Well.. My m15x hinge is finally broken too..

Well, add me to the list of probably hundreds of m15x owners who's hinges have broken. As someone who spends several thousand dollars a year on computers and computer parts, I'm never going to buy an Alienware laptop again, this is ridiculous.

The problem with these laptops, for those of you who haven't actually taken them apart, is that they have a metal hinge (which is VERY stiff I might add), attached with metal screws into threaded metal nuts that are held to the case with plastic. Thats right, the threaded metal nuts are held with weak plastic in place so anytime the screws are twisted they run the risk of twisting the nuts and cracking/breaking the plastic. Why any company would possibly think this was a good design? I'm not sure.

My warranty is up and its not worth the effort of arguing with Alienware and having them fix it. It'll just break again in a few months. I'm thinking of drilling holes through the plastic case and running bolts/nuts through with a metal bracket on either side. It should provide a, albeit ugly, durable solution to this problem.

 

i just fixed mine today with 5 dollars of epoxy and 2 hours of work. here is my writeup: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5633447&postcount=96

some of the guys on the forum have already done this, i'm just following in their footsteps and it DOES WORK. very very well.

 

don;t frown on alienware as a whole ... the new ones are MUCH better and i emplore you to try one

 

Thank you for the link. I'm following the guide now.. Hopefully this will last long!

.. I had just got done fabbing up a metal bracket to extend the hinge to make it easier on the plastic.. I was going to use that as my fix.

 

i agree, i feel that the weak hinge issue is a result of trying to cram too much into a light chassis.

if you think about it, the cover of the m15x has a LOT going on. led arrays behind and in front, a webcam and mic array, the wifi antenna and of course, the LCD. comparing it to, say, a toshiba, that just has an LCD to worry about, is naive.

still, seeing as it is possible to solve the problem with a little epoxy, it seems to make more sense to just manufacture covers with stronger mounts. perhaps alienware was cutting costs?

however, the new m15x is bigger and heavier, which i do not appreciate at all. i prefer the extensibility and mobility of my original one. its also simpler looking, the new ones are too aggressive for my taste. personal preference!

good luck buddy! i'm willing to bet that you'll have a perfectly good hinge by this time tomorrow.

 

can agree on levels . I was just asking you not to bash it because i am on it right now and i can honestly say its just as well built as my M17x beside it

 

Well I just got done epoxying my entire left hinge and 2 of the screws on the right hinge. Now just a little micro managing the flow of epoxy as it dries and I should be good..

Going to let it set overnight. The epoxy I have says it sets up in 7 minutes but it takes 8 for working strength and 24 for full strength.

 

sweet, hopefully your project goes as smoothly as mine did!

 

When you come to buy a new notebook, I really would suggest considering the new Alienware notebooks. They are some of the best performing on the market, are actually very well priced, and have the best cooling out of any other notebooks on the market as well as fantastic build quality.

The m15x was a one off really. And technically Alienware didn't design it, their ODM Quanta did, so Alienware probably didn't know about it until loads started to break to their credit.

 

How good are the new ones since I am about to order the m17x, I don't want a broken hinge lol..

 

Absolutely brilliant. The ONLY notebooks that I can think of that have a better build quality than the M17x are Macbook Pros, and even then only marginally better due to their unibody aluminium chassis. M17x is still anodised aluminium but as far as I know it's not made from one solid block of the stuff.

The hinges aren't going to fail on you, simple as that.

 

If something on the new M15x/M17x ever be broken, I dont think it would be the hinge The new version has very high build quality.

Evil, you always refer to MacBook when talking about Alienware Im kinda just the same (My M17x is just my 2nd laptop after the MBP 15" so its the only laptop I can have comparison with)

 

Well.. woke up a little while ago and checked my laptop. Epoxy seemed pretty hard. Unfortunately the epoxy I got was not nearly as thick as the stuff gigaman used. I got the only epoxy Walmart had (at midnight last night) that worked on plastics.

The epoxy actually seeped through underneath the nuts and filled in the bottom of the nuts so the screws wouldn't go in all the way. I started working on clearing it all out of there and one of the nuts broke loose. So I just re epoxy'd it..

I'm thinking maybe I should just get epoxy remover, clean it all out of there, and now that Home Depot is open I can go get some real thick epoxy and re do the project.

A big set back, but I'd rather do it right the first time.

 

Got it put back together. I'm not 100% happy with the outcome.. it wasn't perfect, but its definitely better than it was before I took it apart.

I'll probably have to redo everything in a few months... maybe longer. I'll get some better epoxy then.

 

nice, my epoxy was really really stiff stuff. i think the brand was "do it best" and it was the plastic bonder. i was concerned when the back said "semi-rigid when fully cured" but it was rock solid.

i felt more comfortable that it was better at holding together plastic and metal though.