Broken Hinge on my Dell Laptop Inspiron - 1525

Hi, Ralph009:

If your laptop is still under warranty, Dell may repair it. Otherwise, your options are to send it to Dell for a paid repair or have someone else repair it.

Here is your service manual  <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>for reference.

Mine seems to have same problem as yours. Took it apart today and found that the metal hinges were still intact but the plastic cover behind the LCD screen is cracked where the hinge screws mount. Took out both left and right side hinges and loosened the adjustment nut on each just a tad with a small socket driver. Superglued cracks and reassembled for now, don't know if it will hold. I believe there are two separate issues with this laptop hinge problem. First, there is not enough support strength in the small plastic area on the LCD cover to accomidate the stress the hinge screws place. Secondly, the hinge was too tightly adjusted coming out of the factory. The combination of the two issues has caused what I am now seeing posted on many forums a major problem with many owners of Dell 1525's and similar units. Dell should have made good with the many unhappy customers who bought these units, but as of this time I see no recalls. Dell should note GM and Chrysler, they took the same route with their very unhappy customers in the auto world and notice what happened to them after a while. Folks just go elsewhere with their hard-earned dollars next time. Simple free market cause and effect.

My Inspiron 6000 is barely three years old and is used exclusively for genealogy stuff.  It is rarely carried around and has never been dropped or anything.  I am having this exact same problem for the second time in less that 14 months and I am about as gentle on a laptop as I think is possible.  It is clearly a defect for the reson stated in another reply -- poor design on the plastic hinge retainer.  See my post from two days ago titled,  "Caveat Emptor!  Why Dell is #3 and dropping."  Dell is a company that no longer cares.  Go elsewhere.  I did -- and I'm never going back.

Seems like a common issue for Inspiron 1525... the plastic covering on the right side of the right hinge cracked, and when I try to close the laptop, the casing around the monitor start to split on that side.  I have to keep the laptop open.  Don't know how much it would cost to get it repaired... I am thinking of perhaps cutting the plastic cover so that it doesn't get caught on the bottom portion of the laptop and split the monitor.... 

Took my Dell 1525 apart myself to fix the hinges myself. Here is what I found;

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  1. There is not enough strength in the small plastic area on the plastic LCD display cover to accommodate the stress that the hinge screws place in that area.
  2. The hinge was too tightly adjusted coming out of the factory.

The combination of the two issues has caused what I am now seeing posted on many forums a major problem with many owners of Dell 1525's and similar units.

If you are fortunate enough to catch the problem early, you can open up the unit and loosen the tensioning nut on each hinge a little bit and that should keep the hinges from ripping the supporting screws from the plastic on the LCD display cover.

If you waited a bit too long like I did, you will have to open up the unit and either have to glue the cracks in the plastic LCD display cover around the hinge area, then let the glue set up for a couple of days before reassembly or purchase a new plastic LCD display cover. In both instances you should loosen the adjustment nut slightly on each hinge before reassembly so the problem will not reoccur.

Below is a great web site to help you disassemble and reassemble the hinge area of the Dell 1525 laptop if you want to tackle the problem yourself. If you are a bit handy you can probably handle the repair. If not, have someone else do it.  (Small screws and some delicate parts in that area)  http://picasaweb.google.com/charlesdhouse.com/HingeRepair#slideshow/5367328186931257938     

The warranty is only a year -- IF you chose it that way.  You have the option to upgrade for as long as five years at the time of purchase.

You can likely still purchase a warranty extension now, or call for an estimate of what out of warranty repair will cost:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/expired_warranty?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

This Inspiron1525 was my third and last Dell.  Same problem as above - broken hinges causing broken cover.  I asked a local computer repair shop about fixing it, they said it would be too complicated - just use it as a desktop.  If I wanted a desktop, I would have bought another desktop.

Not falling down the Dell again.

Be careful what you do buy then - there are plenty of designs out there that are even worse.

You can always buy the extended warranty for only a couple hundred dollars.  As for me, I opted to spend a little bit more and bought a new Toshiba. 

I have 1555 and my left hinge just snapped, wore out I guess, just after 1.5 year - I bought extended warranty, but dell said it is not covered. It was not damaged by me, but just from opening and closing which I think should last for a bit more.

Not happy really, best hinges I have seen were in old IBM laptops T series, but they don't do them any more.

Really disappointed with Dell technical support .Only accidental damage plan will cover this.

The T-series still exists and is still quite solidly built.  You're not going to find that level of quality and engineering in a low-end model like an Inspiron though - just as Lenovo builds IdeaPads to consumer standards and Thinkpads to business standards, Dell does the same with Inspirons and Latitudes.  You get what you pay for.

Sure understand better standards of material used etc, but still such hinge should last bit longer than just for year and half. I guess everything what we buy now is not as good as equipment used to be.

I think next one will be lenovo thinkPad, I seen one 10 years old, nothing broken, still going - under windows 2000 :)

Before I gave up on my dell, I talked to the people at:  www.parts-people.com/.  After I sent a couple pictures, they said it probably was not the hinge that broke and needed replacement, but rather the cover.  Between that and other stuff I saw on line, it makes sense.  The screws just popped out because the hinge attachment to the cover was cheaply made.  Whatever the problem - it sure isn't the quality one used to get from dell.  My Inspiron still an amazingly operating computer - fast, lots of extras, and I have it loaded to the hilt with a variety of programs - albeit no games.  There is no excuse for such a cheap, shoddy cover.

I agree with sunshinekaren. I have had hinge problems with both of my Dell laptops that have resulted in their being unusable. These were the Dell Inspiron 8000 and the Inspiron 1505 models. In both cases, the right hinges locked up and pulled the casings apart. I also disagree with the comment 'you get what you pay for'. In my opinion, these are not 'cheap' Walmart grade Dells. I custom built both my laptops on Dell's web site and paid much, much more than the $500 models that appear in 'come on' newspaper advertisements. I agree with the post saying IBM Thinkpads of the early days were much superior in construction. My IBM laptop from 1993 was still perfect and open & closed smoothly in 2008. Why would I pay a premium to purchase another Dell? Time to try another brand.