The Laptop Hinge Problem: Designed for Failure and Fueled by Cost Cutting 

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Hinge problems can be resolved by one word: Metal.

You know it's crap when the person who is financially profitting from your crappy design complains about it. Repair is the one industry where most people in it actively rail against the bad practices making them mondy.

While the shorts are fun, seeing detailed breakdowns of repairs and such with your sense of humour and gradually degrading mental state makes long-form videos the Greatest Videos That Ever Lived.

What’s funny is that I actually brought this issue up to Lenovo at CES and the PR rep said well if it was a known issue we issue a recall of course and I was like yeah right. There’s a reason why I fix these on the daily, it should be recalled.

*(**9:58**)* - He's not even complaining about how they hid screws underneath the rubber feet, which itself should be considered a manufacturing hate crime. Poor dude has already accepted that atrocity.

My laptop hinge broke yesterday from the lid. I drilled holes in the lid and fixed the laptop with zipties. It is stronger than the original mount

im watching this video on a hp laptop with a busted hinge

What people often don't realise is "military grade" actually translates to "lowest bidder", there's a reason most people who've been in the military use military grade as an insult to items

Ah yes, HP aka Hinge Problem

the last time I was this early, Andy was the worst technician that's ever lived

These laptop manufacturers are doing wonders for Framework marketing

Basically none of the business grade laptops have this issue, either, because they aren't chasing aesthetics and thinness. Dell still sells laptops to corporate IT departments with the old "thick" hinge that runs the length of the display. Manufacturers know there's no real recourse if an individual's laptop breaks out of warranty, but they still ship the design they know is better when they think it might have consequences.

I've repaired so many hinges, all we can do is replace and loosen and hope for the best, terrible designs.

ASUS keeps changing the pronunciation! They've officially changed the pronunciation at least twice. You're not wrong for not knowing how it's pronounced, when even they don't know. For what it's worth, the name comes from the mythical animal pegASUS & that was originally how they said it should be pronounced, but the company themselves have also said it was pronunced ace-us, I think now they're going with aye-soose

Nothing hit harder than hearing about how it's a repairman's job to fix problems caused by the manufacture. The worst of these laptops are the ones that put the hinges underneath the motherboard, which was some of the worst design choices I've seen. I also saw a lot of laptops like this at my old job. One preventive attempt I made was to open up the hinge and clean out any crud that was in there and loosen it a little to hopefully make it move a little easier and require less force to open it. Of coarse, I would always tell the customer they'll be back if they don't start being careful. I also concur with the frustrations of customers expecting computer repairmen to tutor them on basic maintenance. It was always frustrating, but I know it's because it's the people that came from a generation that didn't see a computer until they started working in an office, and that machine wasn't taken care of. It's one of those things that should be taught in school like taxes and changing the tire on a car.

As a Framework 13 owner, I can confirm that these hinges are screwed in the aluminium body. :-) Framework also sells hinge-upgrades with different open-resistances. If you prefer to open your laptop with one hand, then pick the 3.3kg hinges. If the display is to floppy on public transport, then install the 4.0kg hinges. If you want something in-between, you can pick the 3.5kg hinges.

why can't the build quality of windows laptops in general just increase more? its not like the price has ever dropped drastically, and yet companies just keep putting stupid quality builds unless you pay an extremely high sum. sort of stupid.

Yes, that's exactly right, when you fix or sell a laptop for your customer, you are expected to be the personal tech support afterwards but that is the life of the greatest technician thats ever lived

This video came out as my hinge broke on my laptop

Thanks for acknowledging that the design problem does not come from the engineering but from the accountant... as an engineer myself, I can garantee you we see problems and want to fix them, but it is refused because the price increase of the part and engineering development...

Was just binging your stuff while i downloaded stuff on my new desktop. Thank you greatest technician that's ever lived for reminding me to turn on my power supply after building it.

I watched this. I have worked in a repair shop for 20+ years. Just wanted to say that I know, and understand your pain. You are not alone. I love that you have an outlet to get it off your chest. I can only yell at the walls :)

The greatest technician that ever lived deserves 1M subs

The stupidest thing is that the solution used until ~10 years ago was just to put a small frame around the LCD display, where the hinges were screwed to. It was a few *milimeters* thicker, but robust, cheap and repairable. Apple's screens (and similars) can't be dissasambled, so they are more expensive to repair

What I usually do is drill holes through the case or lid cover and attach the hinge with screws.

