[RedHelix]

It is a massive pain in the testicles. Never do it.


(Who stayed up 'till 2 last night replacing the hinges in his 5yo laptop? *This guy.*)

[JohnWill]

I've had several flavors of Compaq apart and had the hinges laying on the table, it was actually pretty easy to get to them. Yes, you'll have a LOT of part laying around, and you need to keep track of where all the little screws came from, but it's pretty straight-forward. In my case, I was replacing the motherboard, which requires you disassemble the laptop down to the bare case.

[RedHelix]

I just went through with it an old Toshiba Satellite Pro. The thing about the hinges on this one is they're part of a bracket assembly that goes all the way down to both sides of the mainboard and all the way up into the LCD casing. The whole laptop chassis had to be taken apart to remove the hinges/brackets.

[JohnWill]

That's worse than the Compaq machines I took apart. but since I had the stripped to the bare case anyway, it wouldn't have mattered.

[good grief]

As I have not long since bought a Toshiba Satellite Pro, I'm delighted to hear that I have at least 5 years before I need to look at getting the hinges replaced (although you can rest assured that I will NEVER EVER attempt to do this myself)! Any tips on preserving the life of the hinges - and the laptop itself for that matter?

[Danyo]

JohnWill, what did you use to seperate the top from the bottom case? I know theres clips that locks into place when top and bottom is together. Just wondering what you used to get between the crack to seperate them.
I'm trying to open a Winbook, I'm having a problem opening up the case. The problem area, right front side, can't seem to seperate top from bottom. Checked and there isn't any screw in that area. It just seems so tight and feels very solid together.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[JohnWill]

The Compaq doesn't have anything holding the two halves together after removing all the screws. Each make/model of laptop is potentially different, so it's hard to be specific about a Winbook, which I've never disassembled. I've had Sonly (ugly!), Compaq, HP, Averatec, and a couple of Dells apart. Other than the Sony, they were all pretty easy to disassemble/reassemble.

[RedHelix]

Originally Posted by good grief

As I have not long since bought a Toshiba Satellite Pro, I'm delighted to hear that I have at least 5 years before I need to look at getting the hinges replaced (although you can rest assured that I will NEVER EVER attempt to do this myself)! Any tips on preserving the life of the hinges - and the laptop itself for that matter?

Preserving the life of them? Hard to say. The way that laptop hinges are built, they're not really ever supposed to be replaced unless they suffer trauma.

From my purely anecdotal experience, with laptops with 15"+ LCDs, the hinge itself is a tiny bar with about 5-8 rings encircling it. Each of these rings has a small square edge that 'catches' on both sides of a "half-pipe" that surrounds the bar they're attached to. When you lift the laptop lid, the edge of each ring lifts off one tip of the half-pipe and catches on the other side, causing friction.

If this half-pipe shape breaks on either hinge, which happened in my case, the lid will flap around because the ring edges aren't catching anything.

I can't imagine this mechanism would wear out on its own during the lifetime of a laptop, but I'm sure it happens to some people. For some smaller lids I've seen on Dells, it's the same thing as a door hinge with more friction. So I guess to answer your question, your best bet for preserving the life of your hinges is prayer.

[good grief]

Red Helix,

Thanks for your reply. I wasn't aware of how they attached hinges, so I was thinking they might wear out like the door hinge scenario. Mine is in the 15"+ LCD range, so I should have the rings, and that's reassuring to know. I'll do my best not to drop it! Hadn't thought of the prayer option lol, but I'll bear it in mind.

Thanks again for the helpful reply.

[JohnWill]

Some hinges do wear out, others are of a better design.