If you remember (which you probably don't) I made a blog back in October describing how my laptop's hinge broke. I took it into Data Doctors like I said I would and they told me it would cost $500 to fix it. That was outrageous. That was more than half of the computer's price tag brand new, and it wasn't even a year old. I gave up and setup a desk in my living room which I could use as a setup, wither an external keyboard and mouse and my laptop screen as the monitor. Now, I can say that I fixed my hinge, and it didn't cost me more than $30.
When we took it into Data Doctors, they didn't know anything about the laptop's internal situation, just that it appeared that the hinge was busted. His estimate was that it would be $200 for parts and $300 for labor. Now, I guess it is still accurate if I wanted my laptop to be like new, but that is just ridiculous. I ended up trying to fix it myself, but thought I stripped a screw (the last one required to remove the palmrest from the laptop to reach the internals). I carried out with my life until today. I figured today would be as good a day as any to get to work on it. I bought a screwdriver set a few months ago that I am using for console repairs and the like, and figured it would probably have the right bits to open my computer. I guessed correctly. I opened it up and guess what? Well, wait a minute first.
Let me give a bit of information about this particular model of laptop. It turns out that the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 (may not be the exact product label but close enough) has a particular factory defect where the screw holding the outer shell of the bottom half of the laptop to the hinge, which grounds the hinge so that it doesn't get out of place is loose, or entirely missing (my laptop's screw was missing, go figure). This only occurs on the left side of the laptop. If it isn't loose when you get it, moving the laptop around will loosen the screw. So the only thing holding my hinge in place was the two small screws that are on the hinge itself, grounding it to the plastic. When my dog tackled my laptop, he shifted the hinge out of place, making it so that the hinge was constantly over rotated, and closing/opening was controlled entirely by the right hinge. This caused the metal plate under the palmrest to bend and creating an even larger gap.
I was able to fix this by removing the palmrest and screwing the two smaller screws back into place, and also by removing a screw from under the keyboard and screwing it into the missing screw's screwhole. I could have purchased an entirely new palmrest, but I figured that the palmrest didn't both of those screws, and I sure as hell wasn't going to buy a new palmrest just for another screw. Unfortunately, I didn't complete close the gap, as that would require a new palmrest (the metal is still bent and the plastic is formed to the bent shape of the old hinge state), which is more money than I care to spend at the moment.
Below are some before and after pictures:
My next plans are to fix my keyboard (are bought a replacement) as the L button just popped off and completely broke, adding another 8 GB of RAM, and adding a solid-state drive.
When we took it into Data Doctors, they didn't know anything about the laptop's internal situation, just that it appeared that the hinge was busted. His estimate was that it would be $200 for parts and $300 for labor. Now, I guess it is still accurate if I wanted my laptop to be like new, but that is just ridiculous. I ended up trying to fix it myself, but thought I stripped a screw (the last one required to remove the palmrest from the laptop to reach the internals). I carried out with my life until today. I figured today would be as good a day as any to get to work on it. I bought a screwdriver set a few months ago that I am using for console repairs and the like, and figured it would probably have the right bits to open my computer. I guessed correctly. I opened it up and guess what? Well, wait a minute first.
Let me give a bit of information about this particular model of laptop. It turns out that the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 (may not be the exact product label but close enough) has a particular factory defect where the screw holding the outer shell of the bottom half of the laptop to the hinge, which grounds the hinge so that it doesn't get out of place is loose, or entirely missing (my laptop's screw was missing, go figure). This only occurs on the left side of the laptop. If it isn't loose when you get it, moving the laptop around will loosen the screw. So the only thing holding my hinge in place was the two small screws that are on the hinge itself, grounding it to the plastic. When my dog tackled my laptop, he shifted the hinge out of place, making it so that the hinge was constantly over rotated, and closing/opening was controlled entirely by the right hinge. This caused the metal plate under the palmrest to bend and creating an even larger gap.
I was able to fix this by removing the palmrest and screwing the two smaller screws back into place, and also by removing a screw from under the keyboard and screwing it into the missing screw's screwhole. I could have purchased an entirely new palmrest, but I figured that the palmrest didn't both of those screws, and I sure as hell wasn't going to buy a new palmrest just for another screw. Unfortunately, I didn't complete close the gap, as that would require a new palmrest (the metal is still bent and the plastic is formed to the bent shape of the old hinge state), which is more money than I care to spend at the moment.
Below are some before and after pictures:
My next plans are to fix my keyboard (are bought a replacement) as the L button just popped off and completely broke, adding another 8 GB of RAM, and adding a solid-state drive.
