After removing the 6 screws, the black 'half' of the lid will unsnap from the back.

The cause of the cracks is as follows:

The lid is attached to each hinge with 2 machine screws that are visible when you remove the black half of the lid. The screws attach through the hinge to two captive brass nuts that are manufactured into the back half of the lid along with plastic strengthening moldings around the nuts. The strengthening plastic gives way and the nuts, now not being properly 'held' in the back of the lid, cause the cracks as they can now move slightly.

The captive nuts are exactly where the cracks are on our units.

So although the lid is not going to separate from the hinge, the cracks are caused directly by the flexing of the back of the lid against the hinge nuts.

Personally, I don't see how this will be fixed. You have to see it to understand why. Has anyone got their repaired unit back yet. Any cracks?

Steve

2nd week since returned repaired. No cracks and feel of the lid opening/closing is the same as before.

I just got my m6805 back after getting the hinge covers repaired. Naturally I was very impressed with the 4 day turn-a-round and felt all warm and fuzzy. However, when I opened up the lid I noticed the 6 little LCD bezel screws were naked and exposed ,no black rubber plugs were replaced. They're probably rolling on the floor somewhere in Texas. Damned irritating!


I called eMachines and was told they can't just send me the 6 rubber plugs---I'll have to send the notebook back to their repair facility to have a highly skilled technician stuff those little plugs in the screw holes. Has this happened to anyone else or am I being punished for downloading all that porn?

I sent my laptop in on Tuesday for the hinge crack problem. Just read this thread today:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...VIEWTMP=Linear

About halfway down there is a message from Fron about his experience with getting his laptop fixed in Canada. Emachines subcontracts out their repairs to DecisionOne here. I didn't really look at the Purolator waybill too closely before I sent it, but now that I look at it, it was ground shipping. On the next page, Fron says that he got his laptop back in 13 days, but even that isn't quite stellar. If I had known about the hassle in Canada for repairs, I would've waited until December to do this. School has just started and I had been planning to take notes on it and scan my other notes in for my math classes. Hopefully it comes sooner rather than later. If you are in Canada, you may want to wait until you won't need the notebook for a while if you are going to ship it in for repairs.

Jordan

I purchased an M6809 (along with the Best Buy (BB) 3-year coverage for $299)and noticed cracked hinges shortly after purchase. I brought it into BB and the junior tech immediately told me that it would NOT be covered under warranty. I asked to speak with a supervisor who immediately acknowledged that the cracks are a KNOWN FLAW in the design of the M6809 and suggested a return for store credit where I purchased a M6811 for an additional $50.

Questions:
I'm still waiting and wondering whether I'll receive the rebate refunds for the new M6811 purchase.

I'm also wondering whether the M6811 implemented the fix for the weak hinges.

Notes:
The differences between the M6809 and the M6811 are threefold:
1. Faster DVD writer from Liteon 431S 2x to LG GWA4040N 4x.
2. Faster CPU from 3200+ to 3400+ (hardly a noticeable improvement).
3. Different modem (no improvements here, just different).

I was hoping for a HD improvement from the Hitachi 4200RPM drive. At least it uses an 8MB buffer.

Final Note:
This cracked hing issue is a touchy issue because BB is quick to deny coverage on something that is obviously no fault to the customer and only assisted when they absolutely knew they didn't have a case.

I STRONGLY recommend purchasing the $299 3YR maintenance agreement from Best Buy and I am one to almost always say no to such offers but with a notebook as delicate as the Emachines M68xx series its a necessity. With notebooks in general you can always cash in on a battery replacement late in your third year of coverage so it makes it almost worth it even if you don't have problems.

BTW, since I didn't know that I was going to be getting an exchange option when I brought my M6809 in for repair I didn't bring in my $79 AC adapter and they didn't care ... so I ended up with an extra AC adapter :-)

I spoke with Emachines tech support and they told me that M6811 models manufactured between March and July 2004 were also effected by the cracked hinges flaw. You can tell when your machine was manufactured by your serial number. If your serial number starts like this:

N3047 the break down would be as follows:

The "4" represents the year.
The "7" represents the month.

Therefore, a serial number starting with N3047 would have been manufactured in July 2004 and subject to the cracked hing flaw.

Well that's cool nice bonus!

The Lite-on is also a 4x, or at least on the + side. I have only used a couple old 2x - discs, so I don't know if it will burn 4x in DVD-R. I have burned many DVD+R discs at 4x with my lite on drive. The eMachines site lists the m6809 burner as only 2x for some reason, of course they list the m6811 burner as 2x also. Both are incorrect.

The 431S must be limited to 2X when burning DVD-R discs then. I've burned DVDs only on RiData 4X rated DVD-R discs and my Lite-on 431S (from my M6809) always maxed @ 2X and now I burn at 4X on my new (M6811) that is running the LG HL-DT-ST_GWA 4040N. I think that's what the Lite-On 431S 2.4x means (that it will burn 2X on - and 4x on +. The LG in the M6811 is 4X with all DVD media. I was informed that DVD-R discs are more compatible with home theatre systems than DVD+R and that is why I pay more per disc to get the DVD-R added compatibility.

Actually the 2.4x is the speed. I don't know the exact reason, but +R's typically do 2.4x instead of just 2x. Maybe is has to do with the newer technology of +R vs. -R.

As for player compatibility, that is why I switched to +R. I have had 0 +R coasters, but have made several -R coasters when trying to burn video for use with my junky Philips DVD player. The fact the +R is just a little bit cheaper usually is just a bonus for me

My m6809 hinges just cracked again. Its already been repaired once by emachines, seems that they don't learn from their mistakes? They should use better quality material to repair them. I'll give that A/C tape a shot.

When did you have them repaired? For a while, they were just being replaced with the bad hinge covers before they found out what the problem was.

So are people still having problems with the cracking hinges on the m6810 or m6811? I want to get one, but am worried about that becoming a hassle.

They cover a certain serial number range.

I spoke with Emachines tech support and they told me that M6811 models manufactured between March and July 2004 were also effected by the cracked hinges flaw. You can tell when your machine was manufactured by your serial number. If your serial number starts like this:

N3047 the break down would be as follows:

The "4" represents the year.
The "7" represents the month.

Therefore, a serial number starting with N3047 would have been manufactured in July 2004 and subject to the cracked hing flaw.