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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 3rd, 2023

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  • 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.