W230SS, XMG P304 broken hinge, dented frame.

My XMG P304 has developed a fault related to the hinge, I wanted to see if anybody had any possible solutions to fix this problem. When I close the laptop lid the right side (when looking at the laptop screen) of the bezel comes loose and pops out, I can pop it all back into place but I'm worried it's just going to fall apart at some point.

 

omg, that just.....

ok, are u still under warranty? have you contacted mysn about this? looks like a screw or two (or more...) may have gotten loose / fallen out...

 

I have noticed quite a few screws falling out of my laptop over the past few months. I have not contacted MySN over it and I should still be under warranty as I paid for it April 2014, are these types of things covered?

 

if this just happened during regular usage, e.g. u didnt let the machine fall down (which a dented frame could potentially suggest, but could also be caused by the unhinged hinge), then it should definitely be covered. better hit them up asap

 

echo OMG!
how the hell did that happen?

looking back at your posts i see you bough in may so first thing to do if you havnt already done so is start a ticket with support and get it RMA'd back. this is the uk support page mySN UK Ltd - Powered by Kayako Fusion Help Desk Software
but if you bought in Germany or EU site you need to contact their support.

 

I don't know how this happened, I could feel the hinge was getting a bit loose and wobbly and then today when I'm closing my laptop I hear this loud click and you can see the result. I have been noticing screws falling out of my laptop since September, some screws from the bottom but also some from inside the laptop, I have no idea how they made it outside but they did.

 

a miracle that those screws didnt fry ur mobo
anyways, just get it RMA'd asap and ull be fine

 

Received a reply from MySN so about to send it off, apparently though my it may not be covered by the warranty because they saw this thread and noticed that I had written about noticing a few screws falling out previously and because I didn't make them aware of this I may have to pay to fix it, I will be really p'd off if this is the case.

 

"Developed" a fault?

It looks like some of the screw housings/standoffs are completely snapped off, which would explain the loose screws. Best of luck to you, Misesian! Let us know what the verdict is from MySN once you've heard from them.

 

Have disassembled the display before and noticed those screws; there's three of them on each hinge. These have very shallow depth and its screw holes are merely glued to the plastic lid (one screw didn't come out without filing off the head, so drilled it out). All in all, a very weak construction, especially since there's no left and right metal frame bezel to distribute the load.

Even if you had reported this sooner, the result would have been the same when it comes to repairs; a new plastic display lid and three of those wide+shallow screws. Hinge itself seems fine and even the bezel looks ok. This ought to be included under warranty, MySN should be able to pin this on Clevo in turn due to manufacturing flaw. It's in their interest too; won't be the last for this to happen and it's better to set a precedent.

Spoiler: Clevo W230SS - hinge design

 

We can help you...

 

To confirm, we have received Misesian's laptop under RMA and will be in touch with him very shortly!

 

Than everything is Okey

CEG Team your Upgrade Base for Clevo & Alienware

 

The exact same thing has happened to my laptop bought from mysn.co.uk which is still under warranty and guess what? They are saying I have caused the damage by "not reporting it sooner" and asking for £120+.

I have read about several cases recently with this issue. Yet MySN are refusing to acknowledge a design fault. I have filed a complaint, lets see how they handle this.

 

I suffered from the same issue on my W230ST, but outside warranty or RMA time-frame, even so I could fix it:

Back Cover from RJTech,

The screws are a nightmare to find. But i contacted mysn.co.uk

Mysn.co.uk reply to my request:

"Good morning!
Thank you for contacting us! Unfortunately we cannot provide these screws.
If you try contacting [email protected] they should be able to assist you.
Best regards,
Jack."

And yes they could help me out.

Thanks Mysn.co.uk and Goldenstaruk!

Regards

 

If it helps i can breakdown my cost.

Back cover: £30 + shipping;
Screws: £6 pounds for 12, I used 4 of them;
Installation: yes it took me 2 hours of tinkering (bricolage).

The £120 is almost entirely related with labor rate.

In my opinion, and unless i´am missing something, it seems awkward, mysn accepts your laptop RMA and by return you receive a £120 proforma.

 

Well awkward is one word for it, some might say slap in the face ...

On a more positive note MySN did offer me those screws for free, so that was good of them eh?

How is your fix holding up? Do you think it will break again just by opening and closing the lid on a regular basis like has already happened to some?

 

Since the launch of the P303 / W230ST (same chassis as P304) to date we have had five RMAs with "hinge issues". I say this in quotation marks because of those five one was repaired under warranty, two were due to the customer closing the lid with an object on the keyboard (which they openly admitted was their fault), one whom we partially charged for the repair and jazzatnot's current RMA case.

Without disclosing the full facts of the case, I can confirm that this isn't strickly what happened. We explained very carefully and clearly to jazzatnot that the damage may well not be covered under warranty before the RMA was arranged. We do of course need to see a laptop first hand before we can say whether or not it is covered under warranty.

We strongly urge customers to report any issue with their laptop or PC as soon as possible. This means that we can carry out repairs sooner and it reduces the damage that can occur due to continuous usage. This is the same advice whether you think your laptop is overheating or throttling unusually for several months before reporting it to us, or if you notice a physical issue with the chassis itself.

