAPTOPS AND SEE IF HE CAN DO IT. I WOULDNT SUGGEST THIS METHOD IF YOU DONT KNW ANYTHING ABOUT OPENING UP A LAPTOP CAUSE YOUR BASICALLY DISSECTING THIS INTO ITS BONES AND PUTTING IT BACK TOGETHER HOPEFULLY THIS HELPED PEOPLE WHO HAVE THIS PROBLEM AND DONT HAVE A $1000 LAYING AROUND TO GET A NEW LAPTOP

HPs are also notorious for their bad hinge designs.

i close it , in howtobasic way 😂

My acer laptop also failed at the hinge. I glued it back and used it as headless/desktop pc. Unfortunately after few months something shorted inside and laptop refused to even power up. Im still upset over it i mean its 2022 and having a chunky laptop is ok if it works more than 2 years, like this is just silly. If only i could start laptop manufacturing business.

Be careful with the new laptop because these lenovos can be very easily killed. They don't have protection on the charger ID pin and the port is easy to damage, Wich will cause the super IO chip to burn in the best case, worst the motherboard will be unrepairable

my laptop back hinge completely broke off, I can't even close and open my laptop properly anymore

Just use Premium Laptop, much better mechanics... ThinkPad x or t series (my persolal favorites ) or maybe HP elitebook

my dad has a laptop which is almost 11.5 years old

Same thing happened to mine. I hate laptops

pretty much every single laptop ive owned other then thinkpad have broken hinge its the shortest lasting thing on a laptop it break before the battery and even worse theres no real way to permanantly fix it its just crappy design

I used baking soda and cyno acrylic, but after some days turns rusty. Don’t do dear.

That hinge design is so bad that every laptop manufacturer wants it so they can sell more laptops or at least more spare parts. The lid should be opened and closed slowly, people treat laptops as if they were books, most users open or close them in a second or less, I think 3 seconds is a good compromise between ripping off the hinges and people looking at you... Imagine that you are opening a bottle of soda that you have previously shaken and you do not want to end up wet.

There are far too much plastic on things that should be metal. After 6 years, the only issue on my laptop is the broken hinge and plastic frame.

I want windows 11 on your laptop

Laptops are getting really nasty, the plastic is so thin and makes repair a nightmare. The old chunky laptops can break but there is more of a structure to fill with epoxy or hot glue. The modern laptops must be a nightmare as they are so thin, i will stay with my ancient acer. I also leave the screen open, they were never designed to be reliable. I hope your cat inspected your repair (Quality control) :-D

I despise working on laptops like this. Working on some of the nicer ones with all metal frames is not bad, but even then I usually shy away from helping people fix their laptops. They're just not meant to be serviced and people treat them like crap.

WHY DO HP LAPTOPS HAVE THIS PROBLEM

Should be called slapshits.. cuz you always end up calling it a piece of it and giving it a good one when suddenly the hard drives crap out and cause the thing not to boot.. always right when you really need to do something important on it...