HP Pavilion dv7 Broken Hinge Mount Repair and Motherboard Reflow - Jody Bruchon

[@normwalton7438]

I have this very laptop (from 2010) and recently broke the hinge. Repair shops in my area want to charge $250-300 to fix and some won't even do it. Thank you for a superbly detailed, and well informed, step by step guidance in repairing the hinge. I'm a fairly handy guy and now for about $7 of plastic epoxy I'll tackle the job myself.

[@JodyBruchon]

I'm glad to hear that! I hate seeing perfectly good equipment go to the garbage can over some piece of dumb engineering like this, especially when it CAN be fixed.

[@machodrilo]

Epoxy alone will not solve the problem, I had to go through the same procedure many times as the left hinge is too stiff and the base casing does not have the same steel reinforcement like the right side. You have to loose the left hinge bolt with a hex wrench a few turns until you feel that the hing can flex just by hand. this will relieve the stress in the left and epoxy repair will then be enough

[@JodyBruchon]

@@machodrilo Yeah, sometimes the hinges are bad too. I rarely run into a hinge that's too tight though, so thanks for mentioning it. Would you mind making this comment a top-level comment instead of a response so I can pin it and give you credit?

[@machodrilo]

@@JodyBruchon sure, always glad to be helpful

[@tonyizzo790]

@@machodrilo I'm having trouble seeing how to loosen the hinge. Both ends of the hinge bolt are smooth and round, IE nowhere to insert a hex wrench. The hinge is very stiff and I'm worried if I just epoxy it as-is it will just break off more of the (extremely flimsy) case.

[@michaelmays3564]

Thank You for this video! Same computer - Same Problem - Same fix. All better now!

[@RichardBeltrame1]

Wow... Im not the only one with this problem. Thanks for the video, i will try it later. The hinge gets too stiff and break the support and also the plastic for the base. Its an 9 years old Laptop, but i upgraded last year RAM and SSD and flys. Maybe 1 year more or 2, and then change it, sadly. Thanks again!

[@raywood8187]

Same problem, HP could have prevented this with some thicker and stronger materials in the corners and it would have cost them a dime extra to do it.

[@petergibbs8086]

Why do the hinges stiffen up, can they be adjusted/lubricated?

[@aminyaghtinmirshekar9442]

I really need help with my computer. It is the same exact one but is completely left the computer and on the outside. I'm still surprised it still works fine.

[@JodyBruchon]

You can pretty much epoxy it back in place as seen in the video. It's similar for both sides.

[@aminyaghtinmirshekar9442]

@@JodyBruchon But you see the part that screws into the computer is bent upwards and won't bent back down

[@machodrilo]

@@aminyaghtinmirshekar9442 you have to get the hinge loose because it is very stiff and it caused the hinge to get broken. Take a look in the gray part of the hinge (between the case and display) you will see a hexagonal bolt, use a nut wrench and let it loose

[@soldier4christsoldier4chri90]

What do I do if the brass screw Insert is broken loose? Do u know where I can get the correct size screw Insert?

[@soldier4christsoldier4chri90]

I'm thinking at worst case scenario, I will drill through the lid and place a longer through screw/bolt through the lid/hinge.

[@BD90..]

I hate laptops that end up with hinge and case issues. They basically self destruct themselves.

[@JodyBruchon]

It's a surprisingly common failure. You'd think by now that they could figure out how to make hinge mounts, but nooooooo

[@leyvajavier]

get yer stuff

[@dontaskmeforusername]

I'll give you $5 to fix mine

[@JodyBruchon]

I charge $160.

[@MarcABrown-tt1fp]

Managed to fix mine with some plastic bonding epoxy, thankfully saving just about the whole left hinge mounting holes. To top it all off I re lubricated the hinge and made the left hinge a little loose and kept the right hinge the same and it made for an easy smooth opening screen. It's near mint otherwise. lousy HP and their crap engineering. 🤣👍

[@michaelchambers7691]

Made in China 🇨🇳