eMachines Hinge Cracked?

I was finally in a position where I could have the unit sent away to fix the hinges. I sent it away on a Thursday evening, and it was back Monday afternoon! Amazingly fast. I was happy they replaced the LCD too as it had developed some kind of blemish, about 1/2 inch tall, near the middle of the screen. So all in all I'm very happy indeed with their service and responsiveness. This must be costing them a fortune!

 

I've had my M6809 for about a year now, hinges, yeah.... Anyway, now that the school year is over, I'm about to call tech support for an RMA. Here's my question (someone mentioned this previously): I'm planning to take out the HDD and keep it at home while they do the repair, to avoid any possible shipping damage or data loss, and because I'm afraid they'll cut off service once they find my linux installation. Does anyone know if this will be a problem? labradogs1 said it's necessary to "test screen function," but I don't see why the "Non-system disk or disk error" wouldn't be enough (or something on a CD if they're not satisfied with just text mode)...

 

Good point. I would ask the tech support if you can send it without the hard drive, or just put a password on it so they can't access your info. Just tell them you're worried the hard drive might get damaged in transit and are unwilling to take that chance.




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My Canada Does Not Include Celine Dion

 

Hi. I am just wondering, how long did it take for your hinges to develope cracks? and did you treat it gental or did you horse-play alot around it? Obviously, my computer is built on the same chasis, and I am just wondering how much longer my hinges can hold out. I am very careful with my computer, but I am still concerned. Thanks

--Hellmanns

Gateway 7426GX
----------------
-AMD Athlon 64
3700+ 2.4GHz
-1024 MB ram
-ATI Radeon 9600

 

Some were broken in the store, some took a day or two, others a week or two. Besides secrewing wheels to the bottom of my 6811 and using it as a skateboard, I treated my hinges with great care.[ )] Seriously though, it makes absolutely no difference if you carry your 68xx in bubble wrap 24/7. The hinges WILL crack. It's a manufacturing defect. Poor design, even poorer engineering, pathetic quality control, criminal follow-up. This issue totally ruined the eMachines brand name to the point they discontinued them. I hope someone lost their job.[xx(]




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My Canada Does Not Include Celine Dion

 

Bought Tiger Direct M6811: Having issues with my wireless router connection. Every 2-3 minutes the wireless connection finds and looks for another wireless connection.
Tech support can't find the issue. trying to send me a new wireless Broadcom 54G card. Anyone have this issue? I bought the ting so I could work wirelessly. This is terrible.
I hope TigerDirect will give me a full refund.

HELP, suggestions highly welcomes June 4 2005 6PM EST
Using DLINK DI-514 802.11 b router and I am 3 ft away. So signal is strong. Running it under a private network with encryption.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by paulp2u

 

Bought my M6809 a year ago, hinges cracked in September and I had them replaced in October. No problems until last month when I saw left hinge was cracking again. Anyone else being revisted with the hinge issue after 1st replacement?

 

Not yet.




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My Canada Does Not Include Celine Dion

 

will Emachines still Fix cracked hinges even if its been a while since you puchesed the laptop? How long is the max? What is emachines phone number or email, What proper procedures do i need to go through for them to fix my laptop, i have a M6811

 

the hinges on my emachines m6807 are both cracked. i had the machine only since the middle of september 2004; i noticed the cracks toward the end of april 2005;

one of my brothers has a similar model but a compaq, basically the same as the emachines i have, just branded as a compaq/hp (i guess amirada or some such company makes these notebooks then the others brand them)

does anyone know of measures taken by emachines or gateway regarding the cracked hinges?

the cracked hinges alone for me would not worry me but i also noticed that my screen was flickering too (bright to dark and back and forth); sometimes when opening the lid i would need move the screen back and forth "to find the sweet spot" so that the display looked correct, so that the lighting was right

the cracks in the hinges would only get bigger with time and let the lid be looser, which i did not want


pictures of my laptop with its cracked hinges can be seen here:

http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-05-10_laptop/IMG_8254.JPG
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-05-10_laptop/IMG_8255.JPG
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-05-10_laptop/IMG_8256.JPG
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-05-10_laptop/IMG_8256.JPG
**updated links to pictures**

 

Is a noticable loss of tension a sign of hinge cracking?

 

ok people, time to reply

 

tension and craked hinges are not directly related.

