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Unibody 17" plastic "crinkling"

J

juliancs

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Odd question. When I press (very gently, mind you!), along the strip of black plastic on the hinge (under and around the Macbook Pro label), it..crackles and crinkles. It does so further if I then start to close the hinge.

Should I be worried?

Many thanks!
 
If you develop a weird compulsion to press and poke at odd spots on your laptop, yes. Otherwise, no.
 
My 15'' does this too. It's a little disconcerting, but the black piece is on there pretty tight. It only wiggles around like that and "crinckles" when the lid is closed.
 
Anyone notice the bottom plate of the mbps is very soft? I worry while picking it up it may flex and touch the mobo.
 
Mark2000 said:
Anyone notice the bottom plate of the mbps is very soft? I worry while picking it up it may flex and touch the mobo.
Click to expand...

I have, and it is a bit annoying. Looking at the bottom there is only 1 screw in the center of each side. It feels/looks like to me there is flex in the bottom cover that in my case pops, or creaks. More annoyed at the sound then worried it's effecting the inside as it doesn't seem to move very far, not measurable anyhow.

I only noticed it when I went to pick it up off the couch cushion by lifting one corner when the lid was open. I closed the lid and it didn't seem to do it. I'm not too picky about these types of details but will keep watch if the "flexing" becomes worse.
 
Mark2000 said:
Anyone notice the bottom plate of the mbps is very soft? I worry while picking it up it may flex and touch the mobo.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry about that, Apple have put a number of 'pins' which are designed to hold the base plate away from the motherboard, there's even a little catch mechanism at the centre of the plate which locks in and stops it bowing outwards/inwards.
 
The same thing happened with my 17" MacBook Pro and I posted about it on the Apple Discussion Forums. The next day, an Apple service rep called me and offered to replace my machine because engineers would like to "capture" it to look at the problem. So I did.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is a problem, but in order to prevent any issues down the line, I just replaced it. New one is in the mail now !
 
My 'classic' MacBook Pro used to do a similar thing. Its right hinge was squeaky and would creak if you gently pushed the screen back and forth. It would also do it if you pushed the metal next to the hinge.

It stopped doing it after I upgraded the hard drive. While it was opened up I tightened the screw holding the hinge onto the main body.

It still makes extremely quiet creaks when I close and open the lid, though, but nothing like before.
 
bossxii said:
I have, and it is a bit annoying. Looking at the bottom there is only 1 screw in the center of each side. It feels/looks like to me there is flex in the bottom cover that in my case pops, or creaks. More annoyed at the sound then worried it's effecting the inside as it doesn't seem to move very far, not measurable anyhow.

I only noticed it when I went to pick it up off the couch cushion by lifting one corner when the lid was open. I closed the lid and it didn't seem to do it. I'm not too picky about these types of details but will keep watch if the "flexing" becomes worse.
Click to expand...

The center has 2 clips that clip onto the bottom side for support.
 
MBP issues

I find it annoying that APPLE seems to be unable to produce a (near perfect) Laptop...

All issues with the new MBP 17", especially the Video card (BIOS) problematics should be ironed out BEFORE this "perfect", "expensive", and "superfast" Laptop hits the shelves.

Has no-one at APPLE heard about TESTING and Quality Control???

My friends went through 3-4 MBP's (15+17" previous model), and one has the new one with graphic card issues. The black chicklet keyboard is also a point of pro and con talking with them.

I firmly believe, that APPLE could be taking more market space away from Win-based computers if they would send some TQM people, a good R&D team to CHINA, and iron out those EXPENSIVE issues before they charge money for faulty products.

Even if a small percentage of faulty laptops reaches the customers, it also implies, that some are caught right before they leave the factory. I guess the total fall-out is in the 10% range.

Compeletely unacceptable! For the world I CANNOT UNDERSTAND HOW FORGIVING THE APPLE FAN BASE IS, WILLING TO ACCEPT ALL THIS SINCE THE FIRST INTEL BASED MB+MBPs HAVE REACHED CUSTOMERS HANDS.

So far I am very reluctant spending a lot of money for something that works 3 weeks or less.

Sorry APPLE.
 
DeVizardofOZ said:
I find it annoying that APPLE seems to be unable to produce a (near perfect) Laptop...

All issues with the new MBP 17", especially the Video card (BIOS) problematics should be ironed out BEFORE this "perfect", "expensive", and "superfast" Laptop hits the shelves.

Has no-one at APPLE heard about TESTING and Quality Control???

My friends went through 3-4 MBP's (15+17" previous model), and one has the new one with graphic card issues. The black chicklet keyboard is also a point of pro and con talking with them.

I firmly believe, that APPLE could be taking more market space away from Win-based computers if they would send some TQM people, a good R&D team to CHINA, and iron out those EXPENSIVE issues before they charge money for faulty products.

Even if a small percentage of faulty laptops reaches the customers, it also implies, that some are caught right before they leave the factory. I guess the total fall-out is in the 10% range.

