How to repair a broken hinge on a laptop

After a long night of studying with very little progress, I finally decided to call it a night and go to bed. When I mashed my laptop shut out of frustration a woeful clack sound startled me. I had this bad feeling in by stomach that something had gone wrong. As it turns out, being in a indolent state, I failed to notice a usb dongle I had left on my keyboard. The hinge of the screen had broken off.

The next morning I took apart my laptop to assess the damage. The hinge was originally attached using screws and nuts. The nuts are integrated into a plastic backplate to the screen. When I broke the hinge, the nuts are pulled out of the plastic mounting, and the mounting shattered. I went to the internet to scavenge for a replacement part but hours passed with no success. At that moment, I was in total despair. But then Genius struck. I remembered this amazing material I used when building the University's Solar Car (FYI: It's called Sugru). I sprinted down to my local Maplin and treated myself to a multi colour pack.

Sugru is perfect and it bounds to metal AND plastic very well. And it hardens to form structure support in addition to the bonding power.

Leo from Cambridge, UK

Kit

  • 2 single-use foil pack of Sugru
  • A screwdriver

Step 1

Nuts held back in place with red Sugru

I used a red pack to glue the nuts back into the plastic mound and filled the caps where the plastic had broken off

Step 2

Metal hinge glued to metal hinge using Sugru

The second day I screwed the hinge back on to the screen. Just to be safe I use a bunch of black Sugru to glue the metal hinge to the screen back plate as well. Another long day of waiting...

Step 3

Fixed laptop with functioning screen and Sugru label displayed

Third day, I could barely hold my excitement when rushing back from lectures and started to put my laptop together. And it worked like a charm!!! The rest, as they say, is History....