3:07 when the screws rip out DEEZ NUTS 😂😂👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼

10:35, The one-piece hinge mount is real!

The worst of it all is that manufacturers will not give warranty, and tell customers that it's user abuse.

These repair videos are good, there isn't enough good channels for it

I like the longer format videos.

Keep the long videos coming. Love to watch em

Hi, I found your youtube channel about 2 days ago. First of all, I used to have a medium-sized youtube channel about a year ago before deleting it for privacy reasons / concerns. I have to say your channel is educational, entertaining, funny, and relatable. I live in TX, and if I needed a PC repair, I'd go out of my way to ship my repair needs to your shop just to support your business. I believe voices like yours need to be amplified to encourage positive change in the world. Thanks for being you. Hope your business thrives!

loving the accual videos lol. better than shorts

2:08 That ASUS ad that says wanna look at our asus? 😅

I am enjoying the new format of videos you are putting out. The shorts are a great short pick me up, but the longer videos really expand on the B.S. companies try to pull to save costs and charge an arm and a leg for repairs. Keep up the great work.

This vid, specifically, made me sub the channel. Your demeanor and commentary made during non-voiceover segments really highlight your passion and dedication to your work, as well as your unwillingness to compromise on quality, which...that is European Extreme difficulty. This level of frustration displayed shows you do care for your customers, even while scolding them for expecting a repair person to endless spoonfeeding regarding basic computer operation. It's "tough love" but a savior to their pocketbook. and it is impossible to not get frustrated at end users and engineers/companies who keep shitting the bed after dealing with stuff for long enough. The fact you're still doing this, and haven't let this break your spirit enough to half-ass every repair job, is admirable. Keep on keeping on, Greatest Technician That's Ever Lived(tm)!

consumers deserve: the greatest.. hinge mount... ..that's ever lived..

I totally agree with you that the industry should be making those hinge joints more robust. In the meantime, a good work-around when lifting the lid of the laptop is to lift ONLY from the top-center of the screen instead of the top-corner. That way you won't have excessive loading on one particular hinge over the other which may lead to that type of hinge-separation failure.

I love this format so much, keep doing longer videos please

Love this format, please keep doing it!

Hinge problems are the bane of my existence. Love these longer videos. This is one of the best videos you've ever done. Keep up the good work.

"I don't even want to acknowledge its existence" sometimes truth hurts, sorry HP.

I love this format for videos, is much more interesting than 60 second ones

Please keep up the format, its great

I like seeing these long form vids from you man. keep it up

love the long form content keep up the good work mate

Gotta say, man, really love your longer videos a lot. I'm really learning quite a lot about laptop and desktop PCs as well as having a lot of fun, so keep on being awesome

dude I love that you're doing long form videos now, they're awesome

Your long formation videos are wonderful, please continue!

I love the longform videos dude! I also have to be thankful that my time spent as a computer repair technician was blessed by the fact that every computer I've ever worked on has been a robust business model.

Your short-form videos are pure art, but the long-form ones are really good too

Love this new video format♥️

2 long form videos in 2 days? A dream come true ❤

I like the long form format. its nice to see what sort of different issues you face with hardware at your shop

You're so close to 1M subscribers and you deserve every one of them. Fitting for the greatest technician that's ever lived.

I Love this channel. This takes the boring out of Computer Repair!

It is stupid that even some metal laptops have there hinges secured using plastic... Like why not just make holes in the top plates. Also you and lupe singing billy idol was hilarious 😅

Never watched your long form content but it’s really good

Came from the short forcing us to watch your long form content but actually it was quite nice and I was unaware that they didn't use a basic hinge. Thanks for letting us know

Bro i had a really bad day and when i saw your notification that you uploaded a video my day got better,thanks a lot

Msi is notorious for their creepy hinge design too. Most Taiwanese (and Chinese in some sense) companies are likely try to save every penny on their products.

I really like this long form of your short styled videos. Shorts for me are too short, so I'm glad you also make longer vids now :)

Loved these longer videos!! Its like a short but longer.

