W230SS hinges repairs quest

So, apparently they're not covered by warranty, certainly not well designed or sturdy either, so i DIY them, took quite a lot longer than expected, but seems I've finished, its nothing huge, but thought I'd share for anyone doing it as well.

First off, had to disassemble whole laptop, as it required pulling out all the antennae cables, removing LCD etc. essentially, strip down the laptop completely. #1 why it took me longer.

Second reason it took me longer was because i had to dremel off quite a bit of epoxy, the mounting screws are really tiny, the screw sockets barely have any back to them as well... they were molded into a sort of cobweb, i've slammed a bunch of epoxy on it (used strongest i could find 4000PSI it says on the box, not quite 9000 but must be good right?) and dremel it down to be flush with the top of the plastic molding, it has a somewhat indent.

I was planning to document it better, but really there wasn't much to document, ill upload video of me placing the little screw sockets and epoxying them in place if there is interest, its mostly time consuming and a little fiddly.

Prep surface with steel brush bit on dremel so epoxy has something to bite on better beforehand place the broken off screw sockets (roughen them up too, sandpaper will do fine too just not too much so it doesn't lose the fine outlines, otherwise it wont sit nicely in it's place)

It looks perfectly fine from outside now, wouldn't be able to tell it had hinge issues. Though i have a feeling it might break again in the future and i might need to do something more extreme like another member posted, using a metal backplate behind the hinge and using through bolts to hold it. Not anytime soon hopefully, this is a more original, delicate (and more time consuming) way of doing things i suppose.

link to the photos i took http://imgur.com/a/KyiBo (sorry no pre grinding off a bunch of epoxy photo, there was a fair bit on top.
i have ~15min video of me fiddling with epoxy and placing them in the correct spots. rather important not to mix them up so they sit evenly in correct spots from which they broke. Hope its interesting/helpful to someone, or if someone wants to take on something similar. also don't get cheap epoxy, its fine for some things, but it would likely crack. get one for plastic/rubber so it has some give to it and doesn't just crack/break.

 

Even though I would probably never attempt anything like this myself, props to you for sharing your journey into repairing this issue for your notebook.

I hope it inspires others to do the same so that everyone (including non-members of NBR) benefit too.

 

well it's not difficult as long as you got a dremel with some bits and can buy some good epoxy. screwdriver important too i guess to disassemble. as long as you have a rough idea what you're doing that is, but i do hope it helps some people.

 

For anything that we've done, it's natural to say it is easy to do.

But for most that will attempt this for the first time, posts like yours are always welcome (even for the seemingly 'easy' stuff).

 

https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/7392-problem-with-lcd-case-w230st/

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/w230ss-xmg-p304-broken-hinge-dented-frame.768856/