advice on laptop case repair.

Hey guys My sister has a HP laptop, and it works fine but a few days ago she noticed a crack in the bottom corner near the back. now a piece near the crack broke off near the vent on that side. She didn't want to use anything to fix it until she knew what was safe to use. My dad suggested superglue carefully placed so as not to touch the mother board, but we don't know if that is safe. If nothing is safe to use on our own, how much should we expect a computer repair place to fix it?

 

If I want to use a super glue type adhesive (cyanoacrylate) I use this if I need to fill some gaps as it is high viscosity and has a slow cure to allow for plenty of time positioning the bits to be glued.

If the parts to be glued are very close fitting then this medium viscosity glue does the trick but has a faster cure time.

If you want an epoxy based solution then this works really well because it is slightly more flexible than regular epoxy meaning it is less likely to crack.

In my experience super glue type glues seem to bond plastics much better than epoxy based glues but both are very strong.

Be very careful when using super glue based adhesives as they are very dangerous if they find their way into your eyes and they are very good at bonding skin. I have accidently glued my fingers together several times and had to use acetone to separate them rolleyes

 

This was supposed to be pasted to the bottom of the post above when submitted but the phone rang and after the call I had run out of edit time DOH!!

Continuing from my post above....
I have fixed many laptops using the first glue I mentioned and with care and a bit of patience, a good result is fairly easy to achieve. If you don't want the glue to bond the printed circuit board then apply some petroleum jelly (I use Vaseline) with a Q-tip to the bits you don't want bonded. If you are worried about getting glue on your fingers then use disposable latex gloves to protect your skin.

Being rather handy at fixing things (I used to build radio controlled model aircraft) means I have never paid for this type of repair. It is hard to take a guess without seeing the damage and even then there may be more work than first appears so it may be better not to guess the repair price.

 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Loctite-20g-Professional-Liquid-Super-Glue-1365882/100371836
It's also available at Walmart.