Operation Laptop Repair!

    For some back story, I was a Technology Aide at Forest Park High School for the vast majority of the school year alongside my friend Dean Ahmad. In this position, I was taught how to operate HP Laptops and troubleshoot hardware and software bugs/discrepancies. My mentor was the Technology Support Specialist (TSSPEC) at Forest Park HS, Mr. Mohammed Hussain. He taught me everything I know, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I had. 

    Sometime around early May 2023, I was using my laptop, Lenovo Yoga 7i, and there seemed to be an issue with one of the hinges. I tried fixing it but no luck. Oh well, I thought, did not seem too serious then, and the laptop was still functioning semi-normally. I went on with my life for the next couple of weeks and around late May, disaster struck. The hinge had snapped. A clean break. A piece of plastic and five screws fell out from the laptop with me frantically making sure I grabbed them all. I hastily put the pieces in my backpack for safekeeping. Looking back at the state of emergency now, the entirety of the left hinge was bulging from under the digitizer, and it seemed like it was applying unwanted pressure to the area. After using a pencil to pry up the digitizer more, the hinge was able to get out in front of the glass. The reason I chose to put the hinge out front was to avoid any damage to the LCD or digitizer since replacing one or both of those is much more costly and labor-inducing. 

 

    (If you are unaware, digitizer is what makes a laptop touchscreen capable. Think of the many tiny boxes on your laptop screen. These tiny boxes can sense pressure, touch, or even sound. the digitizer relays this to the Central Processing Unit of the laptop which then recognizes it as a tap on the screen). 

 

    Me being responsible, I created a virtual pass, and I went on my merry way to Mr. Hussain's office where the equipment I needed to disassemble, and repair was located. After deliberating on the situation, I then told Mr. Hussain my plan. Find a replacement hinge and order it. Once the hinge arrives, I would return to the office and replace it, starting by unscrewing the bottom of the laptop and unscrewing the old hinge, and replacing it with the new one. Something I had neglected from my plan was how I would separate the top half from the bottom half. Since the other hinge was still attached, I would need to find a way to either move the top slightly upwards to install a new hinge and then screw the hinge in somehow or remove the top half entirely and work from there. 

 

     Mr. Hussain stopped me after I was halfway through my thought process and told me to slow it down. First, I need to accurately diagnose the issue. Was I sure the hinge was the issue and not the backplate or even the screws? I stayed strong with my prior judgment and was committed to the idea that the hinge was the issue and not something else. We then looked at replacement hinges online and man were they expensive. $80 for a single hinge? I went home that day defeated and soon to be down $80. I left my laptop at the workspace since it was safe there and I was unable to fold the hinge back or I would risk cracking the digitizer or LCD. It also would not fit in my bag. 

 

    After I returned home, I grabbed the plastic that fell out from the laptop, and it seemed to not be a part of the hinge. If not the hinge, then what I asked myself. I looked at the pictures on eBay of hinges and then Amazon. There was no black piece on the hinges. On any hinges at that... I then started looking at back plates for my laptop's specific model. The plastic part was attached to the backplate. It was the spot that mounted the plate to the hinge and the screws were there to secure it down.  

 

    After this amazing deduction, I came into the office the next day ready to tell my friend Dean and Mr. Hussain about my revelation. Both were impressed surprisingly as neither noticed. We then scoured the net for backplates, and I was able to find one off Amazon with good shipping. We agreed that the backplate was the issue and that the right course of action would be to replace it. It would arrive in 1-2 days and that is extremely good for an item so random. As soon as I got home and ordered it using my family's Amazon account and awaited eagerly. This was my first time repairing a laptop that was not a school-provided HP. I was scared to break it since I had only had it for 2 years up to that point and it had all my data on it saved locally. Accidentally frying the motherboard would be bad. 

 

     Once the backplate arrived, I walked into the school building with a large package containing the item. I was utterly surprised at how no one questioned me, but I just went with it for the time being. I entered the room, got to my station, and began unpacking. The whole thing was a mess, why so much bubble wrap for one item? Well better safe than sorry I suppose. I soon realized that the backplate was different from my previous one. The color was different, I originally had a mossy green but this new one was a cool/metallic blue. 

Previous backplate compared to new.
Yes, the stickers were necessary.

     I then started removing the bottom plate of the laptop but stopped after my friend Dean said I was dumb. I did not need to remove the bottom half like I thought I did. What we could do instead was to separate the screen from the backplate by prying it open. Mr. Hussain saw no problems with this and gave us permission. After around 60-90 minutes (about 1 and a half hours) of trying to pry the sucker open, we had no luck. Although we were able to get around 15-20 picks/pry tools under the glass, we were unable to take it off because the adhesive was EXTREMELY strong. Dean and I even tried to get rid of the adhesive by slicing it away with the pick, however, this was with no luck. 

 

  We then decided to find something that could apply heat to the laptop surface and melt/soften the adhesive. I scoured all the Family and Consumer Science classes for a hair dryer but no luck. Dean even asked the custodial staff if they had a heat gun, but no luck there either. I then had the brilliant idea to use the 3d printer that was in the office as a makeshift heating bed for the laptop. With Dean's 3d printing expertise, we were able to get the bed to a good temperature to melt the adhesive away. After around 10 minutes of waiting one side of the screen was almost done and the other was yet to come. After both sides were finished, we pried out the screen and disconnected any wires that would be trouble.  

 

    Now the backplate was alone and separated from the screen and hinges. It was clear that the point of the break was the plate and not the hinge. Below you will see a photo. If you look at the bottom left and bottom right of the backplate you can see that on the left side, the plastic mounting spot is completely snapped and there’s jagged plastic. 

 

 

    Also, the backplate had a notch for the camera and the camera module near the top. We needed to surgically remove any ribbons from the plate while keeping them intact. As well as removing the 3-piece camera module without shorting any circuits or breaking anything in the process. Those two white lines on the middle right of the picture was where one ribbon was. After removing all the ribbon cables, we began to transplant the modules to the new backplate. After the 15-minute process, the new blue backplate was ready to be prepped for installation. 

 

    I secured the plate to the hinges and then removed the plastic wrap on the adhesive. I then needed to make sure the screen was in the proper position and inside the notches properly. If this were not done correctly, small bulging could occur on the edges of the screen. However, that is not a big deal since it should not affect how the laptop works. 

 

    After finishing our operation Dean and I awaited eagerly for the laptop to turn on and display something. For around 5 minutes the screen was black, and we both thought we messed up. After around 7-8 minutes the Lenovo logo was visible, and the LCD had no damage. Yippee! I signed into the laptop and immediately went to make sure everything was working correctly. Keyboard check, trackpad check, USB ports check, touchscreen check. The camera, however, was not displaying anything. Dean and I made a mistake while wiring and the camera was disconnected somehow. This was not a big issue though since I do not use the camera often and I have a USB camera at home on my desktop for meetings. 

    I soon got a stern warning not to open my laptop by using one hand and only applying pressure to the left side of the screen as that was why it had broken in the first place. All is well that ends well! In the end we were able to fully repair the issue while keeping most hardware intact. May the camera rest in peace. This is the end of my post, thank you very much and I hope you enjoyed reading! For any feedback on grammar/areas I should expand upon please comment or email me at dpyuvi05@gmail.com

 

Sincerely, 

Dilpreet Singh 

A picture of me at work replacing a keyboard.