 

I don't know if many people still own this laptop, but the screen went out on mine today. It was out of nowhere and I had no warning. I have had the cracked hindges for months now. Thankfully I backed up everything last week since I was planning to take it into Best Buy to get the PCI bay fixed. I own the M2105.

 

Will Best Buy swap it if you bought it there and have it under warranty? I came to this forum speficically about the cracked screen, and I'm glad it seems to be a well-known problem.

 

My screen is not cracked. The hinges that connect the screen to the main body is cracked. I doubt they would cover a cracked screen... but it doesn't hurt to find out.

 

Oops I meant hinges too...

 

Just had my hinges replaced by emachines about 2 weeks ago. Had the machine a little over a year before the hinges did crack. Both sides were pretty bad. Also, this is my 2nd machine (first one I returned to BB a month after purchase for same reason). I was very impressed with emachines serivce. Answered my call in 28 seconds, put my laptop back under warranty, had a shipping box on my door the next day, and got it back to me in 3 days with new hinges. Here's the problem though, long before the hinge cracks on this machine, the screen/lid developed a loose wiggle. When moving the lid it has at least 3/4 of an inch free movement before the tension grabs. It doesn't matter what position the lid is in. If I pick up the laptop and tilt it toward me the screen flops down a bit then catches. Tilting back the opposite way it flops back to original position. It was this way before the hinges got fixed and I thought it would have been taken care of with the new ones. Alas, it was not so not I guess I can emachines again? Anyone else have this issue?

Right hinge also has a "clicking" sound when opening and closing the lid

 

Just got my m6811 (referb). Hinges were cracked, right out of the box. Apparently the factory was too lazy to fix them. I'm getting them fixed eventually once I can back up my HDD onto something else. I don't trust those people with anything. With my luck they'd wipe the HDD along with it.

 

My emachines M2352, only 14 months old, has a completely broken hinge on the left side. First a crack started on both sides of hinges. The one on the left became much more serious and now is completely broken. Does anyone have any idea how to fix it?
I am as hell!

 

They should RMA it for you, even out of Warranty for the hinges.

 

If you want to get your hinges replaced, please call emachines at

801-401-1419

Select notebooks and support not customer service. Tell them you are calling to get your hinges replaced out of warranty because you got an email from emachines to contact them regarding it or just simply tell them you understand they are replacing broken hinges. They will replace them in or out of warranty without any hassle except that the technician will need manager approval.

This is how it went during my call which took 5 minutes start to finish.

Them:Can I have your phone number?

Me: xxxxxx

Them: Can you tell me if 1 or both hinges are cracked

Me: both

Them: what is your serial number?

Me: blah blah

Them: ok we can replace those, let me get my manager approval

Them: ok we will be sending you a box which will arrive in 2 - 3 days.
Them: Send it back and we wil return it in 2-3 days.

Simple!

By the way, this is a completely cosmetic issue. Nothing will break and stop your system from functioning with this hinge problem so if you dont really care to lose the notebooks use for a few days and dont care about broken hinge casings there will not be any ill effects.

Marc

 

My M2350 has cracked hinges and I was wondering if anyone has had 1-the same problem and 2-has anyone had emachine fix there model?

 

Finally I got it fixed at no charge to me. After calling them, they sent an express package with pre-paid return label. After mailing it I got it back in two days! Unfortunately the replaced hinge was still malfunctioning and I had to call them again! Again they sent me a return package which I promptly returned. But this time it took more than 4 days. Finally I called them and they tracked it down and said someone forgot to send the repair party with an authorization email! He said that an authorization has gone out! And after that I got it back in two days. This time the repair was done right. They sent a letter with the package saying if this fails within 90 days they will fix it free. So with all these hassles behind me, finally I am happy.

 

....Only bought the thing last Winter and both hinges are very cracked. One of the hinges is getting ready to snap right off. Obviously a design flaw.

Bryan Lloyd

 

Cracked yet again. And these are Emachine replaced hinges.

1st time: Exchanged at Best Buy for new one (M6805)

2nd time:RMA with Emachines-very fast turn around

2nd time continued::Had to sent it right back due to a free flop with the lid

3rd time:Cracked left hinge this morning, Emachines box on the way

Is Emachines trying to use up all the defective hinges they have in the warehouse before digging into the better ones?

 

My M6811 hinges were both cracked within one week of purchase. I've had it for one year. It still stays open OK, so I haven't dealt with the repair. It's such an inconvenience to send my computer away and wait how long? But I just popped a key from the keyboard today, so maybe it's time. Peace.

