brand new macbook falls, dents easily, survives fall

[subq]

made a costly mistake today, set my macbook on the dresser on some clothes and walked away a sec (it was in sleep mode), next thing I know the dog comes by grabs the clothes and runs, this consequently brings the laptop tumbling down to the floor

my heart sank because I knew I just saw $1600 go up in smoke, kind of a small scale of what is happening to people's 401ks

I walk over and see that my glasses (which were sitting on top of the macbook) were broken on the floor right next to the macbook (they weren't cheap either). I slowly pic up the macbook to inspect it and notice 3 huge dents on the top, apparently it fell on the lenses of my glasses, which happened to break

So I open it up thinking oh well nothing I can do about it now, and the thing lights up...

I'm pretty happy it still boots and works, not too happy about the cosmetic damage after having it only 2 days, but oh well, it's just a tool.

Also, it jarred the battery cover so now it is loose like the problem many people are reporting (I hadn't even opened yet).

Moral of the story, be careful with your macbook!

[eman]

Bummer, sorry to hear about your macbook and glasses. Aluminum is not very forgiving and once dented is pretty much dented for ever.

[mcdj]

I still have the best BlackBook money can buy, I was going to upgrade but then thought, this thing works just fine. I love this thing, plus it is really pretty. Who needs a backlit keyboard, the screen illuminates just fine. :D

And this has what to do with the OP?

OP, if it's just the lid that's dented, Apple might be able to replace it.

[subq]

OP, if it's just the lid that's dented, Apple might be able to replace it.

yes, only the lid, picture a pair of glasses sitting on top of a closed macbook, sitting on a piece of clothing, someone yanks the clothing and the macbook falls off (flipping) and landing flat right on the glasses...that's what happened

glasses put dents in the lid and broke

I thought the new uni-body construction made it very difficult to just replace individual parts?

So far functioning perfectly fine, which is great. I thought for sure I had just lost $1600 in a split second.

[acfusion29]

Can we see a picture, or pictures?

[OrangeSVTguy]

Guess your glasses took the blunt of the fall then :p

[EricJD]

Guess your glasses took the blunt of the fall then :p

Yes, and transferred all the momentum straight into the lid of the MacBook...

:(

That really sucks, man. I'm trying to take really good care of mine!

[NC MacGuy]

I think you win for first "dropped aluminum macbook" thread. Sorry to hear it, glad she still works. Could have been much worse all things considered.

[dalvin200]

don't you have "accidental damage" as part of your home insurance?

[det2004]

Hmmm....now I'm wondering just how easy it is to dent these things. I was planning on stuffing my aluminum macbook into my backpack and carrying it around campus, but now I'm kind of afraid to put it in there. lol
:confused:

[mcdj]

The unibody refers to the body, not the lid. Notice they didn't call it uni-lid construction. ;) The body was carved with water jets from a solid block of aluminum, so they say. The lid on the other hand, is just a screen with an aluminum shell backing, not unlike previous designs. Regardless, is is not permanently attached to the body, thus should be easily replaceable.

The only problem I forsee with getting it repaired is waiting for the parts to become stocked and available. From what I've seen, non-retail parts are usually only available after the initial orders are fufilled by the factories. It could be a month or two.

Hmmm....now I'm wondering just how easy it is to dent these things. I was planning on stuffing my aluminum macbook into my backpack and carrying it around campus, but now I'm kind of afraid to put it in there. lol
:confused:

If you push gently down on the Apple logo with the lid closed, you will see it has considerable flex. I would hesitate to put it in a book bag without some sort of rigid case around it. My old 12" Powerbook by comparison was pretty solid. I kept it in a soft leather sleeve, and even rested my Canon 5D on top of it on a shelf. I will not be doing that with the new MB.

[subq]

I was wondering if I was the first one to drop and damage a new macbook.

I will upload some pics tomorrow from my lame iphone camera (so quality won't be great) ;)

[gwmac]

Can the guys who pull out dents from your car do the same to your macbook?

[fewture]

And this has what to do with the OP?

