I’ve also been waiting 11 days to hear if one of the two repair facilities has screens available.
Fair point. I guess I’d find the knowledge to be worth it. At this point I’ve powered off the machine and am not using it for fear of damaging it further.
I wasn’t asking for support. Sure, I was venting, but this is a forum for people interested in these products. A post detailing why I was disappointed in the quality of the product doesn’t seem out of band.
Again, I did not ask for support here. I’m documenting my experience with this machine and explaining my disappointment in the product I purchased from Purism.
At this point I’m also documenting the responses of the Purism support manager and CSO.
From the picture, it looks like there are 6 screws anchoring the hinge. Two black screws at each end that go upward into what looks like a black plastic frame (it might be metal, but it looks like plastic in the photo to me) and an open screw hole at each end for screws to anchor the bottom metal case cover (i.e. D shell) to the hinge.
It looks better than the current design in the Librem 13/15, because the hinge is anchored to the bottom case cover. It looks like the Librem 14 uses a plastic frame, and the metal case/shell gives it rigidity, so there is no metal frame to attach the hinge to. (At least that is my guess, but hard to tell from that low resolution photo.)
It’s not as good as a Thinkpad design, but few laptops have hinges as good as Thinkpads. From the picture, I wouldn’t assume that the hinges in the L14 will fail, but I would appreciate it if the first people who get the laptop would open it up and comment on the construction and also look for any info on who is the new ODM that Purism is using.
On Reddit, I see that this issue has already been discussed, and MrChromebox confirmed that the hinge is anchored to the bottom case:
By the way, all the consumer laptops that I have opened didn’t have a metal frame (but I haven’t opened that many). Among enterprise laptops, I have only opened Thinkpads and some old Dell Latitudes, but they had metal frames.
Thank you for this Kyle Rankin. Just checked my 13v3 and all 4 screws did indeed need to be tightened. I was also surprised and worried to find some cracking along the back of the hinge.
Beyond tightening the screws, is there anything I can do to stave off further damage? Might some epoxy stabilize the cracking? Would it help to lubricate the hinge? If so, using what, light oil or some other lubricant? Sufficient to do it at the ends of the hinge barrel or should case be opened up to apply somewhere internally?
For the record, if the hinge or laptop blows up completely, at this point I’d be saddened and disappointed, but I would probably buy a Librem 14 because mladen and Kyle_Rankin and others at Purism have earned my trust. It takes a good man or woman to respond with courtesy and respect to customer frustration and even to the “new normal” of viral discourtesy and paranoia. Also, I continue to place a high value on doing business with a small company whose vision and mission are so vital. IMG_20210415_111849_022|281x500
I don’t know that I am the best person to answer that sort of question as it falls somewhat outside of my expertise. I do suspect if you were seeing some cracking it might have been a result of the different angle the lid opens/closes on when those screws are loose that puts a different strain on the center plastic cover. All I could advise at this point is to keep an eye on screw tightness over time so the screen opens at the intended range of motion and angle, which I would think would reduce any unexpected strain on the rest of the case.
So you also are reporting a as-of-yet unfixable hardware failure? Got it. In response to you ad hominem attack regarding my discussion of this issue, allow me to provide a quick summary:
Hmm, sorry, not true. Would you like evidence? Here:
Let’s leave aside the fact that I never received a response about whether or not parts were available. At least review the email thread in question before telling me the exact opposite of what I have in black and white. It’s not paranoia if I can point to it.
I don’t know what you mean by “viral discourtesy”, but I have provided evidence of an issue with a product, expressed my dissatisfaction with the product, was accused of complaining, and gaslighted. Apparently the only defense to be mounted is a criticism of my tone.
I’m right there with you in terms of mission and vision. There’s a reason I spent $2000+ on their products. I love the Phosh work going on right now. But these hardware issues are real and need to be addressed, and I take issue with the response from support for the reasons listed above.
Eh, clearly this thread is never going to get back on topic. I’ve said my piece, brought up the issue, and provided evidence. Yet another response about my response. These forums have ossified into “librem 5/14 wen” threads and navel gazing. I’m out of here; good luck waiting until “next month” for everything!
From the FAQ for this forum:
You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:
Name-calling
Ad hominem attacks
Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
Knee-jerk contradiction
Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.
What a joke. Three of these rules were violated in this thread alone. fanboys! Try responding with some content next time.
I wasn’t criticizing your hinge and customer support problem, which is real; I just didn’t understand how you could leap to “ad hominem attack” regarding @rio’s post above.
Ok, perhaps the word “attack” is misconstrued, but it’s often used to describe strategies in logic or debate. For example an ad hominem argument is defined as: a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.
The dichotomy is set up to juxtapose Mladen and Kyle’s responses to mine and alludes to a new normal of viral discourtesy and paranoia. I wouldn’t describe myself as being paranoid or discourteous, but even if I were it has no bearing on the actual substance of this thread.
I understand, but I’m not sure @rio was referring specifically to you. I took it to refer to this forum in general, and to the internet at large. I could be wrong, of course.
Actually rjrjr, I was counting you and me both in the “frustrated customer” camp. “Discourtesy” and “paranoia” were references to much of the other discourse in the forums. You and I are reasonable people, I get that. So are the people at Purism, they do what they can.
I dealt with many kinds of hardware defects and problems on workstations, laptops and servers in 20 years of IT work, stuff like this happens. Bottom line is I bought the laptop with a 1-year warranty. That would be the end of the conversation with most vendors. Is your laptop under warranty?
I’m glad to have forums and support channels where real people, actual employees doing the work respond. These kinds of resources were 100’s of times more valuable in my work than any paid “support” ever was. This is one of the value-added aspects of continuing to work with Purism as far as I’m concerned.
I’ve been in your shoes, so mad I misunderstand efforts to help, so I can’t judge you. All I can say is take a breath, a walk outside and then take responsibility for your situation. Not “supporting this company in the future” is a valid and understandable choice after you’ve had a bad experience with the hardware or weren’t satisfied with the support.
From what I can tell Purism customer support is pretty poor. I mean it kind of makes sense, the sort of person who would buy a linux laptop isn’t the kind of person who’s going to need technical help, however it’ll likely be tough getting a proper response from Purism
As someone who has had a hinge problem and had an outcome other than what I desired, I would challenge this statement. They were cordial and usually timely in their responses. And they did their best to work with me.
I would agree with you, but that doesn’t mean I’m calling customer service enough. I would agree that the average customer doesn’t really need support, however when they do it will be for hardware related issues.
The issues are that the company is small, does not have very good control over their ODM, and do not have an abundance of parts or manning.
I support their missions of privacy, but feel that these issues can’t be ignored. And potential customers should be made aware of these things, as it will prevent threads like this from sprouting later.
I see yet another post of this hinge problem…
This company is up how many thousant per cent these last few years(?), and can’t put out on RMA’s from an issue that is almost memeable at this point.
I sent it in for an RMA once, got a new one, then the exact same thing happens again.
And doesn’t look like I’m getting more help because warranty doesn’t cover more than 1 replacement. Now if it was user error, sure. But this ain’t user error.
Never thought I’d spend $1500 on a small piece of equipment that looks like it might just burst into a thousand tiny pieces just by looking at it wrong.
I’m out of here; good luck waiting until “next month” for everything!
