crack in dashboard next to hindge

Hi Kath,

Without pictures, I'm taking my best guess at what might be going on with your laptop, so keep that in mind.

In my experience when I've run into a laptop where I'd use your description, the cause has usually turned out to be damage to the case caused by the hinge screws either breaking off or working their way loose over time. Since the upper case of the laptop is usually where those hinges mount, that's where the most stress occurs, so breakage there is not uncommon.

The good news is that yes, it is replaceable, but the bad news is it's a lot of work.

As nearly as I can tell, your laptop has the keyboard fused to the upper case, so they're not meant to be replaced separately. Thus, you'll have to buy a keyboard / upper case assembly as one piece to do the replacement. Unfortunately, the upper case is one of the more difficult repairs on that laptop, as basically everything inside is mounted to the upper case, so replacing it means basically gutting the laptop of everything inside and moving all the parts to a new case.

And of course there isn't a guide to that repair that I was able to locate; the closest I can see is the motherboard replacement guide here in iFixit.

HP Pavilion 17-ak008cy Motherboard Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide

That would get you most of the way there, although any other parts left in place would also have to be removed and transferred to the new case assembly.

If you decide to take this on, stay in touch and the community here will be available to answer questions and help you as best we can.