Thinkpads don't have that problem, but starting from around 2018 the quality has dropped so much that they can't properly be called "thinkpads" anymore. But at least they kept the steel hinges and magnesium subframe.

When everyone is pushing "Thin and Light" laptops this is the natural thing to happen. Laptops these days are such a poor value from both a durability aspect and performance aspect because of the market only being focused on the weakest and slowest performing kind of laptop.

I usually skip video sponsors but man that segway was just too good xd

i love this format thank u muahsss

Another long form video lets go!!!

06:05 I think woke up my neighbors from laughing. Saw that gag a mile away but it worked flawlessly.

I love the shorts videos, but this is greatest, like... the greatest technician that ever lived, thanks for the knowledge and your time ❤

YAAY more long format content , thanks papa!

Funny thing, before I watched this video, I was watching a video on how one person took a Japanese "mini-truck" and turned it into a camper. One of the things they did was glue aluminum panels to a steel frame using 3M's VHB tape. I'm looking at the hinges here and saying "Wait, if they're just stamping out backplates out of semi-thick aluminum (not milling them), why aren't they using VHB tape for the hinges?"

Last thing I needed to see is a broken hinge on a laptop... You love to see it, that it's so God damn common... This is why I tell pepz "buy used business laptops". Gah.

I love this format!

Crongrats on the 1mi subs :D

I got a good laugh because hinges have been shit on laptops for sooo god damn infuriatingly long. It seems like you have to go either Mac or some Linux laptops from smaller manufacturers to avoid hinge issues.

I love these longer vids

I hope you will be more frequent with these kinds of videos. They are entertaining and informative!

I’m liking your long form stuff because you’re speaking from a place of genuine concern for the industry and advocating for us regular folks that can’t just go out and get “the newest thing” or “another one” when things break. #TGTTEL

3:09 this screen needs a trigger warning before it.. I swear when I saw those screws that are melted to fit in plastic, I have to breathe manually and hyperventilate a bit... nightmare fuel...

keep up the great vids

Such passion from the greatest technician that's ever lived

These longer videos are great! I did PC and laptop repair in a shop for many years before transitioning into software development. It's crazy to me that hinges are still this bad and have to be repaired all the same...they at least started making DC input jacks more modular. Keep making awesome videos.

I had this idea. There are these hinge testing machines that with automatically open and close hinges. If someone were to get one of those and test many new laptops people could be informed one which models have better hinges. Only thing is not sure how someone could make a profit destroying brand new laptops, even if it provides useful information to the general public. If the public was informed on which models.of laptops had bad hinges, they could choose to buy other models instead, and that would force companies to make better hinge designs, because people would know before hand and not buy their product if it doesn't meet standards.

The greatest technician thats ever lived

Your longform is great. The shorts jokes don't translate as well, but the genuine convo is fantastic.

New habit is watching your vids while eating! Definitely enjoy these longer vids

08:37 as an accountant, I'll tell ya that we do not get involved in this things. We're too busy being overworked to create pointless reports.

US military-grade durability 2:34 .. 😂😂.. US military lol 🤣😂

Great video hope you make some more of this

I'm really liking the long form videos

There are two known design solutions to the problem: 1 is to make the whole top cover out of metal including the screw mounts and 2 is how it used to be done which is to have a metal skeleton one either side that runs the full side length of the display to distribute the load. I guess companies don't do that anymore simply because they are trying to make bezels as thin as possible so theres no room for that side support.

I do at least 20-30 of these a week on all brand except one and guess what brand that is? Apple computers. People can trash talk Apple all they want but they build robust well designed machines in most cases if we exclude the butterfly keyboard, the LCD cables in the late model 13-15” MacBooks and the problem with the SSD shorting to ground on some models. Out of the thousands of laptops I’ve repaired I still have yet to ever see a MacBook hinge fail, they’ll get loose over the years but I’ve never seen them fail completely.

That ad transition👌🏿

The long form videos are amazing

But why would a company sell sturdy and durable products that prevent you from spending $800 all over again just 2 years later? :D

IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR SHE CRIED MORE MORE MOOOOORE WITH A REBEL YELL MORE MORE MOOOOORE YAOW!

Congrats on 1 million dude!

greatest technician that ever lived, love your content man 💌