Replacing a laptop hinge

Just a small pretty insignificant part of a laptop eh?

This is what I thought too until I was travelling home on the train one day, the train stopped a little too sharply and someone fell on top of me and more importantly the laptop.

I never realised at the time but the impact broke the left laptop hinge , I only noticed this when I tried to close the laptop, long after the person who fell on me had left the train.

To say I was annoyed at the time was an understatement, but then I though how much can it cost to replace a hinge.

After checking and of course finding out it was not covered by the laptops warranty I enquired as to how much it would cost.

I was asked to email pictures of the damage, and after several days got a quote of £19 for the hinge, I thought at the time that’s not too bad in terms of hinges for laptop computers, but then I noticed the labour charge, £231.

I contacted the repair company and they advised me it was a standard charge, but it could be halved if I was to send the laptop in rather than having someone come out to repair it.

Even though my warranty was site based, as this was not covered under the warranty they were going to charge what they could.

I was also advised if I attempted the repair myself I would invalidate the warranty.

After living with the laptop for another 4 months, being extra careful when opening and closing the lid I received a letter from the laptop manufacturer asking me if I would like to extend my warranty as it was due to run out.

This was a good time to try and get the laptop hinge repaired or replaced, now I could have gone to the manufacturers, but after looking around on a well known auction website I was able to get hold of one for £4 including postage, the seller even advised me on how to replace the hinge myself.

To replace the hinge took me around an hour; I probably could have done this much faster but being extra careful took longer.

In total the repair cost £4 and an hour of my time, its incredible the amount of money I would have been charged to replace the hinge by the repair company.

Notes
One other thing I did notice when the hinge broke, opening and closing the screen appeared to put extra pressure on the case lid which I could see flexing, I’m sure it would have fractured if I had not been extra careful when opening and closing the case.

I also noticed the screen actually moved a little and put undue tension on the video cable running from the screen to the laptops base, if you have similar issues and wish to keep using the laptop make sure you open and close the lid very carefully until you can get it fixed.

Other Options
Another option if you generally only use the laptop at home is to use a docking station and external mouse, keyboard and monitor.

In future when I purchase a new laptop, I’ll be making sure that the extra warranty does include accidental damage.

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