Acer Aspire Switch 10: Broken Hinges Workaround

Welcome to my second "Instructable"!

My cousin brought me her broken Acer tablet, and asked me if I can find a way to fix it or find a replacement part online.

Being a DIY enthusiast, I was eager to find a way to fix it myself. Only after I finished and just before giving it back to her, I decided to take few pictures of the final thing. Hence why I don't have actual "process" pictures. So I apologize for that in advance! With that said, I think the final fix is quite simple and shouldn't take long to make.

I decided to share this "Instructable" just in case someone was having a similar issue and was looking for a solution online.

Hope it will come useful to one of you out there!

Step 1: Things You Need

Tools:

• Wire cutter (or any tool you can cut plastic with)
• Hot silicone gun

Materials:

• Plastic rail or any alternative.
• Elastic sewing band
• Optional - Colored sellotape to avoid fingerprints on white plastic.

Step 2: Looking for the Right Parts!

I started looking through various leftovers from previous DIY projects or just random parts I took apart. I wanted something that I I could use to hook the keyboard and the tablet together with minimal change/damage to the tablet, and while still being able to detach it afterwards when the keyboard is not needed.

Eventually, I came across a few plastic shelve rails that I had (see image above).

Now, since the bottom of the tablet already had a strong magnet built in to make it easy to snap the keyboard in place, all I needed is something to hold the weight of the tablet on the keyboard. By just holding the plastic rail on the side of the table and keyboard and letting go, I knew that's exactly the part I needed. The tablet stood in place and the keyboard was functional.

Step 3: Putting It Together

I was going to use the plastic rail on the whole side of the tablet as a frame. However, realizing it will cover the side buttons, I cut the plastic rail short while still being long enough to support the weight. On the plus side, this will make it easier to tuck the "support rails" away when not needed.

After first test, all seemed fine until I tried to lift up the tablet. One of the pieces slipped from the side and fell. So I needed to find a way to prevent the support pieces from falling off.

That's where the "elastic sewing band" came in. I used a hot silicone gun to glue the band to the plastic pieces. Made sure the length of the band a bit shorter than the width of the tablet, enough to make it stretch while putting the support rails on. This way both pieces were bound together and stayed in place, tight to the tablet.

To finish it off, I covered the white plastic with colored sellotape to avoid fingerprints and smudges... and to make it look nicer :)

Step 4: Final Images

I was surprised how easy the final solution was to fix the "broken hinges" problem or more like working around it. The only thing that took time was going through my random junk to find the right parts!

I hope you find this instructable useful in fixing similar problems.

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

Thank you for dropping by!