OP, if it's just the lid that's dented, Apple might be able to replace it.

He is saying that things don't have to be perfect nor the latest to still be a good computer. Hence, in line with OP

[Roller]

Hmmm....now I'm wondering just how easy it is to dent these things. I was planning on stuffing my aluminum macbook into my backpack and carrying it around campus, but now I'm kind of afraid to put it in there. lol
:confused:

Aluminum does dent and scratch easily, which is what happened to my PB. I've ordered a clear skin for my MB, and I'm planning to buy a sleeve as well, even though I'll be carrying it in a separate bag.

To the OP: Sorry about your mishap. How's the dog doing?

[skye12]

At least it works and the screen is intact. Now you won't ever have to worry about little dings etc.

[Bryan Bowler]

subq,

Sorry to hear about this! My heart sank when I read your story...

Bryan

[Bryan Bowler]

You're lucky man. I still have the best BlackBook money can buy, I was going to upgrade but then thought, this thing works just fine. I love this thing, plus it is really pretty. Who needs a backlit keyboard, the screen illuminates just fine. :D

I agree with mcdj. What does this have to do with this thread? I wish all of these BlackBook owners and firewire nit-pickers would take it outside and quit clogging up these forums with so much noise.

Start your own thread owner132! :mad:

Bryan

[hogfaninga]

I agree with mcdj. What does this have to do with this thread? I wish all of these BlackBook owners and firewire nit-pickers would take it outside and quit clogging up these forums with so much noise.

Start your own thread owner132! :mad:

Bryan

Get a grip. If you don't like others opinion then move on to the other post or use the ignore feature. It would take you less time than to make a post like you did. Many might not want to hear your noise either.

[rijiMacDij]

Aluminium sure is pretty but I have to be so careful with my MBP cause as you found out, it dings real easy.

I've owned several plastic books, 12 and 14 inch iBooks and a BlackBook and while I drooled over Aluminium PowerBooks for ages before I had one, I now wish they would bring out a 17" BlackBook Pro.

You could literally throw the iBooks around, I accidentally dropped one iBook 12" several times from table or chair height onto a wooden floor and the thing is now 6 years old and still running.

I would be very, very grateful you only dinged the lid, it could have been much worse.

Good luck with it, it should be an easy, low cost repair once the parts become available. You may even pick up a second hand one cheap from someone who has borked their LCD panel.

[Bryan Bowler]

Get a grip. If you don't like others opinion then move on to the other post or use the ignore feature. It would take you less time than to make a post like you did. Many might not want to hear your noise either.

The point I'm trying to make is people are coming into threads and posting things that are completely off-topic. It's against forum rules for a reason -- off-topic posting degrades the quality of these forums.

The original poster started this thread to share the experience of his new MacBook falling and what resulted. What in the world does the second post in this thread have to do with that?

[subq]

sorry for the bad quality, the dings are actually kind of hard to see in the pictures

but hey I can't help how poorly the iphone camera performs (especially in low light)

[juanster]

yeah ..sad,, doenst looka s bad as i imagined tho:o

[Bryan Bowler]

Still sad though. Sorry about the dents, but thankful it's just cosmetic...

[Bryan Bowler]

So you just made yourself look like an idiot and an a**hole.

Actually, it looks like your true colors are shining through.

[Simon1966]

RIP Macbook!:eek:

[chrisiw]

I have a white MacBook, and when I read your post, I wondered just how mine would have come away from a fall like that, I did hear of one falling down stairs a year ago and it worked ok and with no external damage

[JRSimmons]

I had a whitebook which still worked after spending three weeks in a freezer, and dropped a few times! they were super-durable!

[ZorroTheCat]

Check these out: www.simonandcleo.com (http://www.simonandcleo.com)

Lots of choices of fabrics, but the best thing is that Simon & Cleo has sleeves dating back all the way to iBooks. My wife carries her powerbook 12" in a sleeve all the time and uses pretty much any bag with it - the notebook still looks like new!

