Hinges ripping out of display

I have a year-old PowerPro 15:2, and the hinges have started ripping out of the display. The plastic over the lefthand hinge cracked and the part of it actually covering the hinge broke off, and now there's serious cracking around the righthand hinge, and the plastic has started separating from the display.

It's still somewhat in warrantee, so I'm hoping to persuade them to fix it, but is there any good general advice about this in the meantime? Is it safe to lubricate the hinges so they move more easily (they're quite stiff now) and put less stress on the cover? Is there special laptop hinge lube, or can I just spray in some WD-40 (without worrying that it'll creep down inside and destroy the electronics)?

The hinges are like the least interesting part of a notebook, but they're giving me major trouble right now...

Tx for any advice...

 

If it's in warranty send it to them immediately... don't put oil or anything on it or they'll be like "hurf durf you did this yourself"

 

Oil is the worst thing for screen hinges. They maintain a set amount of friction and without it the screen would flop forward or back and never stay up during use. It sounds like the hinge itself has cracked and the excessive movement is starting to crack out everything around it. Nothing DIY outside of replacing the hinge and possibly the damaged section of the chassis will fix it.

I have seen this crop up a lot on some notebooks. Usually happens a lot with Dell Latitude D620/D630 systems. Cheap hinges abound.

 

Yes, Dell laptops in the past have been especially troublesome for this type of defects (I've had two to crack); however, they are not alone.

Nevertheless, they have made strides in alternative designs (as have others) to prevent this type of simple yet burdensome problem from reoccurring in the future products. Only time will tell if these fixes will last.

Agreed. This can't be fixed (I tried and failed ) only replaced!

 

Thanks! In this case that would be preferable; I can always prop something behind the screen to hold it up during use if necessary. As it is, I hesitate to open or close it at all, for fear of it further damaging itself. For now I will cross my fingers and hope they get back to me quick...

 

LOL, been there, don't that. You should have seen mine when I had these big hardware clamps holding the screen in place.