Acer Aspire E1-571 hinge loose

My Acer Aspire E1-571 has a hinge loose. Not broken, just loose enough that it opens and closes awkwardly.

It is still under warranty, but the warranty document reads:

5. Warranty does not apply to the following.
a) All plastic parts, chassis, hinges and cosmetic parts.

What should I do? Should I take it in to the Acer service centre and hope that they do this under the warranty, or should I open it up myself and tighten the screws? Getting to the hinge involves a fair bit of disassembly, with lots of snap-fit plastic tabs (I have downloaded the service manual). Never opened an Acer before, so not sure of the build quality. Please advise.

 

I find it very surprising that the warranty does not cover hinges and plastic parts - that's most of the notebook if you think of it.
You can actually tighten those hinges (just don't overdo it) and the disassembly is not very hard so if I were you I'd do it myself.

 

As a rule of thumb, first thing I do with any new laptop is open up the chassis, and tighten all the hinge mounting screws I can find. I am baffled why so many laptops, from every manufacturer, come with loose hinge mount screws - its not unknown to find one that you can get an extra 3 full turns out of.

The second thing I do, is pull off the screen bezel and do the same for the hinge screws that attach to the back lcd cover - again - these are ALWAYS loose.

Loose screws allow for movement and flex of the metal hinge brackets against the plastic holders they screw into. This movement and flex leads to cracks, which will lead to complete failure of the mount if not attended to.

Been doing this for a few years now, never had a hinge go bad since

 

Thanks guys. I have done this for my VAIO VPCZ1, but this is the first time I'll be opening up an Acer, so I was a bit nervous. The VAIO comes apart very easily, but there seem to be a lot of snap fit plastic tabs on this. Fingers crossed I don't break any.