Laptop screen hinge broken, bonus rattle inside...

[notalwaysright]

I have an HP Envy, and one day a tiny screw fell out of the right hand hinge, and that side of the screen doesn't close all the way anymore. I see hinge breaking is VERY common on HP laptops. Goody. Well, I'm 100% okay with just leaving the laptop open. This is a desktop replacement, I don't take it with me anywhere. But I thought I'd put the screw back in...

When I flipped the laptop over, I could hear mysterious rattling inside. When I tried to put the screw back in, it seems to be stripped about halfway down. I guess my question is, do I dare open it up to try to find the cause of the rattle? Do you think this could wreak something inside? I'm not afraid to mess with electronics, I'm just nervous because if I break this, I can't afford to replace it. Thanks~

[dalesys]

I would be concerned that the rattle could be a chunk of metal rather than plastic and could connect things what ain't s'posed to have congress.

[KuariKaydrith]

I think what the rattle is caused by is the clip on the inside that the screw used to go into. It's been a while since I've take apart an HP laptop, but I do seem to recall this being a thing. That's why it seems like the screw is partially striped. That was introduced to keep the hinges from cracking off. I found that it really doesn't cause any issues, you just have to be careful when you open and close the lid. My old HP died of old age with the same issue and I lugged it everywhere I went.

[notalwaysright]

I think for now I'm just going to leave it... As long as I'm not moving the rattly bit around it should be okay? Arg. I took a look at some tutorials to fix it, and they were basically disassembling the entire machine to get to the hinge.

[raw1989]

I think for now I'm just going to leave it... As long as I'm not moving the rattly bit around it should be okay? Arg. I took a look at some tutorials to fix it, and they were basically disassembling the entire machine to get to the hinge.

yah don't do it my husband did once hes a computer its labor intensive and if u don't hook things back up right well it could go I dropped mine several times and just left it alone till it died. However my husband was fixing a screen for someone took hours to replace.

[KuariKaydrith]

Your laptop will be fine even if you need to lug it around somewhere The hinges are a pain in the butt to repair even now and due to the amount of work required to fix them it isn't worth it. Back in the day the hinge issue used to also affect the screen - we saw lots of repairs to the LCD screen when people used to send their laptops in for hinge repairs.

[RichS]

With the screw falling out and you hear a rattle, combined with what I know about HP laptops, I can tell you the rattling is one of two things.

Most laptops, including HPs, have their hinges mounted via screws that screw into nuts that are molded into the chassis. Stress can cause the plastic nut mounts to break. So, you either have 1: a piece of plastic, or 2: the steel nut and remnants of plastic rattling around in there.

Plastic, no problem. Steel, could be if it finds the right spot. Construction-wise, hinges usually have 2-3 screws holding them from either end of the chassis (main body and LCD), so you shouldn't have a problem with stability. It's the rattling I'd be concerned about.