 

Well, it finally happened. My 6811 with new emachine hinges once again has cracked hinges, both sides. They were replaced about 6 months ago. Time to move on to another laptop, another manufacturer. Along with the flickering screen, the sudden death complete shutdowns, the chronically slow dvd burner, the freshly cracked hinges are the last straw. I'm hoping to find something with the same great AMD chip. I noticed future shop is selling some new Gateway laptops, but they are made with the exact same case as the 6811. Are they nuts?

 

Mine is and the screen hinges are loose as can be.I flutters like a birds wings

 

My emachines m6805 is cracking straight across.I notice Emachine warrenty says they donot cover cracked hinges

 

I bought mine from Future Shop last February and noticed cracks maybe a couple months later. I didn't think it would be too much of a problem, but as the year went on I noticed the screen tension loosening. Little metal pieces inside the now exposed hinges have also broken and fallen out of the hinge area. AND GUESS WHAT?? Tonight the screen completely lost tension. I am using it right now with something propped up behind it so it stays up!!!
I sent a message to emachines from the Customer Support webpage tonight. Does anyone know if they are also fixing these problems from purchases made in Canada? I can't see how they could justify not doing that.
M6811

 

I also want to add that I also have flickering problems with the screen. This seems to be related with the loosening of the screen. Maybe the wiring is somehow affected. I have to sometimes moving the screen back and forth to get it to be in the right spot. This is really annoying now that the screen does not even stay up on its own.

 

Good news. Just called them today and almost right away they said they were going to put it back into warranty to have it sent in and fixed. A box should be arriving in two days and they said it will take about 5-7 days to have it fixed and sent back to me. The only thing was, since it was bought more than 3 months past the manufactured date, they didn't have it in the system, so I have to fax the receipt. Luckily, after a little searching, I found it. They also said the flickering screen might be related because some wires go through there. There was also no need to worry about the hard drive, according to them.

 

I have a m2105 and the hinges have been replaced twice by emachines. and the screen flickers and the inverter board was replaced. The notebook is 18 months old. To emachines credit they replaced at no charge and paid for shipping both ways

 

at first there were just the unsightly cracks in the hinges. i minimized the times i was moving the screen back and forth. despite those efforts the cracks became bigger than they are shown in the pictures.

it seemed to me that then there became a 'sweet spot' which was where i needed to have the lid so that the screen would stay; there were certain positions in which the lid would just not stay so i had to move it more toward or away from me than i really wanted it, hoping it would stay somewhere in between

i was actually worried that it would become bad enough that i would to balance the lid against a wall.


i bought the laptop from refurbdepot.com
i bought a 3 y warranty through mackcam.com too


mackcam would not cover the hinges issue, but emachines would. not the first time i called about the issue, i spoke with someone who was listening to me complain about the state of the machine. when i mentioned that i had read that there was a batch of bad ones, ones with this problem, or that i had read that online, the customer service rep asked for my serial number which i gave to him. after doing that he said my machine would be covered by emachines and he gave it a 1 year warranty. i then sent the machine to mackcam who then sent it off to emachines.


that was in may, june, july, AND august of 2005

then when i did have the machine back the hinges were just fine...no cracks...and the lid stayed where i moved it


....
then in late 2005 i had another falling out with the machine
see pictures:
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-12-13_laptop_lcd/img_1791.jpg
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-12-13_laptop_lcd/img_1792.jpg
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-12-13_laptop_lcd/img_1793.jpg
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-12-13_laptop_lcd/img_1794.jpg
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-12-13_laptop_lcd/img_1795.jpg
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~krugerk/photos/2005-12-13_laptop_lcd/img_1796.jpg

mackcam covered the repairs this time, something emachines told me would cost upwards of $240 to replace the motherboard

well i am glad i bought the 3 y warranty to go along with this refurbished emachines computer but i am not sure it was worth the loss in time with the computer. perhaps had i spent that money toward the warranty on the computer in buying a different 'brand' or not buing refurbished from refurbdepot, i could have avoided all of this hassle




... purchased in late august 2004
received it late september 2004
sent it in for repairs to the hinges in may 2005
received it late august 2005
started seeing video errors in mid december 2005
(both lcd and vga were looking like the pictures show)
sent it in for repairs in early january 2006
received it back in early march 2006

 

My w4620 has no cracks. I use it 10 to 12 hours a day and and Ive hac no problems.

