The laptop I do a lot of my work from, and am in fact typing this out on, is an HP Envy 13-aq some numbers. The thing has served me admirably for about 3 1/2 years now, although the physical build quality has been questionable. My worry when I bought it was that the USB ports have a stupid claw mechanism, since the beveled edges are not big enough to fit a USB-A. While they haven't broken like I guessed they would, at least not yet, I am having problems with how the bottom/backplate attaches to the rest of the laptop. The screws on the top row of the below picture were overtightened, which I think caused the plastic standoffs of the bottom plate to break. Whenever I turn all but the middle screw, they turn freely without moving linearly or being able to be removed. This means that some of the other plastic clips have been forced to bear more weight and have slowly broken over my time using this computer.
I've tried to open the bottomplate numerous times, but it seems that would require forcefully breaking plastic or drilling out the screws, neither of which I want to do for fear of hurting the electronics inside. That along with my expired warenty (3 years is practically forever in warenty terms) means I'll have to get creative with how I solve this.
After a few days of mulling it over (and being afraid to use my laptop), I decided to make a retaining clamp/clip. This is a simple, 3D printed clip that goes on the side of the laptop to keep the bottom plate snug against the body. This design is so simple, I made it in OpenSCAD! The main problem was the trial and error of the shape of the beveled edges. But, the clip costs 3 cents and prints in 6 minutes, so I could use trial and error. It has a claw stop on the bottom side, to click into the recessed bar the screws are in, and that houses the rubber pads when they are installed.
This clip works alright! The top part is thin enough that it has no problems. I tried to make the top part shorter, assuming that the main retaining power came from the near side. However, some testing revealed that the top finger actually provided some spring power to keep it hooked together! It's wild how that happens sometimes. Oh well!
If you have ever had problems with an HP Envy 13 aq-xxxx, at least with the screws and the bottom plate, feel free to download and print this.