Repair or replace laptop dilemma.

a2tmk

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I'm looking for some advice, or maybe just some inspiration... I've got a Lenovo Ideapad 500-15iSK that I bought new about six years ago, if it was a car you'd say it has a good engine but the bodywork is shot. Everything else works well, I've used it a lot and only ever had to replace the battery.

The plastic along the left hand edge of the laptop has been slowly breaking away, there are many bits missing but this doesn't overly bother me.

The real problem is that the left hand side of the hinge is only held in by one screw, so when I open the laptop or tilt the screen the case flexes in that corner and sometimes the screen flickers until I reposition it. I'm unable to secure the hinge as the plastic/brass assembly that the other screw goes into has snapped off and re-securing the brass ferule with epoxy does not last. This particular problem is worsened because the bottom of the case is only secured front and centre by four screws, the assemblies for the other case screws have also disintegrated.

For now I've cross-bound the corner of the laptop with gaffer tape which has taken the worst of the flex away and stops the screen from flickering, it's not ideal but it'll do for now!

I've tried to find a replacement case so that I can do a transplant but no joy and there don't seem to be any spares or repairs laptops out there either.

Bottom line, I like this laptop but accept that nothing lasts forever, so I'm just wondering if there are any other laptop models that use the same chassis as this that I could utilise or should I start thinking about a replacement (once I've got tired of replacing the gaffer tape for the nth time)?

Thanks for reading!

Spec and photo's of damage -

laptop-case.jpg

laptop-hinge.jpg

Machine:
Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 80NT v: Lenovo ideapad 500-15ISK
serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 v: Lenovo ideapad 500-15ISK
serial: <filter>
Mobo: LENOVO model: Lenovo ideapad 5 v: SDK0J40709 WIN serial: <filter>
UEFI: LENOVO v: CFCN21WW(V1.03) date: 08/10/2015
Battery:
ID-1: BAT1 charge: 29.1 Wh condition: 33.8/31.7 Wh (107%) volts: 15.6/14.4
model: LENOVO PABAS0241231 type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
status: Discharging
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M185
serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
status: Discharging
CPU:
Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-6200U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Skylake rev: 3 L2 cache: 3072 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
bogomips: 19200
Speed: 500 MHz min/max: 400/2800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 500 2: 500
3: 500 4: 500
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: Lenovo driver: i915
v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:1916
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: amdgpu,ati,modesetting
unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.6
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Lenovo
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9d70
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-100-generic
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 02:00.0
chip ID: 10ec:8168
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165 Plus Bluetooth driver: iwlwifi
v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 8086:3166
IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 8.45 GiB (0.5%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST2000LM003 HN-M201RAD
size: 1.82 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter>
rev: 0001 scheme: GPT
 
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I suppose it'd be nice to keep your old engine around, but engine swaps are pretty complicated affairs these days. There reaches a point where your car is no longer reliable enough and you've got to trade it in for a newer model - or at least one better kept. When you do that, you don't keep your old engine in the garage (unless you're one of a small group of people), you get rid of it just as you get rid of the upgraded carpet, still fairly new tires, add-on backup camera, etc...

Yeah, I'm done beating that analogy to death.

What I'm trying to say is that it's time to put the old girl out to pasture. You can probably still use it as a static device, like a media server. But, yeah, it's probably time to replace it. I'd replace it before a complete failure, as that gives you time to hunt around for a good deal and pick what best suits you, rather than deciding in a hurry.
 
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Thanks for all of your opinions, much appreciated.

@Condobloke - yeah, I normally go with my gut but thought I'd toss this one out there.

@KGIII - a media server would be great, I have a lot of music and video files so this would be a good use once replaced.

@brickwizard - thanks for the links. I did some further digging and see that some of the second-hand shells also have broken screw posts, that makes me think that I don't want to drop fifty quid on a new replacement only for it to start breaking up again. I think the cash would be better put towards an eventual replacement.

Meanwhile the gaffer tape is doing a much better job than I expected, minimal case movement when opening the lid and no screen flickering, so for now I'm going to keep using it and have a think about what I'll eventually replace it with.

Cheers, DM.
 
It's most likely time to put that one to rest. And seek new. Just my opinion. I would look at some refurbished machines from like newegg.com I've bought several Lenovo Thinkpads from them and not been disappointed yet. Make a list of what it's going to cost you to replace the parts and what it cost for newer machine. My rule of thumb has always been if the cost of repair approaches half the cost of newer then it's time for a change. And don't forget to count your time in the equation it worth something to you also.
 
dm999 wrote:
I'm looking for some advice, or maybe just some inspiration.
I cannot advise you. What I would do though, is both repair the old one, and acquire an up-to-date computer as well.
There's lots to do with two. And if you then want to rid yourself of the old one, at least it'll be repaired and merchantable.
Some advice that I took from an old friend was to stretch myself and get something a little better or more than I thought I needed, because I would grow into it in time. That inspired me.
 
parts are a lot cheaper than even a used/refurbished laptop of like specs, IMO.

See Parts on ebay -- hinges are there (and possibly all other parts you may need)

Consumerism has its down side. The laptop in question has better specs than what I am running now, and have been for the past two years or more. Linux does not need much to run rings around that other OS.
 
i say new laptop or duct tape, what you would actually need to do to fix the thing is get a new plastic bottom and replace that screw, but whether or not you'll be able to do that is beyond me. I'd recommend at least trying so that you learn something. I had a similar problem with my current laptop and opted to tape the hard drive bay: it works perfectly fine except it can be a little trickly to slide the hard drive into the SATA slot.
 

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