Why not Try this (Score 2, Insightful)

It can be a pain but assuming that you really want the hinge fixed and have backup up your data why not just blast your hard drive. Now take it back to the store and claim that the OS hosed itself and also ask them to fix the hinge at the same time. They will try to charge you to load Windoze again but just politely refuse and ask them to look into the cause of the OS "hosing" itself and then bring up the hinge fixing bit. If your are well organized it shouldn't take that long to rebuild the machine.