HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
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- Drew Sebastino
- Formerly Espozo
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HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Well, I just got a new desktop.
I tried to close the screen, but instead the two plastic pieces around the screen snapped apart because the screen was going down, but the hinge wasn't. Where the hinge connects to the frame that surrounds the screen was apparently just thin aluminum, (top left of the image) which is really stupid because the hinges actually take a fair amount of force to close. Of course, it's past the warranty I already voided by opening it up to change the hard drive...
I figured I'd hook it up to my TV before I do anything else, but for whatever reason, it cuts off the edges. (Like, almost the entire Start bar.) It's not the TV either; I can zoom out on the TV but then it just displays black borders. I opened up AMD Radeon settings and it has an option to change the screen size, but upon changing it at all, everything gets jerkier; I guess it's rendering it at full resolution and then scalling it, but I don't think a $550 quad core computer should have an issue with that...
I tried to close the screen, but instead the two plastic pieces around the screen snapped apart because the screen was going down, but the hinge wasn't. Where the hinge connects to the frame that surrounds the screen was apparently just thin aluminum, (top left of the image) which is really stupid because the hinges actually take a fair amount of force to close. Of course, it's past the warranty I already voided by opening it up to change the hard drive...
I figured I'd hook it up to my TV before I do anything else, but for whatever reason, it cuts off the edges. (Like, almost the entire Start bar.) It's not the TV either; I can zoom out on the TV but then it just displays black borders. I opened up AMD Radeon settings and it has an option to change the screen size, but upon changing it at all, everything gets jerkier; I guess it's rendering it at full resolution and then scalling it, but I don't think a $550 quad core computer should have an issue with that...
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Check how many pixels your TV claims it has, what mode the computer is driving at, and try displaying a 50% greyscale stipple to see if the TV is rescaling its input.
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Usually I get out the service manual and repair my stuff...
Here come the fortune cookies! Here come the fortune cookies! They're wearing paper hats!
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
A lot of TVs assume that anything coming in on HDMI is formatted to assume overscan. Because the first HDTVs were 1080i CRTs, consumer electronics HDTV signals are formatted for nominal CRT overscan. LCD HDTVs have to enlarge the image by a few percent in order to compensate for this. Check your TV's menu for a "1:1" or "game" mode.
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Force the screen size in your display settings if you're under Windows. Make sure there's also no mirroring or anything.
Then uninstall and put Linux on that, heh.
Then uninstall and put Linux on that, heh.
- Drew Sebastino
- Formerly Espozo
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- Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2014 4:35 pm
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Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Both claim to be 1920x1080; my TV has an "info" button that just displays the resolution.lidnariq wrote:Check how many pixels your TV claims it has, what mode the computer is driving at, and try displaying a 50% greyscale stipple to see if the TV is rescaling its input.
I don't know what a greyscale stipple is, but I found an image of black and white stripes, and even after zooming it up 800% in Gimp, there were always one pixel lines of grey between them on my TV...
It has a "game" mode, but the size of the screen does not change. Oddly, if I force the TV into 4:3 mode, the sides still get cut off. I really think it's something weird to do with Windows.tepples wrote:Check your TV's menu for a "1:1" or "game" mode.
They don't even tell you how to take it apart, because they don't want you to. I know exactly what the problem is; the frame just needs to be welded back onto the upper hinge piece. The problem is how I do this, and it's just such a shit design that I worry it would break again. The plastic casing of the computer is really falling apart a bit; all of the ports have cracked plastic above them (because the plastic is so thin) and half of the stupid plastic tabs that partially connected the top and bottom half of the base of the laptop broke off just from opening the thing. I don't even know why they were there in the first place, because the thing already has like 12 screws holding it together.Dwedit wrote:Usually I get out the service manual and repair my stuff...
Yeah, I forgot to turn off mirroring, (it was still trying to display to the disconnected screen as well) but it didn't change anything.3gengames wrote:Force the screen size in your display settings if you're under Windows. Make sure there's also no mirroring or anything.
By size, do you mean resolution, because they're supposed to be the same resolution although from that test with the black and white stripes, they definitely aren't.
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Check HP's website for your laptop model: they may have admitted to some fault and may cover it outside of warranty.Espozo wrote:Well, I just got a new desktop.
I tried to close the screen, but instead the two plastic pieces around the screen snapped apart...
My older Lenovo E145 ThinkPad started getting loose hinges, and then the top & bottom halves of the case started separating around the screen hinge, and loose pieces of broken plastic started falling out, etc.
I thought I had been too rough with my laptop, but after I had bought an identical replacement (used, cheap) I found out that Lenovo cited faulty hinges on their website and were doing replacements.
Looks like laptops are an afterthought these days and manufacturers are getting cheap (plastic screw mounts only), even in high physical stress areas.
- rainwarrior
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Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Hinges have been a main point of failure for most of the laptops I've owned.
On one where I had the hinge seize up like that, I ended up just removing it and let the laptop live out the rest of its life with only one working hinge. Was a bit floppier after that. At other times I've sent a laptop back for repair (various amounts of success, might be without the machine for a while and they might only do very minimal repair without addressing the root cause), but most of the time I'll just do something hacky to it myself so I don't have to wait, but I tend to treat mine very roughly as well.
On one where I had the hinge seize up like that, I ended up just removing it and let the laptop live out the rest of its life with only one working hinge. Was a bit floppier after that. At other times I've sent a laptop back for repair (various amounts of success, might be without the machine for a while and they might only do very minimal repair without addressing the root cause), but most of the time I'll just do something hacky to it myself so I don't have to wait, but I tend to treat mine very roughly as well.