Compeletely unacceptable! For the world I CANNOT UNDERSTAND HOW FORGIVING THE APPLE FAN BASE IS, WILLING TO ACCEPT ALL THIS SINCE THE FIRST INTEL BASED MB+MBPs HAVE REACHED CUSTOMERS HANDS.

So far I am very reluctant spending a lot of money for something that works 3 weeks or less.

Sorry APPLE.
Click to expand...

There are problems with everything. Nothing is perfect. I'm forgiving because they've done nothing but give me excellent customer service since I ordered the computer to now, and I know once the kinks are ironed out, it'll be a good laptop.

Short of testing every computer off the press, it's impossible to produce a perfect laptop every time, and testing every computer would likely be much more costly than fixing and replacing problematic machines as they arise.

Calm down.
 
Hi, J. Edmund

thanks for picking up the glove...😛

Well, let me explain what I mean: I bought a Toshiba Tecra 780DVD in Nov. 1996! This laptop (had camera and DVD player) was finally retired in 2007. I needed no extended and expensive warranty and used this laptop for nearly 11 years EVERY DAY and NEVER EVER had a hardware problem. No problems with the battery, screen, keyboard, HDD, etc. etc.

Considering my experience with TOSHIBA hardware, APPLE is in my view delivering faulty products at very high prices. 😀 and the FAN-CLUB is APPLAUDING...

Do not misunderstand me. I WANT APPLE TO BE A REAL THREAT TO MICROSOFT ON ALL LEVELS, by producing quality, not expensive junk.

Every APPLE computer is 300US$ more expensive than the advertised price, because one MUST buy extended APPLE CARE to make sure that her or his investment is protected.

CIAO
 
DeVizardofOZ said:
No problems with the battery, screen, keyboard, HDD, etc. etc.
Click to expand...


How is it even possible that you used your computer every day for 11 years and you never had a problem with the battery? You would have had to replace the battery after 500 cycles (or less) because it would be unusable...
 
yeah, right!

I bought initially 2 batteries together with an electronic charger. The last battery died in the 11th year, i.e. could not get more than 5 minutes out of it.
Aside from that most of the time I used the juice out of the wall, like everybody else.... None of the batteries exploded or melted away😉

But why pick the weakest spot, batteries. We all know that battery technology has not kept up with other technological developments.

Anyway, the HARDWARE worked fine fo 11 years. EX BATTERIES, HAPPY??😛
I literally have seen the same MBP get 3 new screens, new battery, new keyboard, and a HDD die. Plenty of my friends stick with APPLE, but are extremely unhappy about all those hardware quality issues. Maybe someone should explain to APPLE what TQM really means...




Alucardx03 said:
How is it even possible that you used your computer every day for 11 years and you never had a problem with the battery? You would have had to replace the battery after 500 cycles (or less) because it would be unusable...
Click to expand...
 
Exactly what would you use it for?

Toshiba Tecra 780DVD Notebook (266-MHz Pentium II, 64 MB RAM, 8.1 GB hard drive)

What OS do you have running on it? Win 95? or 3.1?
 
DeVizardofOZ said:
thanks for picking up the glove...😛

Well, let me explain what I mean: I bought a Toshiba Tecra 780DVD in Nov. 1996! This laptop (had camera and DVD player) was finally retired in 2007. I needed no extended and expensive warranty and used this laptop for nearly 11 years EVERY DAY and NEVER EVER had a hardware problem. No problems with the battery, screen, keyboard, HDD, etc. etc.

Considering my experience with TOSHIBA hardware, APPLE is in my view delivering faulty products at very high prices. 😀 and the FAN-CLUB is APPLAUDING...
Click to expand...

Toshiba used to make awesome laptops. I had a T4900CT from 1995 which I inherited in 1998 and updated the memory and HD drive and continued to use it until 2000 and then relegated it to secondary uses for a few years after that. It was built like a tank but it's backlight had started to fail and the battery wouldn't hold a charge. Bear in mind that in 1995 that machine cost around £5,000. After going through Samsung (crap) and Compaq (double crap) laptops I went back to Toshiba with their Sat pro 3000 (£1,500) but found that their build quality was drastically worse in 2002 than it had been in 1995. That machine was a wreck in a little over a year. I switched to an iBook in 2003 and never looked back.

Sure, you might complain about the build of Apple laptops but PCs are rubbish. With the MBP I am currently running (£2,000), there is nothing that can touch it and after three years of hard daily use it still looks brand new.
 
GreatDrok said:
Toshiba used to make awesome laptops. I had a T4900CT from 1995 which I inherited in 1998 and updated the memory and HD drive and continued to use it until 2000 and then relegated it to secondary uses for a few years after that. It was built like a tank but it's backlight had started to fail and the battery wouldn't hold a charge. Bear in mind that in 1995 that machine cost around £5,000. After going through Samsung (crap) and Compaq (double crap) laptops I went back to Toshiba with their Sat pro 3000 (£1,500) but found that their build quality was drastically worse in 2002 than it had been in 1995. That machine was a wreck in a little over a year. I switched to an iBook in 2003 and never looked back.

