Broken Laptop Hinge
Just as I’m starting to feel better with my spine and all, my laptop decided to take a turn for the worst. The left hinge between the base and the LCD panel had started breaking a few months back, part of the plastic casing had cracked and fallen off. Today the remaining piece broke, so the panel is no longer attached to the hinge on that side. And, of course, that’s the side were the power and data connection to the LCD are.
So, I’ve got 3 options with my laptop now. Do nothing, and keep using it until the the remaining hinge breaks or the cables in the broken hinge get messed up to the point of the laptop being unusable. Or, I can send it off to Sony for repairs, which will most likely cost $800 (not including shipping), since they’ll most likely want to replace the LCD panel. Or, I can buy a new laptop. This last option has a certain appeal to it, as I’ve been kicking around the idea of a new laptop for a while now.
Specifically, I’ve been looking at the Dell Inspiron 9100. It’s a “desktop replacement” laptop, which means it’s big and heavy, but it’s got a fast CPU and a better graphics card than my current desktop. With the configuration I want it comes out to $1,875.10 after their 15% off special. But I don’t really have that kind of money just lying around at the moment. But it also seems kindof silly to pay almost half that to repair a 2+ year old laptop.
What to do?