[JNB]

If you purchased via CC, you may already have coverage, or as was also noted, homeowner's or renter's coverage might take care of it. Before looking into either of those, I'd find out from Apple what the cost of repair would be; it's it's at or very near to any deductible, you might want to pass on a claim.

Also look at iFixit guides, they're usually pretty good about having detailed DIY instructions to help save $$. Availability of the shell may be dicey though because of the newness of the design, as others have noted. The damage isn't too bad, and you may find you can live with it.

For Bryan, all your complaints and "policing" of this thread make me ask, what have you contributed to it? :rolleyes:

[EnderTW]

I did the same thing.

Returned it saying I got it like that.

No problem, genius replaced it.

If you're within 14 days, return for exchange!

[Skeletal-dæmon]

Oh dear man poor you! And poor MacBook too!

Be thankful that the dents are that small though. If you're in a busy place or low-light space then people probably won't notice. My dad's old iBook on the other hand had a dirty great scratch all the way down the screen that filled up with grime over the space of a week and looked terrible for the remainder of the iBook's life.

I knew aluminium was pretty unforgiving but still... these dent stories are making me wary of buying a MBP at the end of uni :(

[Bryan Bowler]

For Bryan, all your complaints and "policing" of this thread make me ask, what have you contributed to it? :rolleyes:

I really don't want to get us further off-topic in this thread, but I do want to point out that the person I was posting about had come in several times after the fact and changed his posts, so it's hard to see the context of what I was referring to in my posts above. That person has since been banned and his posts were actually removed from this thread.

In short, his first post had absolutely nothing to do with the topic. (it was about how he loved his black MacBook and didn't need the features that the new MacBook has)

Lately, the forums have been affected by tons of this type of noise. It's hard to carry on a discussion now-a-days without someone bursting in and talking about "BlackBooks vs GlassBooks" and "why doesn't the new MacBook have FireWire". There's threads for these discussions and people also have the option of starting their own. But for it to be constantly injected into every other conversation is just not right. I'm sure we all want this place to a good place to come for information and discussion, right?

Admittedly, I'm not setting the example by typing this post. But I did want to point out the reason why I said what was said since it's difficult to look back and understand what really happened. If anyone wants to chat with me about it further, please shoot me a PM.

Thanks,
Bryan

[queshy]

hardly noticeable...don't worry about it...it could have been way worse!

[Roller]

sorry for the bad quality, the dings are actually kind of hard to see in the pictures

but hey I can't help how poorly the iphone camera performs (especially in low light)

Actually (and I hate to say this), the dings are quite easy to see. Even though the computer seems to be working properly, I wonder if there was any hidden damage to the HDD or other internals that could show up in the future. Might be worth taking to an Apple Store to get it checked out, if they'll do it.

As for making repairs, which in this case would involve replacing the entire lid assembly I think, it depends. As someone else mentioned, I believe, some credit cards or insurance policies will indemnify against damage, so check that out too.

If everything is working properly and you don't get the MB repaired, you might consider a skin for the lid - at least it'll hide the dents.

[Roba]

Once i was trying to upgrade the HD of my iBook and i pulled a connector of the motherboard. My laptop was still in warranty and was covered by Applecare when this happened. What i did was to take the laptop to an authorised centre and have them charge me for a paid private job.
They put the fault right and my Applecare was still in intact.

Maybe you should have contacted an authorised centre or see if you could have bought the casing online and just taken it to them or do it yourself. As this model is new buying new casing might be a bit difficult but it is not impossible.
You didn't have to cancel your Applecare yet you could have put this job right yourself and then still have your Applecare intact.

Seeing as you have cancelled your Applecare already following this up with insurance if you have any is a good idea.

[subq]

to be honest, I really hadn't even considered getting it replaced because it still functions fine, however, someone told me I just voided my warranty?

I didn't buy applecare yet because I had a year to do so supposedly

The only thing I was previously concerned about was resell value since I may sell this thing in year or two...I kind of figured I could throw that out the window.

with what someone told me above, now I am concerned about the 1 year warranty, cosmetics aren't a big deal to me but if hardware goes bad I want it replaced...I don't have an apple store anywhere near and I ordered it online so it isn't as easy as just driving to the store real fast.

