[SEkker]

A member of my lab has a Ti PB G4 that is about 18 months old. The right hinge snapped off once and was repaired by Apple when the machine was around 10 months old. These hinges are not even lasting a whole year.

It is now happening again, and Apple is demanding we pay their estimated $800 repair bill if we cannot find our Applecare proof of purchase.[We believe we have AppleCare, but our University makes keeping track of this hard].

We have 3 other Ti PBs in the lab, and ALL THREE have hinge problems. Two have been back to Apple already, one is bending 15 degrees when you open the machine.

These computers are being used as main user machines, but they are by no means being 'abused'. I'm glad we moved to the PB12" machines last year when we purchased more notebooks -- we have three, and none have any of this kind of inherent defect.

Is there any way to perform maintenance to keep these hinges from failing? And what's with Apple washing their hands of a long-term problem with their machines?

[romeosc]

Safeware.com! They cover "accidental" damage not manufacturing defects, since Apple says its not a defect, it would be covered

[IntelliVince]

I too also had bad Tibook hinges. I ordered a replacement part from www.powerbookmedic.com and they also sent me hinges that were just too tight. I was not going to gamble and buy another hinge hoping that it was "okay." I already had two bad ones, what are the odds of getting a good one? In any case, if you don't want to fork out the full bill, there's a way to correct the defect w/ the hinge.

If you can remember, did you notice that even after Apple repaired the hinge the first time, opening and closing of the lid was still pretty difficult? One good test is to try and open the lid without holding the base of the laptop. What mine used to do was lift up the whole computer while trying open the lid.

What probably happened during the manufacturing process was that they didn't set the angle of the hinge correctly, and in doing so it also increased the stiffness of the hinge. You might get a better idea if you actually saw the hinge and the mechanism.

If you want more details as to how it can be fixed, just let me know. It's pretty hard to explain in text.
Oh yeah, my hinge now has been working fine.

[The Placid Casual]

I'm sure Radtech had some hinge stuff for sale at one time... from memory, it got good reviews too.

May be worth a look.

[crouchingtiger]

if anyone's interested, I have a pair of TiBook hinges with clutch covers that I'd be willing to sell for cheap. (<$75) Just send me a private message.

(sorry if this is inappropriate but I thought it'd be useful in the context of all of the other posts!)

[rcambrai]

The best place is to buy the hinges on ebay:

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sort=3&rows=50

The guy sends you instructions and in 1/2 hours you can replace them

[Dr.Michael]

Originally posted by SEkker:

Is there any way to perform maintenance to keep these hinges from failing?

Yes, a few drops of oil (I used olive oil) now and then. My Ti500 hinges never developed a problem in three years although I opened and closed the powerbook every day.

The exposed hinges collect dust and dirt. And thus after months of use they open harder and harder (and they are very tight from the beginning).
After having oiled them a little the top opens very easy and the tension on the case and the hinges is gone. Then nothing will break.

It is sooo obvious!

Michael