Macbook Air body flexing, causing creaks

[memecomplex]

Hi everyone, I love my new MBA Rev.b, but the I hate the creaks when I pick it up to type on the lap. And it's all coming from the right side of the body. I believe this is due to the bottom cover not sitting flush with the main body. I tried to tighten the screws there to no avail. When I pinch the right corner there is a bit more play that there is on the left, but the screw doesn't go in any tighter. Is this normal?

Thanks!

[pilotError]

I have a Gen 1 MBA, your's is the first creaking complaint that I've heard of. It's definitely not normal. Mine is going on 1 year of daily use (even by my kids at night) and is still solid as a rock (or an aluminum brick).

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Doesn't sound normal. I'd take it in to an Apple Store (if you're able) or call Apple support.

[memecomplex]

Ok I will send it in to the Apple Centre.

Thanks for the replies!

[goshya]

Hi.

I'm having the same sounds with my MBA Rev. B... (Early modell, SSD)

Also on the right side, when I lift it up from the ground or table for example.

I didn't have that with my MBA Rev. A....

I have a slightly bigger gap on the bottom right side between bottom case and upper case.

Can you recheck if you have the same?

Thx. :-)

[ravenvii]

Hi.

I'm having the same sounds with my MBA Rev. B... (Early modell, SSD)

Also on the right side, when I lift it up from the ground or table for example.

I didn't have that with my MBA Rev. A....

I have a slightly bigger gap on the bottom right side between bottom case and upper case.

Can you recheck if you have the same?

Thx. :-)

No wai! Thought those are the precursor to the unibody MacBooks?!

I'm sooo confuzzled!

[McGilli]

Just curious - do you guys pick up your MBA with only one hand? In the middle or something?

Just trying to picture how this would happen...

[kinkster]

Mine creeks around the heat vent but other then that it's solid.

rev. a one years use.

[tobiasvdp]

mine had some creaking noises as well (rev b, 1,6 ssd). actually it was quite easy to fix: the case flexes slightly and sometimes touches the battery, this is where those noises came from on my air.

the fix was very easy: remove the bottomscrews, inspect the inside of the bottom case slowly, and your battery as well, there might be some marks where the case comes in contact with the battery, put these here

http://www2.westfalia.de/medien/scaled_pix/580/580/000/000/000/000/000/752/91.jpg

there (sorry for the pic, didn´t find the english wording for that) close the case any everything should be fine ;)

[tubbymac]

Just curious - do you guys pick up your MBA with only one hand? In the middle or something?

I pick mine up by one hand on one of the corners. So it has to support all it's weight from that one corner.

[frogcat]

I'm having a similar issue with my Rev B macbook air, except I don't have creaking. My Air is kind of wobbly on the left side. It's quite picky, but annoying as hell. Its definitely the flex of the aluminum as after I've used it, there's no more wobble. But when I've left it alone, and come back, I can actually see the rubber foot raised a millimeter.

The worst part about this is that my girlfriend has the rev A, and its much better quality. It doesn't have wobble or creak, and no lines on the screen.

Sigh, the consistency on these machines are ridiculous. I still love the Air though.

If you guys can get your cases replaced please share, because I would definitely go and do that if its recognized as a design flaw.

[memecomplex]

Hi.

I'm having the same sounds with my MBA Rev. B... (Early modell, SSD)

Also on the right side, when I lift it up from the ground or table for example.

I didn't have that with my MBA Rev. A....

I have a slightly bigger gap on the bottom right side between bottom case and upper case.

Can you recheck if you have the same?

Thx. :-)

Yes I have exactly the same thing. Will probably get Apple to take a look at it next week as I'm away on assignment. It's annoying!

[frogcat]

Did anyone ever get theirs looked at? I took my Air to the Apple store, and all they did was try to flex the aluminum. It kind of irritated me because that's the first thing I didn't want to do. The guy said it was due to the aluminum being delicate, and the way we wrest our palms on the laptop.

I call BS though as I used a Rev A macbook Air, and it did not exhibit this behavior. I basically left the store, hoping to go to another one on another day.

**On another note, I am also getting these black spots next to my isight that keep showing up even after wipe-down. The guy said he's never seen these before, but I've read about them.

[memecomplex]

The geniuses at my Apple Center didn't know jack how to fix the problem. What they did was overtighten one of the screws and stripped the top philips head a little bit. Nothing major, but annoying all the same.

So I decided to go back home and open the bottom cover all by myself, then one by one I put the screws back in, working from one end to the other, and it's seemed to do the trick. Almost no annoying flexing sound now. But none of my screw heads are nice and pristine anymore... oh well, better that than the creaks!

[james4cet]

I have had my MacBook Air Rev A. 80GB for nearly 8 months now. It has been fine until a couple of days ago when it started creaking. This is both on the underside and the screen seems to be doing this as well. I live in the UK and am too afraid that if I take it apart myself I might do something wrong! Please could anyone advise me on what I should do