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
What OS are you using? If it is Windows, AFAIK it has some wonky drivers for generic HDTVs (probably applies to other OSes also).
A few months ago, my 17" CRT monitor finally broke and having no replacement on hand I took out an old 32" HDTV from the bedroom (which for some reasons wasn't in used for a few years) and connected my box to it via HDMI
Initially Win10 was only able to use 1366 x 720 (or something like that), claiming it's the TV's native resolution and in actuality the result was a blurry mess, as the panel was full HD. Messing around with settings, of drivers, Nvidia's control panel, and rebooting several times, I still didn't get it to work, and occasionally I could force the mode to 1920 x 1080 but the screen went blank. Eventually after some struggles (I really didn't know what happened and what I had really done) the TV started to show something in full HD resolution, but the screen was off-centre and a bit stretched so some of the stuff were off-screen (probably the TV by default hiding some "overscanned edges). After more struggles I found that in the TV that was a display option called "full-scan" (available from the switches between 16:9 and 4:3, etc. options in my model) and turning it on finally made the full HD screen shown pixel to pixel and I don't have any other problems since.
I then checked, the generic HDTV driver used by WIN10 was last updated in 2006(!), so they shipped a new product with a driver 10 years old, and you may need to jump through hoops to make it fully work, and that IMO generic HDTVs are still a recent thing, so why wouldn't they care about them?
So, my advice is, keep trying, and probably everything will work in the end, without anyone figuring out why, but at least, it will work.
A few months ago, my 17" CRT monitor finally broke and having no replacement on hand I took out an old 32" HDTV from the bedroom (which for some reasons wasn't in used for a few years) and connected my box to it via HDMI
Initially Win10 was only able to use 1366 x 720 (or something like that), claiming it's the TV's native resolution and in actuality the result was a blurry mess, as the panel was full HD. Messing around with settings, of drivers, Nvidia's control panel, and rebooting several times, I still didn't get it to work, and occasionally I could force the mode to 1920 x 1080 but the screen went blank. Eventually after some struggles (I really didn't know what happened and what I had really done) the TV started to show something in full HD resolution, but the screen was off-centre and a bit stretched so some of the stuff were off-screen (probably the TV by default hiding some "overscanned edges). After more struggles I found that in the TV that was a display option called "full-scan" (available from the switches between 16:9 and 4:3, etc. options in my model) and turning it on finally made the full HD screen shown pixel to pixel and I don't have any other problems since.
I then checked, the generic HDTV driver used by WIN10 was last updated in 2006(!), so they shipped a new product with a driver 10 years old, and you may need to jump through hoops to make it fully work, and that IMO generic HDTVs are still a recent thing, so why wouldn't they care about them?
So, my advice is, keep trying, and probably everything will work in the end, without anyone figuring out why, but at least, it will work.
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
It's just a pattern that reacts poorly to most resizing algorithms.Espozo wrote:I don't know what a greyscale stipple is
Last edited by lidnariq on Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Exactly my reaction 4 years after having switched to laptop-only (that switch was 9 years ago, and the come-back about 5 years ago).Well, I just got a new desktop.
Desktop PCs are more durable and much more versatile and easier to use and/or upgrade.
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Totally agree with that.Bregalad wrote:Desktop PCs are more durable and much more versatile and easier to use and/or upgrade.
Unless you use rugged laptops, but they're expensive, heavier and usually don't have a great configuration.
But in versatility and ease to upgrade nothing beats a nice desktop!
- Drew Sebastino
- Formerly Espozo
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- Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2014 4:35 pm
- Location: Richmond, Virginia
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
The screw mounts are still metal, luckily. However when the screen was tearing itself apart, it actually ripped off the screw mounts entirely. The chances of me trying to put the thing back together are pretty much shot.ccovell wrote:Check HP's website for your laptop model: they may have admitted to some fault and may cover it outside of warranty.
My older Lenovo E145 ThinkPad started getting loose hinges, and then the top & bottom halves of the case started separating around the screen hinge, and loose pieces of broken plastic started falling out, etc.
[...]
Looks like laptops are an afterthought these days and manufacturers are getting cheap (plastic screw mounts only), even in high physical stress areas.
I didn't think I did; worst I had done was carry it around in my backpack all the time, but it had its own pouch so at least that's something. This is pretty much entirety on HP I think; with how skinny that piece was (and it's made out of aluminum unlike the rest of the hinge which is steel) and how tight the hinge is, it was bound to break.rainwarrior wrote:I tend to treat mine very roughly as well.
Windows 10. Your story sounded real unfortunate...Gilbert wrote:What OS are you using? If it is Windows, AFAIK it has some wonky drivers for generic HDTVs (probably applies to other OSes also).
I was referring to my screenless laptop. The components are still good, so I'm not going to toss it. It's just like a Commodore 64.Bregalad wrote:Exactly my reaction 4 years after having switched to laptop-onlyWell, I just got a new desktop.
Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Ah ok. I didn't understand the joke.
- rainwarrior
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Re: HP laptop screen frame breaks in under two years...
Oh I wasn't implying it was your fault, I don't think laptop hinges are made well in general, and for me at least don't tend to last much longer than the warranty. I just meant that I treat it roughly, in the sense that I'll gladly hack apart the case if it suits me, or replace parts, etc. I don't mind if it's ugly as long as it's functional.Espozo wrote:I didn't think I did; worst I had done was carry it around in my backpack all the time, but it had its own pouch so at least that's something. This is pretty much entirety on HP I think; with how skinny that piece was (and it's made out of aluminum unlike the rest of the hinge which is steel) and how tight the hinge is, it was bound to break.rainwarrior wrote:I tend to treat mine very roughly as well.