Top Cover Bending on corners

Hello!

I have the 11th generation DIY received in Nov 2021. I’m seeing some bending at the corners. Wondering if this is normal or seen by anyone else.

Thanks!


Do you lift up the laptop on the corners instead of the middle area?

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@Anachron has likely identified the cause of the bends, the chassis material is quite thin and easily bent. I feel for you because the middle point is not easy to grip at all.

If you are still in warranty contact support if not you might want to gently bend the screen back the other way (best to remove the LCD panel first) and avoid using the corners to open.

Some other users with chassis issues:

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This is my second post about flimsy material. I had my laptop (DIY 13) on the table and pushed the lid back on the top right corner, and now I have multi-colored lines from top to bottom, about 2 cm wide. By giving the lid an ever-so-slight push on the right side I can increase and decrease the number of lines, but it appears to be a permanent deformation.

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It is most definitely the screen and it is way past warranty. For a company that wants its products to endure and to keep stuff out of the junkyard its fragility negates its stated purpose. Unless the frame is improved my next machine is unlikely to come from FW and then this laptop is headed for the great heap of trash.

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Do you have the original top cover or the newer CNC one?

I have the same question, I haven’t noticed this issue on the original top cover or the CNC one, but I’ve also never opened the laptop by the corner so I wouldn’t know.

My guess is the original, I have not heard about a newer one.

What gen FWL13 do you have?

In that case, they have indeed improved the cover.
Though I noticed in your post history that you mention hitting it with a recliner foot rest and bending the screen. I wouldn’t expect the new CNC top cover to be able to shrug that off. Something like an old Thinkpad from years gone by might have perhaps been able to, but those were much thicker and heavier than modern laptops, even modern business-class laptops made to be more resilient. For a modern laptop with the resiliency of an older Thinkpad you might have to go for something like a Panasonic Toughbook.

I just checked the Marketplace and I can replace the display, but the real problem is the too-soft aluminum case of the lid that allows the display to bend. I see no fix for that.

Here is the new CNC cover
frame.work/products/top-cover-cnc

The old original cover was stamped aluminum sheet.
The new one: “Milled out of a solid block of 6063 aluminum, the CNC version of the Top Cover has an optimized structure and increased rigidity.”

You can view and compare both old and new covers here frame.work/marketplace/parts?search=13+Top+Cover. You’ll see the old one had black structural parts around the edges that were glued to the stamped aluminum, whereas on the new one it’s all one-piece.

Thanks for the info on the CNC case, I did not know it existed. I ran a quick check on Amazon for the laptops that equaled the total cost of replacement but it had nothing to offer, so will stick with my FW, I would not have done so had the CNC lid not been available.

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