Sure, you might complain about the build of Apple laptops but PCs are rubbish. With the MBP I am currently running (£2,000), there is nothing that can touch it and after three years of hard daily use it still looks brand new.
Click to expand...

the Toshiba came with Win95, I upgraded to NT. larger HDD more RAM. NT worked A1. that Toshiba Tecra 780DVD was made in Germany. You are correct, since laptops have been made in CHINA quality has deteriorated... Quality Control is lax, and bad input=bad output.
PC's are not rubbish, they just use a WinDOOF OS. As long as there is no answer to MS Windows/Vista the game continues. I am no proponent of Windows OS, it is badly written, has holes like a mothstricken rag, but most software is written for it. People which dont have APPLE money have literally no choice but to buy a WinOS based computer...
 
GreatDrok said:
Toshiba used to make awesome laptops.

I switched to an iBook in 2003 and never looked back.

PCs are rubbish. With the MBP I am currently running (£2,000), there is nothing that can touch it and after three years of hard daily use it still looks brand new.
Click to expand...

Agree - Toshiba used to be great, but it's better days are behind it.

An iBook was probably alright, but the G-series chips were dogs. I thought about switching back then - but I bought a Dell that smoked the old powerbooks.

Um, if you switched in 2003 and never looked back, maybe you might not be the most qualified to make the last statement. 🙂 Your frame of reference is 6 years old. Even a new consumer Dell would make a 6-year-old iBook look like rubbish.

I'm in the Mac and PC camp, and I happen to like Thinkpads too. The only Apple laptop suitable for me is the 17" MBP due to the simple fact that it's the only with a decent resolution vs. size. This (I'm typing on) I find very good - but seriously - I use apps not an OS, and I'm thinking W700 for my next rig. (I find a trackpoint so much more productive to point and scroll with my hands remaining on the "home row" of the best keyboard made.)
 
Mine does it too- always has. The rest of my MBP is perfect, so I don't really care about it 🙂 but I guess it's normal if it's happening to everyone 😕
 
juliancs said:
Odd question. When I press (very gently, mind you!), along the strip of black plastic on the hinge (under and around the Macbook Pro label), it..crackles and crinkles. It does so further if I then start to close the hinge.

Should I be worried?

Many thanks!
Click to expand...

YES - you should be worried - VERY WORRIED

but not about your computer !!
 
dlhuss said:
Agree - Toshiba used to be great, but it's better days are behind it.

An iBook was probably alright, but the G-series chips were dogs. I thought about switching back then - but I bought a Dell that smoked the old powerbooks.
Click to expand...

The G4s actually were pretty decent chips. Clock for clock they were faster than the P4 and much less power hungry so the machine would run for 6 hours on battery while still returning decent performance.

Um, if you switched in 2003 and never looked back, maybe you might not be the most qualified to make the last statement. 🙂 Your frame of reference is 6 years old. Even a new consumer Dell would make a 6-year-old iBook look like rubbish.
Click to expand...

Part of my job is computer support so I see lots of hardware. At my last job we had Sony Vaios and IBM (pre-Lenovo) Thinkpads. The Sonys were too expensive for what they were. I liked the Thinkpads for their durability but I thought the design was too industrial. The combination of the nub mouse controller which got in the way when typing and a lousy trackpad made it seem like it was neither fish nor fowl. Worked well enough but no style.

Dell and HP where I work now and I just have no feeling about them. They do their job but ugh! I spent my own money to get my MBP rather than use a machine issued to me.

I'm in the Mac and PC camp, and I happen to like Thinkpads too. The only Apple laptop suitable for me is the 17" MBP due to the simple fact that it's the only with a decent resolution vs. size. This (I'm typing on) I find very good - but seriously - I use apps not an OS, and I'm thinking W700 for my next rig. (I find a trackpoint so much more productive to point and scroll with my hands remaining on the "home row" of the best keyboard made.)
Click to expand...

My first Toshiba had the nipple which was OK. I prefer a multi-touch trackpad these days and every time I have to use a PC I do the two finger scroll and it doesn't work which annoys me.

My biggest complaint about PC laptops has to be the power packs. Apple just does them so well with the little hoops to wrap the cable around and the magnetic connector.

It is the little things that make a Mac laptop so much nicer plus the longevity of the machines which keeps me coming back. Recently the hard drive on my MBP died while at a conference and I had to use an HP laptop and it was horrible. Got back home and bought a new 320GB drive and back in business. Even things like restoring my machine from Time Machine backup makes the Mac a much nicer experience.
 
Great Drok's reply!

I appreciate what you write great Drok. all appreciated.
Still, Apple's problem is QUALITY.
I happen to know why that is an issue... TQC is not yet fully understood and therefore not appreciated by the manufacturers in CHINA. I know, Apple's are made by Taiwanese Co's, but in Mainland China!
Why a TOYOTA is that good, or a Volkswagen, or BMW, made outside China is the way EACH PART is tested, and how often. Chinese management does not feel this is a necessity. They only test it twice(!) and if it works that's it.
Those who live and work in CHINA know this...
😉
 
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