Another HP Story

I wrote before about a time when Hewlett Packard made great products, notably my old LaserJet 5P. 

My experiences with HP since that purchase haven't always been so good. I have a color multi-function laser printer that has Wi-Fi but I haven't been able to use Wi-Fi printing since I moved to Windows 10 because the printer's wireless printing drivers stopped working and I couldn't find a solution for it (though it's been a while and I should probably revisit that since surely by now HP has figured it out). And although I haven't suffered the indignities newer HP printer owners have with the whole replacement ink debacle, it's clear HP lacks the commitment to innovation, quality, and customer service it once had. 

However, the company is still a force in the market. If you need a PC or printer it's still a place where you can get sufficient capability for an acceptable price. Just pray you won't need to call their customer service, where you'll get read a script to sell you ink rather than someone that understands how to diagnose and fix problems. 

Some Good, Some Bad

I purchased HP laptops for both my children when they went to college. Both were Envy x360 15 models using AMD Ryzen APUs. They perform great and both report being pleased with the PCs, showing that HP can still do some things right. The Envy line is a cut above the Pavilion line, and feature more attractive designs and don't feel quite as obviously plastic. But after about two and a half years, one of the laptops made a cracking noise and the hinge broke. Or more accurately, the hinge is fine, but the mounting point where the hinge connects to the top lid of the laptop broke. 

Going online, I found scores of videos about how to fix this with may comments from other HP laptop owners complaining about this same exact issue. The problem is that the hinge itself is strong, but the place where it's screwed into the top lid is made of plastic, and it cracks. Some users reported it happening as early as six months, others like me have had it happen at two to three years. Looking at the parts up close, it seems to me that simply designing a stronger mounting point and using metal instead of plastic for just that small area would have done wonders. HP, you went cheap on a part that would obviously undergo regular stress. Very disappointing.

The pictures here show what happened. One shows the screw mounts in the plastic, the other shows how the plastic has cracked on the other side and the mounts have all fallen out.

If You Want Something Done Right, Do it Yourself

Thank God for the internet and YouTube. Both of those have enabled the do-it-yourself community and even a tech novice can repair equipment. I've used articles and videos to repair flat-screen TVs, plumbing, a clothes washer, and now a laptop hinge mount.

There are a number of videos that feature slight differences in the process, but they ultimately do the same thing: restore the mounting point for the hinge. 

First, take stock of the damage. If it's just the hinge mount and the display panel is still working, you're in luck. If the display is bad too, then it'll cost more money to buy more parts. In my case, it was just the hinge mount. 

There are two approaches you can take.

1. Repair the hinge mount with glue. Some of the people doing repairs were able to fill in the space where the broken plastic mounts were with epoxy. When it had set, it was of sufficient strength to hold. The problem I had with this approach was I felt it could get messy, and you'd also be gluing the hinge since it'd be almost impossible to glue only the screw sockets to the lid with perfect alignment. I'd have left the screws screwed into the sockets that were originally held in plastic, then pressed the entire top hinge flap into the glue. This approach would have been the cheapest option, costing you just the glue and reusing existing parts.
2. Replace the entire top lid. This cost about $60 in parts (a new lid and a roll of double-sided tape, both easily found on eBay and Amazon). 

Regardless of the approach, both require separating the top lid from the display panel, which is connected to the lid by a combination of snap points and double-sided tape. Some of the videos say to fully remove the hinges from the laptop to make it easier, and also to disconnect the battery and solid state drive to prevent damage. Meh, I just left all that in place and worked around it. I didn't want to take apart a bunch of other stuff because that requires taking off parts that are held on with tape and putting them back on leaves them in a condition that's never quite as good as new. 

I recommend watching multiple videos to get different techniques from people. The first video I watched, the repair person used a heat gun to loosen the double-sided tape holding the lid to the display. But another video showed that if you can pry open the top of the lid enough, you can reach some pull tabs on the original HP stretch tape and pull those to get the tape out. Much easier. 

The only other task is to remove the Wi-Fi antennae from the lid and transfer it to the new lid. Then screw the hinge into the new lid. The final step is to apply double-sided tape to the lid and then snap the display back into the lid. Done.

I wish the nice stretch tape with the pull tabs was available to buy so that it would be easy to remove it if I have to do this repair again. I could not find it anywhere, and there are several messages on the HP support forums where people ask but never get an answer. But if I can get two more years out of this laptop, then it'll be four years old and probably time to replace it. Still, HP should sell that stretch tape. They're the ones that made a decision to leave you with a weak hinge mount in the first place.