[EnderTW]

to be honest, I really hadn't even considered getting it replaced because it still functions fine, however, someone told me I just voided my warranty?

I didn't buy applecare yet because I had a year to do so supposedly

The only thing I was previously concerned about was resell value since I may sell this thing in year or two...I kind of figured I could throw that out the window.

with what someone told me above, now I am concerned about the 1 year warranty, cosmetics aren't a big deal to me but if hardware goes bad I want it replaced...I don't have an apple store anywhere near and I ordered it online so it isn't as easy as just driving to the store real fast.

Ah. Sorry.

My store is 15 mins away, but I just took it down showed the receipt and they exchanged it right there for free.

I just claimed I received it like that. Mines had a bigger dent right below the apple logo.

[milani]

To the OP: your dog is a troublemaker :p. Sorry about the fall.

[Roba]

Hi i am sorry i got your post mixed up with this one i read both of them earlier and thought that your post was the one where someone told you to cancel your Applecare. I thought that you called up Apple to tell them that you dropped your laptop so that would have been grounds for them to cancel anyones warranty.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=588336

If i was you i would probably see if i could pick up a new lid somewhere a little down the line. There is no rush though.

[Jpoon]

Aww the first dent thread. Don't worry, those are just battle scars.

[SgtDutysBlog]

made a costly mistake today, set my macbook on the dresser on some clothes and walked away a sec (it was in sleep mode), next thing I know the dog comes by grabs the clothes and runs, this consequently brings the laptop tumbling down to the floor

my heart sank because I knew I just saw $1600 go up in smoke, kind of a small scale of what is happening to people's 401ks

I walk over and see that my glasses (which were sitting on top of the macbook) were broken on the floor right next to the macbook (they weren't cheap either). I slowly pic up the macbook to inspect it and notice 3 huge dents on the top, apparently it fell on the lenses of my glasses, which happened to break

So I open it up thinking oh well nothing I can do about it now, and the thing lights up...

I'm pretty happy it still boots and works, not too happy about the cosmetic damage after having it only 2 days, but oh well, it's just a tool.

Also, it jarred the battery cover so now it is loose like the problem many people are reporting (I hadn't even opened yet).

Moral of the story, be careful with your macbook!
You might be able to get the computer swapped out if the battery cover is messed up like the others.
Also it could be a bad thing it isn't broken, most likely it would have been covered under homeowners.

[mathieuheartmac]

That is a bummer about the dents.

I am getting a new macbook on Friday, and I am going to have it scheduled on my renter's insurance. I'm sure that can be done on homeowner policies as well.

I pay a couple bucks more a month, and my macbook is completely covered against theft and accidents (even when I am not in my apartment).
The coverage is universal- but I could pay just a few cents a month instead if I only wanted coverage in my home. I just figure it is more likely to be stolen when I am not in my home.

I highly suggest others to look into this if you haven't already, because this is something that would cover this particular accident. Insurance would pay for the repairs. It does not cover mechanical failure, but that is what applecare is for. :cool:

[Vulcan]

I did the same thing.

Returned it saying I got it like that.

No problem, genius replaced it.

If you're within 14 days, return for exchange!

Way to be honest.

If you're battery cover is off or one of the keys are off, you can get it replaced.

[subq]

Way to be honest.

If you're battery cover is off or one of the keys are off, you can get it replaced.

I couldn't bring myself to do anything like that (the say it was like that thing).

I don't operate that way. My battery cover is loose but not nearly as bad as some of the videos I've seen posted, I don't have any slanted keys, no dead pixels, etc etc...

I I were to exchange it I may end up with such issues. I am just going to continue to use it. Cosmetic things don't bother me too much, functionality is essential though. I had planned on selling it and getting a new one in a year or so, maybe I will just hand this one down to my daughter or son when I upgrade. :)