I3500 Broken Hinge - solutions?

I have inherited an I3500 with a broken hinge.  I've taken it apart enough to determine that the top (screen-side) tab of the left hinge is the problem.  Having browsed the hinge-related posts here I thought I'd post my observations and request some help from the well-informed community.

Observations: 

1.  The hinge attaches to the screen rails with 2 tiny 2.5mm screws.  One screw goes into a nut integrated into the plastic back of the screen, and the other goes through the rail and into a tapped hole on the top hinge tab.  As long as the screws are tight the leverage of opening and closing the laptop will be taken by the rails and the body of the computer.  But if the screws get loose however, which happened here, then the small 1" hinge tab bears the whole force of opening.  It will break at the threaded hole, where it attaches to the screen rail.  So if your screen starts to seem floppy, click when opening, or seem to move independently of the hinges, get in there and tighten the screws right away and use some Loctite.

2.  There's no need to oil these hinges.  If they're tight the tension can be adjusted easily.  Remove the screws on the bottom rear corners of the base, which hold the hinges.  The hinge covers should come off easily.  This reveals a small nut on the inside end of the hinge, facing the middle of the computer.  Loosening or tightening this nut adjusts hinge tension.

Help Request:

Now that I've learned more than I ever wanted to know about Dell laptop hinges, any ideas where I can find one?  Dell Canada support tells me it is only sold as part of the complete LCD unit, screen, covers, the works, at a cost of over $800 Canadian.  The hinge itself is a little piece of white metal, likely costing under a dollar to produce.  This is a 5 year old machine -- are there good sources for used Dell parts?  Where do Dell laptops go to die? 

Any help on this or with other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

David

Message Edited by dghutt on 01-29-2004 10:42 AM