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2013 Air - Metallic clicking sound when moving laptop

S

steamengine

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 26, 2013
8
0
Just got a new Macbook Air, upgraded RAM to 8gb, 256 on the hd. love the machine and the screen is great, but i notice a metallic ticking/creaking once in a while when i pick the machine up and move it with my hands. could be one hand, could be two hands.

apparently this is due to some sort grounding device under the bottom cover and the machine heating up and the bottom cover not being on proper. lots of people say to give the screws a tighten or to take the machine in and have a genius do it.

my question is: if i just let this go will there be any longterm damage? i feel like i got a good machine otherwise, but there is this one annoying thing. wondering if it's worth it to care. kinda over going to the apple store.

also, do a lot of users notice these creaks when moving their machines around as well? is this a common thing with the build still?
 
I say don't make a special trip but pencil it for next time you are at the store.
 
It's the bottom plate, it can either be loose or just not a perfect fit....I had the same problem and took it in, they couldn't get it to go away so swapped it out.
 
I had a similar issue with my rMBP. I took it to the genius bar (with appointment) and they popped the back cover open and found a piece of masking tape - no joke! It was the tackiness of the tape against the metal that made the sound. There is no way I got tape in there so who knows how it got there. True story!
 
I had a similar situation with my 2013 MBA. Took it into the Apple Store and when they took the back cover off found that the battery clip was lose. Took 10 minutes to fix.
 
I had it and I just had to tighten the screws on the bottom. It was the sound of the bottom plate flexing when I lifted it.
 
steamengine said:
Just got a new Macbook Air, upgraded RAM to 8gb, 256 on the hd. love the machine and the screen is great, but i notice a metallic ticking/creaking once in a while when i pick the machine up and move it with my hands. could be one hand, could be two hands.

apparently this is due to some sort grounding device under the bottom cover and the machine heating up and the bottom cover not being on proper. lots of people say to give the screws a tighten or to take the machine in and have a genius do it.

my question is: if i just let this go will there be any longterm damage? i feel like i got a good machine otherwise, but there is this one annoying thing. wondering if it's worth it to care. kinda over going to the apple store.

also, do a lot of users notice these creaks when moving their machines around as well? is this a common thing with the build still?
Click to expand...

i exchanged mine, i would recommend exchanging yours. i went through 3 macbook airs.
 
steamengine said:
and the one you have now doesn't have it at all??
Click to expand...
yea, the third one was perfect. i have clicking in the mouse pad on the second one, and the first one i had like a clicking/popping noise every time i picked it up with one hand near the corner of the computer so i returned both and they exchanged it without any questions.
 
Had exactly the same issue on a couple of my replacements ... as has been said, base plate was loose.

I tightened the screws up but one was just spinning.

My final replacement has no clicking sound.
 
teffers said:
Had exactly the same issue on a couple of my replacements ... as has been said, base plate was loose.

I tightened the screws up but one was just spinning.

My final replacement has no clicking sound.
Click to expand...

i'm going to take it in monday and see what they say. might as well while it's still in the 14 day range.

only concern is i have a samsung screen and a replacement might be different, but i guess the screen type doesn't matter that much.

would rather have a new computer that doesn't make unwanted noise.
 
I had similar issue with a rMBPro - they swapped out the bottom case as there was some kind of magnetic tape (?) missing.
was totally fine after that.
with the Airs there are actually 3 panels now being used - Samsung, LG and AU Optronics.
the latter is an excellent display, so maybe push for a replacement and hope you get one of them :)
 
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