 

My 7510 has a crack on the hinge, bought it in about August 2005, thinking of seeing if I can get it fixed. Anyone know if Gateway does this kind of repair? Can I just send them and email or do I have to call them?

Thanks =D

 

For those who are interested here is the reply email I got from Gateway:

Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail. Regarding the cracked hinges on the system
please be advised that in order to resolve the issue your computer needs
to come in for warranty service to be repaired.
<Info>
In addition, Gateway can send you packaging to use to ship your system
to our Service facility. The packaging will cover the box, the
packaging, insurance, and the shipping and handling fee. This is the
best way to insure that your system will arrive safely at the Service
Department. Once ordered, your box should arrive within 1 to 2 business
days.

For further assistance, please verify the following information below so
that I can document the issue properly.

Purchase Month:
Purchase Day:
Purchase Year:

These are very important information; it will allow me to register the
system as well as to process this order.

Please reply to this message if you require further assistance with this
issue. If your reply is received while I am out of the office, to
ensure a speedy resolution, your issue will be handled by one of my
colleagues.

Sincerely,

Philip
Badge EME0040

 

I have an M6809 and have had it for a couple of years now. I had the hinges or LCD panel replaced once, now it is out of warrenty and they are cracked again. Lovely isn't it? I love my laptop, it is a great one except now the crack is also making the screen flicker and driving me nuts. ARE THEY EVER GOING TO RECALL THIS???

 

I got my m6805 a couple years ago. From futureshop with their horribly expensive $300 3 year warranty. I noticed that the hinges started cracking a few months after I got it.

About a year ago the screen started flickering and being messed. Basically it would sometimes become a purply-pink color and flicker and whatnot. I brought it to futureshop told them of the hinge problem and everything. They took a month to get it back to me saying that they fixed it and that the problem was just a lose wire connecting the screen. They claimed that the hinge problem was just cosmetic and they would not fix it (and didn't).

The lcd hasnt had any problems since then but the hinges have continued to get worse. The plastic has cracked off leaving large holes through to the metal and wires on both sides. But thats just the begining. The metal bracket on the left (from the front) side next to the heat exaust inside the hinge of the screen has now broken away from the plastic of the screen molding. So when you go to close the screen the hinge on the right side works as normal but on the left side the metal hinge inside the plastic does not turn which forces the screen to lift up and start coming out of its plastic hinge socket. It also totally messes up the plastic on that side. Pressure on the hinge starts pushing up the top plastic on the base of the laptop (surrounding the keyboard). So far it hasnt put pressure on the LCD itself, thankfully. But its only a matter of time.

So as it is now. if I close my laptop screen slowly and hold the left hinge to try and make the metal inside turn with the screen as it goes down, it will close ok. (not great, it still puts some pressure on the plastic... but ok)
If I dont take this care whe doing it (like if someone else closes the lid) then the metal doesnt rotate properly and it gets all messed up and half rotated and it takes a half hour of messing with it for the screen to sit properly again.

Its only a matter of time until the second hinge breaks and the screen just flops around and while hold itself up. Currently I just dont ever close it. It has basically become a really expensive desktop machine. (Remember that when I got it after waranty and tax I paid $3,000)

I have babied this latop trying my best to keep this pile of **** from falling apart due to its own flawed construction. None of this is my fault and I feel cheated out of my money. I still have a few months of waranty and now I have to deal with going to futureshop and putting up with them telling me that I dropped my laptop or something like that (doesnt that **** piss the rest of you off? people telling you that you didnt take care of it when you did). Hopefully I will be able to get them to cover this and fix it.

Its always a pain in the ass for me because they take a month to do it and this is my only machine right now.

 

Being that e-machine is a Gateway in disguise. Seems e-machines are a bit more out there to help than their owners, gateway.


I am an owner of a Gateway 7426GX aka e-machine m6805. I am reading the forum and no one else has complained about the flimsy button which covers the on/off button. I also want to take note that the similiar E-machine has many write ups on the bad hinges.
My hinge didn't crack (hopefully it won't).......Has anyone had the powerbutton problems like me? Now in order to repair this. Gateway won't just send me the replacement which I can do myself with 2 screws on the hinge panel. They actually want me to send my computer in for 2-3 weeks at $167. Mind you with that they toss in free shipping but I have to get the box.