By "not reporting it sooner" in this case, we are not refering to the current state of the laptop - we are refering to the state of the laptop four months ago, before either hinge assembly was snapped.

 

Mr XMG. Thank you so much for that insight. It is truly revealing.

 

I received my P303 early 2014. It now has this problem as well. From the moment I received it I noticed that the screen was very tight but I didn't think more about it at the time. Then some time ago I saw the screen starting to come apart on one side like the pics in first post when I opened and closed the lid. I figured a little glue would help tie it together and make it work but then shortly after it also broke apart on the other side. Now I've taken it all apart and the design flaw is really obvious now. Especially if, like on mine, the moving parts are too tight.

The screen is attached by 3 small screws as you already saw but there is no support what so ever. These screws are glued/pressed into 3 sockets that sit on the outer frame itself at the bottom of the screen but there is no support at all running along the screen to the top. When opening and closing the screen the natural move is to flip by the top of the screen and that will put a tremendous stress on these three small connections made in hard brittle plastic. Its only a matter of time before this design will break even with normal use. The moving parts are way to tight for this simple design.

I've never dropped my laptop but its been opened and closed multiple times a day and now the connections have finally gave up. I'll post some pictures as I took it all apart.

Is there any replacement parts that can be purchased that will fit this laptop?

Even if possible to get replacement parts I think this will just happen again. Its an awesome laptop but the casing sucks.

 

Agreed, lid design is flawed, and the plastic cover is too thin, so it'll flex when pressured (potentially damaging the lcd).

The replacement part would be the display lid, hinge itself looks fine. RJTech has it for $55.

Alternatively, you could drill 2x three holes through the lid and use a metal spreader (or three washers) on the outside along with longer nuts. That would provide a permanent fix as it'll hold mechanically, sans glue. It's not for everyone; some (most?) people care more about the look of laptops, rather than the function ...

 

I plastered it in some contact glue but I have my doubts it will hold for long. I might just drill some holes in the cover and put a bolt through and secure it with washers. That should hold fine until this laptop need to be put in a retirement home. Excellent suggestion.

 

Great, please post an image when you're done . Mine and other's may very well need a similar treatment at one time or another. Will have to find a method to drill the added structural-sheet then, come to think of it ... diamond/cbn drill-bits, possibly.

 

Went to the hardware store to get some 4 mm parts. And this is how it turned out. It will not win a beauty contest but that was not what I was aiming for. I just wanted it to work again.

Here ya go:

 

Hell, that was fast .

Wonderful look, kinda steampunk. Stainless? Do think a little bolt-cropping is in order, but other than; perfect !

 

They only had stainless. I don't think I'll try to get the tips off though. Currently its the back plate plastic that's holding it all together and if it flexes too much it might break again. And if it breaks I'll have to get a new back piece.

Steampunk. I like the steampunk look of it now you mention it.

 

Does anyone know if this may have been addressed for the SD? I'm a little concerned, although my lid seems to close easily, I've never had a worry about it being too tight to close, and that's something I've actively noticed in other laptop lids (notably my NP6165).

Could be the actual flaw is tight hinges, more so than weak mounts?

 

No, it hasn't. The W230SD is identical to the W230SS and W230ST as far as the structure, chassis and battery are concerned (hint: open up your laptop and you'll see that half the parts are labelled 'W230ST'). Literally the only difference between the three laptops are the motherboards inside them (and a small keyboard layout arrangement change in the W230SD), and it's the motherboards that determine the model numbers of the W230Sx laptops. Hence, it's perfectly possible to 'upgrade' a W230ST to a W230SD just by swapping out the motherboard, which costs about US$200 give or take. Not a bad deal, actually, swapping out a 765M for a 960M.

 

edit : thank you for the insight SRSR333

 

I wonder if he ever cut those bolts down to size...

 

Probably not - he didn't seem to want to.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/w230ss-hinges-repairs-quest.782334/

 

Nice one gents.

Bought one of them about a week ago and ran into this fault.
Used this tread to repair mine. Hope it helps others as well.

 

@1ck574r7 - did you buy it from us (there's no XMG logo on the lid so I assume not)? If you did you should get in touch with our support straight away, or whomever you purchased the laptop from. I've never seen W230 hinges fail within a week....I've used one every day for just under 2.5 years and it's rock solid.

 

A week of use would suggest a manufacturing fault in the lid.

 

It was second hand. Needed something smaller than my 170sm 780m,
I am quite happy with the result. Named by box Rivit.

 

It is a pretty clean looking finish I must admit.

 

Prophetic words ... :

Spoiler: Clevo W230SS - hinge, broken

Spoiler: Clevo W230SS - hinge fix, cropped

The bolts @k1ck574r7 has used would fare better, though. As it is, the nuts are hindering its carrying-tray duties. Might switch to an alternative, especially if it snags inside the laptop bag:

• M4 flanged button, stainless
• M4 button, high strength steel (superior to stainless)
• M4 flat, brass
• M4 button, titanium

Anyway, let's hope Clevo's successor models will have a better design ...

 

I believe the W series is the last of its kind... The P6 series of notebooks are significantly more robust, and manage to look better, too. Meanwhile I'm trying to find out how I can mod the cooling assembly so that the CPU and GPU don't cross 85°C under full load...