Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Aluminum MacBook lid shifted/slanted

Y

yozh

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 17, 2008
333
54
So I had my macbook oh since day 1 announced and loved every minute :)

Today I noticed(felt really, not visual), that on 1 side the lid is bumping out a bit from the bottom part, I looked at the other side and its the opposite, also on the hinge black part I can see the actual steel hinge, I cant for the life of me remember seen this before, I never dropped it, it was always home, did anyone else see this ?
 
Does it wiggle back and forth? Maybe the hinge has just come loose a bit. I know on mine, there's a bit of up-and-down play when the top is less than 1cm or so from the lower body.

It's actually kind of annoying now that I think about it, heh.
 
if you can try and open up and see whats wrong with it, it might cause problems later if dust gets within through it and clog up the laptop..
 
aluminumapple said:
if you can try and open up and see whats wrong with it, it might cause problems later if dust gets within through it and clog up the laptop..
Click to expand...

I would never open it up, if anything I can take it to the Apple Store, I dont think anything is going to get inside, but its very annoying to say the least
 
how do you open the macbook - from either side?

i find that users who have misaligned edges or when the top screen is not level on either edges, those people tend to open/close using the edges rather then in the middle of the laptops.
 
And whats strange about this is that when its open you can still kind of see the hinge, but not as much. I cant believe I just noticed it, but I`m pretty sure it was like this all along, I just never paid any attention. Now that I did, its driving me nuts.
 
Mine has a larger cap on left corner from the hinge, always opened it from the middle and i think the cap has always been there.
If i close the lid and look at the cap level i can see the black plastic trim doesnt shut in that corner.
Its only cosmetic so whatever.
 
Mine has a larger cap on left corner from the hinge, always opened it from the middle and i think the cap has always been there.
If i close the lid and look at the cap level i can see the black plastic trim doesnt shut in that corner.
Its only cosmetic so whatever.
Click to expand...

Well it is cosmetic, but also annoying, I`m not sure if your issue is the same as my, but do you feel that lid is sticking out on 1 side a bit more then on the other ?
 
So I looked at a couple of macbooks at the office and all seem to be normal, unlike my. I guess I should take it to the store and have them look at it. I guess I`ll have to take out my 320 HDD and my 4GB of ram. Or I can just leave with it.... Dunno, what do you guys think ?
 
Ok so I took it apart to change the RAM back to 2GB and what I found is that the black part moves, not easily but moves. This still doesnt explain about the lid it self. I decided to take it to the store and see what they will say, it doesnt hurt to try, right ?
 
I have to tell you guys I think I`m in some kind of really bad luck phase. So I switched the RAM back and was about to reinstall OSX from the DVDs. I take out the DVDs (which I never used) and the DVDs dont work, both of them, I checked my drive it works, was able to play a regular movie DVD, but no luck with Apples DVDs. So now I have to ask my friend to use his DVDs. When it rains it pours....
 
lol after looking at the picture ya i guess it could be a little annoying..
im a neat freak so if i get dust on my notebook and i cant remove it it annoys me as well : S.
 
Well went to the store.

They said its normal.....

Out of 8 macbooks that I looked at 3 were the same way so... he recorded the visit, gave me new Media for the Reinstall and sent me on my way.
 
My lid is the same way. It "feels" like it hangs over one side more by like 1mm maybe. I can feel it, but I can't really see it so it doesn't really bother me all that much. Seeing as the Genius said it is normal I guess you shouldn't worry either. haha.

As for the black part, yes-- it is easily movable, center it or uncenter it as you wish. I think you said that you had already discovered that.

:)
 
Sorry for the necro post but I have exactly the same quirk, left hand side has under-bite, right hand side has overbite at the front by about half a millimetre. strange thing is it seems that this is caused by the lid being at a slight angle, not off center, towards the rear of the lid the overlap reduces to nothing, maybe just a slightly off hinge mounting ?
 
Yeah my unibody MBP had the same problem... I have actually had the display replaced 2 times (first was dead pixels, second was it was out of align very badly) and when I got it back on the second time it was still unaligned and I was still in the Apple Store and I asked a genius and he realigned it then and there and it took about 15 minutes. So I would recommend to get an appointment at your nearest Apple Store and ask the genius to realign your display.
 
Nintenmac said:
I asked a genius and he realigned it then and there and it took about 15 minutes.
Click to expand...

Nice, I don't want the display replacing as it has no dead pixels and no readily visible material trapped under the screen, knowing they can do this is heartening.
 
So guess what ? I sold my Late `08 model and got the new MBP 13.3 and I have the same issue again, not as much as last time but still there, I made an appointment at apple store, now debating if I should go and have it replace its not as bad as it was on the other one but still noticeable. What a luck heh
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back