What a waste for a part that cost about $4 for the plastic topcase and time spent by a tech to screw it back on.

Screwed by gateway. The techs give you the run-around from one department to the next. You are told a supervisor will get back to you within a few days. It's been 4 now, Do you think I will ever get that call back?

Does anyone know where else to get the part? I need the entire hinge panel that covers the on/off switch unless that wee little lucite cover that shows the light is available.

Thanks.

 

I have a 6810. Today they said it is a known issue and that they will fix it free. When I contacted them via email it sounded like they would send the part. When I went to the online chat they said I would have to send the unit in?

Anyway, the new parts are an improvement over the old (according to the email). Be careful about buying old-stock parts.

I am also wondering if hinges includes the back cover. I think it must since that is the actual part that cracks.

 

I just went through 20 months of hell with my M6811. I had the cracked hinge issue. This is a KNOWN defect and Future Shop should repair it. If they work like Best Buy, they usually send them to Arima/Dex (Gateway) anyway.

It appears that each store individually differs in how they do or don't enforce policy and procedure. Is it possible for you to take it in to another store?

I documented my problems with pictures, movies, and printed testimonials of other people's issues from this forum to help make my case. And I was on the phone or in their face every 3 or 4 days for almost 8 months.

I will caution you about repair this way though: On the last repair, Gateway ended up putting in a new motherboard, hard drive, and LCD. This essentially made it a new machine. Had a new bios and everything. This invalidated my eMachines restore DVD copy of Windows XP (it checks to make sure it's installed on an eMachines, and as far as my laptop could tell, it was now a Gateway). Dex neglected to send me a new restore disk and when I loaded my eMachines software to get the drivers for the wireless NIC and touchpad, the machine decided to restore the software and then Windows would not authenticate (because the CD Key was invalid on my machine).

This was never resolved and I did end up getting a new machine from Best Buy. However, it was after 8 repairs and 20 months of messing around with them (I had the broken hinge issue 10 days after purchase).

I will never buy another machine from Best Buy or Future Shop after this nightmare.

 

Mine is 105 model. Hinge cracked had it repaired under my Best Buy warrantee. It was shipped without a power supply and Best Buy said it was easier for them to warranty me a new one than to try to get it from emachine. The hinge problem has been a well-known design flaw in the emachine sine I bought mine nearly two years ago. Now having problems with an intermittant screen flicker ... will not flicker at the store so they can see it ..... very frustrating

 

My reply should have read mine is a 2105 laptop

 

Yeah, I bought an Emachines m2352 a year ago for school, and it was about a week ago that I started to notice the hinges cracking. Well, I was quite upset so I took it to the place where I bought it - factory direct, for you other Canadians - and the lady said something about only being covered parts and labour for the one year extended warrenty I bought (expires in two days, ****). Well, I called in Emachines tech support, and they said they'd give me an RMA label, and I just have to send it in in the box I got it with.
Tomorrow, I'm going to do some photocopying of the serial numbers and such. Can anyone reccommend the type of box I can use to ship to them?

EDIT: Figures, my hard drive crashed this morning after I finished backing stuff up the night before. I brought it into factory direct and they said they're going to fix it. I hope they check it top to bottom, and not just swap out the hard drive or something.

 

Emachines M2350, bought in July of 2004, hinges started cracking summer of 2005. Slowly getting worse.

 

I have a M6809 eMachine & to say the hinges are cracked and the slop in the hinge holding the screen up is getting worse daily- is to be kind.
The metal that the hinge rod is bolted to on the right side of the screen snapped in half & I couldn't close the lid at all. I finally dismantled the hinge & screen, cut a piece of thin steel to cover the break in the metal, drilled 3 holes, got longer screws & "spliced" the broken flange of the lcd frame back together to the hinge.
It works, but it's powerful ugly. Plastic on both sides of the cover is mauled from breaking it (worse than is already was) to accommodate the metal splice & longer screws, and now the other hinge is on it's way to disaster as well.
My question is about the slop in the hinge. When the screen is up, it will hold itself, but it has 4 inches of play (I measured it) on the hinge axis. Does anyone know if this can be tightened somehow inside the hinge housing? I really don't want to go back in the case again (& I won't if I find there's no fix), but it appears I'll soon have no choice. Thanks.

 

3 thousand dollars..... ouch could have had a highend Asus / Thinkpad for that price =\ or a Dell Latitude..